velopment strategies and promotional materials, lgos, etc. which all appear to be “variations on the same theme”, inspiring inhabitants with the feeling of “deja-vu”9). Thus appeared the necessity of another vision over urban market- ing, vision which materialised in the emergence of the new concept of brand – city branding.


The interpretative analysis of the definitions palette form the spectre of


city branding (again there are difficulties relating to associating two terms, from different fields which try to recreate a phenomenon integrally, a state of fact, to which we add the almost infinite number of conditions governing the urban space, which generates analytical difficulty in seeing it as a “product” or “brand”, etc.) leaves room for a few clear ideas: It relates to the built image of a city; For Miriam Greenberg (2000), city branding aims urban image (a.n.),


seen as a “coherent ensemble of architectural elements visual forms pro- duced by residents, image of the speech above the city, as it is seen, read, heard in films, on TV, in magazines, or in any other form of media.”10) It has deeper meanings, relating strictly to the identity of a city; Graeme Evans (2001) appreciated that the need of branding a city


came from the search of a new identity or reconfiguration of the current one, the circumstances of competitiveness changing dramatically in the last years. More and more cities need to deal with profound changes determined by functional, partial or total re-conversion and this implies reconfiguration of identity. Let’s imagine the situation of a monofunctional, industrial city which loses its inhabitants, investors are no longer interested, and local authorities must find refreshing solutions, in order to maintain it a competitive city. Some have succeeded and this calls for mentioning the re-conversions of industrial spaces in touristic spaces, or, the case of Ruhr basin, in ecological, forested spaces. Others manage very well to outline the image of host cities for differ- ent cultural events, or sports competitions. Thus, Evans appreciated that “more and more cities and metropolis, regions and countries emerge towards a cultural image, trying to reassert their identity; they attract and keep a part of the world tourist fluxes and cultural events; they enter the race of competi- tive cities, adapting and re-projecting urban space for a certain target audi- ence.”11)


In the case of the city, location is very important, as it offers attributes to the city;


9) Hermenegildo Seisdedos, State of the Art of City Marketing in European Cities, 42nd IsoCaRP Congress, 2006, p. 1-3. 10) Apud. Ole Jensen, Branding the Contemporary City-City branding as Regional Growth Agenda?, Plenary paper for Regional Studies Association Conference “Regional Growth Agendas”, Aalborg, 28th to 31st May 2005, p. 12. 11) Idem, p. 10.


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