Planning Capital Cities

The change of the focus from the product integrity to companies and people

behind the brand leads to the identification of the particular components of

brand: the identity and the image. The city brand is the presentation of the

city identity, which defines the favourable urban image.^7 Branding means on

the other side the establishing of a link between the brand and the consumer

by reflecting the physical and psychological needs of the citizens and visitors.

Branding is a starting point for place marketing and a framework for managing

the urban image. Certain strategies, approaches and concepts of product and

corporate marketing and branding are of relevance. Simon Anholt introduces

the term competitive identity as a precise explanation of the application of the

elements of marketing and branding to the state, region or city. To understand

the concept of the urban image^8 it is necessary to understand the concept of

identity and the ways it establishes. Considering this, the cities have to provide

a pleasant, prosperous and sustainable life for its citizens, visitors, neighbours

and business partners, and it will contribute to recognizing a city around the

world.^9

The components of the city brand are in this sense two: the city identity and the

city image. While the identity explains the self-perception and self-definition

(Who we are?), the image explains the attitude of others about us or our

attitude about others (Who and what they are?).

The cities have individual shapes, contents and meanings. The people

understand the cities on the basis of the individual reception of the urban

shape. The people give meaning to a place or construct it in mind by three

processes: the planned interventions, the ways they use certain places and the

different forms of representation of the city. The acquiration of the information

is a mental process which forms the image of the city and which serves as the

basis for further interaction with the environment.

The identity-image communication model

The model “identity-communication”^10 is characterized by a pragmatic

approach, a clear display of the identity inseparability, the communications and

Fig. 1
The theoretical framework of
place branding. (Vukmirović)