Creative Commons

Globalisation is the current framework for the cities of the contemporary world. In this respect the competition among cities to attract tourists, new investors, new businesses, potential new residents, or simply offer a quality of life to their citizens is emerging as a demanding issue. This essay examines and presents the crucial role of city branding in this challenging new development. The aim of this dissertation thesis is to present the understanding and approach of a holistic city branding by presenting evidence from the branding process of three European cities; London-UK, as a representative of large-scale cities, and Bilbao-Spain and Helsingør-Denmark, as examples of small-scale cities. This paper also states the critical role of commercial strategies to the city branding procedure and identifies the important contribution of the various forms of communication among the people involved in a branding process. Additionally, three common city branding techniques are presented verified by the three case studies of this paper. In all three examples of the essay the significant role of the co-operation of all the stakeholders is identified and underlined as a primary issue in order to overcome any possible pitfalls that may occur during a major project as city branding.