Rotterdam make it happen

As a marketing strategy, places take on brands to compete with other places. Today places form brands based on their main characteristics. Brands have the potential to bond people to a place, which in turn can result in support of the brand, but also the place. Furthermore, brands have the potential to overcome social problems within society. Still, internal target audiences like residents often lack identification with place brands. The Dutch city Rotterdam is an example of a city that employs branding strategies. In 2013, the city introduced the city brand ‘Rotterdam Make it Happen’. This thesis aims to research the drivers behind city brand identification with this brand. The secondary goal of this study is to research the impact of socio-economic characteristics on city brand identification. In order to achieve these goals, a qualitative approach was taken to study the drivers: brand self-similarity, brand uniqueness, brand prestige and brand social benefits. Furthermore, the socio-economic characteristics: age, occupation, education, and ethnic background have been applied as moderator variables. Perceptions of one of the essential target groups of Rotterdam Make it Happen – residents - were examined to reach these goals. Additionally, to gain an understanding of the context of the brand, this study applied interviews with city marketing professionals and analysed official documents. The study concludes that the driver brand self-similarity has an impact on city brand identification. Additionally, the socio-economic characteristics of age and occupation have been found to play a role in city brand identification. The study also revealed unexpected drivers like the expected outcome on relationships between citizens, visibility of the brand and emotional connections with the city. While this study yields some interesting findings, the research field will benefit from a more comprehensive approach to the examination of the drivers behind city brand identification. Examples are quantitative approaches and comparative approaches to this research objective. Lastly, this study achieved some practical advice in terms of brand management. Here, this study advises city brand managers to increase the visibility of the brand and to use the brand in the objectives of the organizations of the Brand Alliance.