Abstract
Cities and places are increasingly competing to attract residents, visitors, and investors, and this means focusing on place branding is important today. Medway, Warnaby and Byrom who are each established leaders in place management studies contributed this timely book as part of the Elgar Research Agendas which takes contemporary and critical takes on research and publishes edited volumes to offer a focus on research directions in different areas. A Research Agenda for Place Branding highlights current research at the start by breaking down current research on branding and identify realities and critical directions of research in this area. The focus for places is a positive image to help compete, attract investment, foster local pride, and create an impression that people can identify with when they think of a particular place (Cudny, 2019). Following an introductory chapter outlining past and present research and future trends, the book is organized into four parts: Governance (Chapters 2-5), Contexts (Chapters 6-11), Experience (Chapters 12-16) and Creativity (Chapters 17-19). I will organize this review around a discussion of each section and reflect on directions noted in some papers from each section.
Governance is an essential factor in place branding, as this ensures that policies, infrastructures, and services provided align with the brand identity and image of a place. Chapters in this part of the book call for a theory-driven agenda, but this can be challenging because this can take away from local contexts. I could align the approach I take to my research more with the chapters that addressed the importance of participation and spatial planning, as these chapters address more of the contexts necessary to brand places and entrust residents and stakeholders as participants to contribute to the overall well-being, development, and competitiveness of a place. Relating again to my research on place, many decision-makers look to the importance of events and measures of participation to engage stakeholders (see Wise and Harris, 2019). I found the next part on contexts to offer some important directions whilst filtering in how we connect and relate to scales across the local and the global. Places have local appeal, and this is addressed through cultural and sporting elements in the chapters in part 2. The chapters looking at the complexity of football is especially relevant to the papers in this special issue, and lessons identified relate to what is happening in Paris as they prepare the 2024. I found the last chapter of part 2 to be interesting because it frames contemporary contexts of digital transformations of places, and as we focus on smart development and destinations, all decisions that one make about a place are capture through data points and where and how people interact with places and attractions (Wise and Heidari, 2019).
Part 3 on experience starts with a chapter that builds on the digital transformations chapter in the previous section. The focus on what places are like for non-humans seems like a discussion of placelessness, and as we live in places dominated by corporate landscapes we are seeing places look more and more similar. The co-creation chapter resonated with me because my work in event studies and tourism challenges us to look at the different types of consumption that people demand and desire when they visit places. This is something that I sought to get at when inviting contributors to an Elgar Research Agenda book that I co-edited (see Wise and Maguire, 2022). A tourism-focused chapter is relevantly worked into this section, and the critical focus on authenticity is important as well because how we know and see a place can be changed based on the branding and destination marketing. Tourism is a significant economic driver for many cities, and using authenticity to showcase a place is trying to build as appealing brand while showcasing attractions, culture, history, and experiences. The last part of the book focusing on creativity build well on the previous part. Here events and culture are explored through how branding helps enhance quality of life in a place. Events are ways of connecting people and culture is a expression and the first two chapters in this part encourage research to think differently about how these elements of consumption and society can be approached in research. A well-branded city can improve the quality of life for its residents, and connect people, which I feel relates and creates better host-guest relationships (Wise et al., 2021). Moreover, brand image through awareness and participation can boost local pride and community spirit, as well as enhance the sense of belonging and identity. Moreover, cultural and creative hubs for cities with rich cultural scenes and creative industries see areas redeveloped and branded to connect new cultural industries with industrial and economic histories of a place, which brings new artists, designers, and cultural enthusiasts, which enhance a city's cultural vibrancy (see Wise et al., 2022).
Some areas that I felt could have been more detailed was sustainability and crisis management, as these are ongoing concerns that places face given environmental pressures and safety. I do recommend this book to student researchers interested in place, placemaking and place branding as it will help guide these researchers in the direction of what is needed in this area of research going forward. I would encourage the editors to develop a new research agenda every few years to reflect on these directions as this focus in important as places use branding techniques to shape their identity, reputation, and competitiveness, especially when we consider the role of events and the creative industries (Wise and Armenski, 2020). Overall, I found the book to be organized very well around the different themes (or parts) covered. I feel the book will make a nice complementary reading for students across several disciplines as the content is insightful for students studying business and marketing, social sciences (especially geography and social psychology).