Erik Braun

Bio: Erik Braun is an academic researcher from Erasmus University Rotterdam. The author has contributed to research in topics: Place branding & Brand management. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 46 publications receiving 2482 citations. Previous affiliations of Erik Braun include Copenhagen Business School.

My city – my brand: the different roles of residents in place branding

Abstract: Purpose – This paper deals with the importance of residents within place branding. The aim of this paper is to examine the different roles that residents play in the formation and communication of place brands and explores the implications for place brand management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on theoretical insights drawn from the combination of the distinct literatures on place branding, general marketing, tourism, human geography, and collaborative governance. To support its arguments, the paper discusses the participation of citizens in governance processes as highlighted in the urban governance literature as well as the debate among marketing scholars over participatory marketing and branding.Findings – The paper arrive at three different roles played by the residents: as an integral part of the place brand through their characteristics and behavior; as ambassadors for their place brand who grant credibility to any communicated message; and as citizens and voters who are vital fo...

Urban Competitiveness, Marketing and the Need for Organising Capacity:

Abstract: Fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics are reshaping the environment for towns and cities in Europe. These changes have induced competition between towns and cities at regional, national and sometimes international scales. Increasingly, cities and towns behave in a logic of competition in a highly dynamic and complex environment (Bramezza, 1996). In such a competitive environment, the policies of local governments need to be more market-oriented with an eye to chances and threats, bearing in mind the city’ s strengths and weaknesses. Cities and towns are waking up to the fact that an entrepreneurial and anticipatory policy is called for to cope with urban and regional competition. In the past two decades, a growing number of European cities and towns have acknowledged that marketing could be a powerful instrument in such a new style of urban management. Cities aspire to become and remain attractive places for (potential) residents, businesses and visitors. In this process, cities `invent’ their own marketing strategies, discovering that the marketing of a city or region is not as straightforward as many people think. Our contribution considers one of the main challenges in this respect: the need for organising capacity. What lessons can be drawn up to now? The next section of the contribution describes some of the main features of the pattern of urban development and the increase in competition, setting the scene for a more strategic and entrepreneurial approach to the control of the development of metropolitan regions. The third section touches upon some of the consequences for urban management and discusses the speci® c role of urban place marketing in that setting in more detail. For any urban place marketing strategy to succeed, organising capacity has become indispensable, as argued in the fourth section of the contribution. The ® nal section concludes.

City Marketing: Towards an integrated approach

Abstract: textThis PhD thesis deals with city marketing: cities making use of marketing ideas, concepts and tools. Marketing has proved its value in the business environment, but what about applying marketing in the context of cities? How can cities make effective use of the potential of marketing? The first contribution of this study is the development of a clear concept of city marketing that is based on a customer-oriented perspective, acknowledges the important of perceptions of places in the decision making process of the city’s customers and that delineates urban products. The analysis results in a framework for city marketing management that distinguishes between city marketing activities that need more oversight and central coordination and those activities that are best dealt with close to groupings of specific customers. It is argued that the effective use of city marketing requires a more integrated approach to city marketing. This integrated approach rests upon two dimensions. The first is the embeddedness of city marketing in urban governance - the fit of city marketing in the city’s wider policy framework. The second concerns structural conditions for city marketing management. Next, the study has identified four factors that stimulate and contribute to the embeddedness in urban governance and another four that are supportive factors for city marketing management. The empirical part of the thesis contains a comparative analysis of the city marketing experiences in Basel, Birmingham, Goteborg and Rotterdam. The comparative study has explored these eight factors. Our empirical analysis supports that these eight factors are indeed contributing to the embeddedness in urban government and are supportive for city marketing management. An integrated approach to city marketing is a necessary condition for the effective use of city marketing. The study is relevant for academics but it also provides cities a concept for city marketing and eight critical factors for its effectuation.

Putting city branding into practice

Abstract: City branding has joined the vocabulary of a growing number of politicians and city officials across Europe. While most academic research in this field has focused on the concept of city branding itself, the subject of this article is the implementation of city branding. In this conceptual paper it is argued that the governance setting in which city branding takes place, as well as the impact of specific choices made in the branding process, greatly affect the implementation of city branding. This research identifies eight factors: the first four are governance factors concerning the fit of city branding with the city's wider policy framework; the last four factors are intrinsically linked to the concept and application of branding itself. The first four factors identified are especially important for bolstering the significance of city branding in relation to the city′s traditional policies: they could help marketing professionals avoid mistakes previously made with the introduction of city marketing. At the same time, the strategic branding choices of city marketers could have a direct impact on the political decision-making process as well. Hence, city branding requires the combination of marketing excellence with the sensitivity of operating in a political environment.

Deconstructing clusters: chaotic concept or policy panacea?

Abstract: Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in local industrial agglomeration and specialization, not only by economic geographers but also by economists and by policy-makers. Of the many ideas and concepts to have emerged from this new-found focus, Michael Porter's work on ‘clusters’ has proved by far the most influential. His ‘cluster theory’ has become the standard concept in the field, and policy-makers the world over have seized upon Porter's cluster model as a tool for promoting national, regional, and local competitiveness, innovation and growth. But the mere popularity of a construct is by no means a guarantee of its profundity. Seductive though the cluster concept is, there is much about it that is problematic, and the rush to employ ‘cluster ideas’ has run ahead of many fundamental conceptual, theoretical and empirical questions. Our aim is to deconstruct the cluster concept in order to reveal and highlight these issues. Our concerns relate to the definition of the cluster concept, its theorization, its empirics, the claims made for its benefits and advantages, and its use in policy-making. Whilst we do not wish to debunk the cluster idea outright, we do argue for a much more cautious and circumspect use of the notion, especially within a policy context: the cluster concept should carry a public policy health warning.

The analysis of mechanisms and their contingencies: PROCESS versus structural equation modeling

Abstract: Marketing, consumer, and organizational behavior researchers interested in studying the mechanisms by which effects operate and the conditions that enhance or inhibit such effects often rely on sta...

Relational network brands: Towards a conceptual model of place brands

Abstract: This paper develops a conceptual model of the place brand which goes beyond the conceptualisations currently to be found in the literature and, it is argued, reflects more closely the reality faced by those who market places as destinations. The paper begins with an analysis of the classical branding literature and a review of the emerging literature associated with the relational exchange and the network marketing paradigms. Four streams of thought are identified as regards the nature of brands. These include the brand as a communicator, the brand as a perceptual entity or image, the brand as a value enhancer and the brand as a relationship. A review of the place marketing literature suggests that the focus to date has been on brands as perceptual entities or images. The paper argues that such conceptualisations seriously limit the development of place brands in general and destination brands in particular. A model of the place brand is presented based upon the concept of a brand as a relationship with c...