Problems of City/Place Marketing

Presented as a report by J. B. Nangpuhan II (MPA Student) for the class (Urban Policy) of Dr. J. K. Seo at Chonnam National University, Korea in 2011 (Spring semester).

KEY TERMS:
·         City marketing
·         Place marketing
·         City promotion
·         Inward investment
·         Quality life

 

INTRODUCTION

City marketing is not just merely promoting the place and boosts its economic growth. It is not just improving the global image of the city but rather a place where its people will enjoy living a happy life – or shall we say towards quality life. In reality, we can perceive that a city is composed of several infrastructures and a mixture of people coming from different races. Not only are the rich people living in the city but also poor and homeless people. We can also see many business establishments and tall buildings comprising the whole network of transport facilities linking both ends of the city. The more people coming in to live in the city, the more complicated problems the city will face.

This report focuses on the problems of implementing city/place marketing in economic terms and quality-life perspectives. There are five areas of concern to be discussed in this report. Along with each concern are suggestions with reference to the article written by 이흥재, Research Director of Korea Cultural Policy Institute. Included in his article is the application of Yerba Buena Center (YBC) urban regeneration concept and also the Center for the Arts (CFTA). Some ideas were integrated in each area of concern taken from the articles of Ronan Paddison and other relevant authors along with the personal opinion of the reporter.

Five Areas of Concern – Problems and Efficiency Improvement

1.       Regional Characteristics and Ability Considerations

The primary concept in place promotion is to identify the original characteristics of the region first and then distinguish which projects to pursue. However, if the original characteristics of the region will not be identified, the plan to promote the city or place will not be successful. In other words, the program of the city must be in terms of originality by taking advantage of the region’s unique resources. At the early stages of development, there is a need to consider environment-friendly approaches using new participatory methods or other development processes.

To avoid problems of having the same market interests with neighboring cities, it is therefore very important to analyze the region’s unique characteristics including its advantages and disadvantages. By identifying the unique cultural resources of the region, we can assert or clearly identify the potential developments to be carried out in the city. In turn, this will definitely loosen intense competition when it comes to marketing the city or place.

2.       Clarification of Goals and Pursuit of Practical Feasibility

If the city promotion as described above will be followed smoothly, there is absolutely no room for failure in achieving the goals. Of course, the main goal in city marketing is to promote and improve the image of the city while preserving its unique resources. The end profit of the goal is to gain more inward investments to increase the city’s income. On the other hand, city developments should do no harm to the people living in the city – rich or poor.

After identifying the target goal, specific goals will be extracted by establishing systematic means to achieve the main goal. The identified means to achieve the evaluated targets should have a balance output between the city and the target investors coming from the outside. Hence, there is a need to carefully review the feasibility of the project.

However, one important thing to remember is that, too much focus on improving the image of the city will bring no substance and it might cause failure to the purpose of city promotion. There is a need to maximize feasibility results on the specific real goal rather than on the nominal goal. This means narrowing the gap between the real goal and the nominal goal.

3.       Equality of Development – Benefitting the People

Emerging development interests should be shared by everyone. For one, excessive development will focus on real estate establishments thus it will create a lot of problems. Also, development results will lead to conflict between classes of people, and it is difficult to solve these undesirable consequences if they are not considered prior to carrying out development efforts.

In the case of Glasgow, its recent success in image reconstruction and being declared as the city of culture in 1990 is phenomenal. However, most of the improvements in Glasgow are concentrated more in the center of the city, “’Glasgow’s Miles Better’ campaign is a sick joke for people living in damp houses in Easterhouse,” according to Financial Times, 25 June 1992. This similar incident is inevitable to obliterate but can be minimized through better regeneration efforts.

In the case of YBC’s early days, there were conflicts between emerging forces and low-income citizens.  They experienced the ups and downs in encouraging the people to participate which led to the establishments of highly advanced arts-oriented cultural facilities. Such citizen participation in a culture-oriented lifestyle led to the existence of culture for the arts (CFTA) in the city of San Francisco in USA.

4.       Establishment of Efficient Organizational Structure

City promotion as described above along with variety of efficient cooperative participation will help attain successful initiatives. The attainment of success lies on the local government and how it will create partnerships to the private sector, people’s organizations, and even non-government organizations. It’s the local government and its partners who design predetermined goals. It is also important that the local government will promote business partnerships by offering reasonable services, taxes and other promotions. This, along with the participation of the people will determine the success of the city in promoting its image for economic development. In the case of Hitachi city in Japan, its success lies on its systematic reorganization and establishment of linkages to foreign investors.

5.       Clarification and Utilization of Competitive Sectors

As a common knowledge, we are aware that making improvements to the city means improvement also of real estate businesses. However, this is very dangerous. It might raise competition in developing the city as a whole. This will soon create imbalances in housing services and might lead to high housing prices in which low-class citizens cannot afford to pay. Utilizing employment opportunities for the citizens can also be an important factor to be considered in image regeneration. To achieve a balanced development in the city, it is interesting to know some success stories from other cities as cited by John Myerscough: cultural economic analysis was presented as success story of Glasgow in UK, the Guggenheim Museum improved the local image of Bilbao in Spain, the development of the history and culture of Bologna of Italy enabled the success of this city, and others that is driven by this rightful strategy.

Improving the image of the city depends on the city’s original characteristics and its existing resources. It is impossible to develop a city without clearly identifying existing potential developments. Establishing the city as an environment-friendly place with good employment opportunities will promote a balanced growth of the city. Good investor relationships will further enhance the economic stability of the city thus, bringing in more profits.

Other Problems Related to City/Place Marketing

1.       Backwardness in marketing ideas – spending huge funds but with little or no gain at all (e.g. commercialization).

2.       Incorrect city orientation – wrong planning outputs, inefficient planners.

3.       Starting late in brand strategy – no predetermined potential developments.

4.       Insufficient long-term strategic planning – short-term strategic planning orientation.

CONCLUSION

Cultural and regional creativity is also needed. Interests in quality of life are emerging standards in major cities. In these present times, to receive regional revitalization as a means of city promotion is no wonder a phenomenon. However, city promotion cannot rule the world; it can only be successful if strategic regional characteristics will be considered. Looks rosy but there should be careful consideration of few limitations along with visible and direct effects which are difficult to measure.

References:
이흥재(2001), 도시마케팅, 도시와 장소 판촉, pp. 18-20
Paddison, Ronan (1992), Urban Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2
Wang, Jin-ke (2008), Journal of Xuchang University, http://en.cnki.com.cn