A Short Reflection on City Branding and its Controversies

Abstract

Thanks to its conceptual character the paper ‘City Branding: An Effective Assertion of Identity or a Transitory Marketing Trick?' by Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005) is a classic piece in the area of place branding. The paper has been much cited in the literature, but did it really steer the further development of the field? Nearly fifteen years later, there is still a lot of debate in place branding circles. Taking the paper as a starting point I briefly discuss four controversies in city branding: (1) branding versus marketing; (2) places versus products; (3) policy versus politics; and (4) theory versus practice. I conclude that the complexities surrounding places and their stakeholders asks for more realism, modesty and dialogue in the place branding community.