Products, services, people, countries, and cities all think themselves in brand terms. The branding of cities has been commonly thought as an image-building strategy and often attacked along with city marketing for boostering gentrification, social inequality and exclusion. A relatively high number of authors argue that city branding leads to socially divisive outcomes by excessively benefiting specific target groups. In contrast, an equivalent number of publications regarding city brands stress the potential they have to create a common identity and define a new shared sense of belonging able to bond residents to the city. City branding has often followed the trends and methods of business brands. Over the years, business brands have changed evolved and adapted. From first being considered a name and a logo, it is now commonly accepted that brands evoke emotions, generate identity, and create communities. Brand communities are socially constructed entities formed by deep emotional bonds, that share culture, rituals, traditions and codes of behaviour. City branding can learn from business branding the methods to create a community. In this way city branding contributes to the social cohesion of cities. City brands have the power to inspire and create cohesion when they are defined in participatory processes and guide the decisions of the development and governance of the city. This conclusion is based on theoretical insights and empirical data from Amsterdam, Barcelona and Rotterdam. The city branding of Rotterdam was treated as a case study.

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hdl.handle.net/2105/54471
Global Markets, Local Creativities (GLOCAL)
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

Parra Giraldo, Isabel. (2020, July 20). Recalibrating city branding to Social Cohesion. Global Markets, Local Creativities (GLOCAL). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/54471