Preface

‘... Reputations of countries are rather like the brand images of

companies and products, and equally important‘1, while the concept

of city brand is slowly getting awareness, the latter two concepts

are commonly know in business world.

Though the idea of ‘brand’ itself was not always carrying the same

meaning as we have in mind today; originally it referred solely to

the content of a product with a single reason of making it easy

for consumers to differentiate from other products with the same

content. Later, producers used brands as triggers to generate an

image or a memory in customers’ minds. It could have been inspired

by advertisement of the product, encounter with sales person,

prior experience using the product as individual factors or

combined. This meant a lot of changes for both sellers and buyers,

because now products were not just a part of a multi-production

cluster, they started to build emotional ties with customers, thus

resulting in some brands becoming more known than others. It was

not long until producers started to invest in visual appearance of

produced goods and pay more attention to communication between

brand and customer.2

1 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions; S. Anholt; p.xi2 Inclusive Branding. The why and how of a holistic approach to brands; K. Schmidt, C. Ludlow; p.1

On the other hand when talking about corporate branding one refers

to visual, verbal and behavioural expression of an organisation’s

unique business model3based on organization’s mission, vision,

culture and values4

As concept of city brand catches on among destinations, its

principles are being borrowed from product and corporate branding.5

One might doubt value of a brand in connection to a specific

place, yet it puts an image to the place and can be created,

adjusted and advertised much like product and corporate brands.

However, the authors are not implying that ‘brand’ refers only to

a visual element, in this paper we will try to show the underlying

layers and complexity of this concept. Yet it is often the case

when implementation of city branding is scoped to creating a

slogan, logo and, in the best case advertising. 6 According to

Virgo and Chernatony (2006, p.379) ‘... many believe brand

steerers are only able to use one part of the marketing mix,

namely promotion because they have limited control over the

product – the city, or customers’7 But as other types of branding,

it is a process involving various aspects, on this base it is

possible to make a good strategy, which will reflect both

3 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.27 (Knoxx and Bickerton, 2003)4 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.27 (Simoes and Dibb, 2001)5 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.26 (Kavaratzis, 2007)6 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.27

7 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.27 (Virgo and Chernatony, 2006)

interests of stakeholders and people; conducting strategy might

also evidentiate a need for policy changes, intentional and

unintentional city officials actions and/or new infrastructure

projects.8

Thus said, the authors are determined to implement ‘Meetovation’

in Aalborg brand, tying it to all the aspects of branding process,

because based on common sense and backed up by research ‘...

richness and complexity are valuable image attributes for any

country, city or region. ... It is difficult to imagine any single

‘positioning’ for a country, which could span all the activities

of its private and public sectors, without being so bland and

generic as to be useless as a distinguishing narrative’.9

Defining brand Aalborg framework

First of all, it is important to draw a line between the notions

of ‘brand’ and ‘branding’. Academic literature states that ‘a

brand is a product or service or organization, considered in

combination with its name, its identity and its reputation’10,

whereas ‘branding is the process of designing, planning and

communicating the name and the identity, in order to build or

8 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.31 (Kavaratzis, 2004)// Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.38, 399 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.3910 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.4

manage reputation’.11 According to S. Anholt, ‘although nations and

regions and cities do have brand images, they can’t usually be

branded: at least not in the way that products, services or

companies can’.12

This part will concentrate on identifying what is brand Aalborg.

This will be done by first – building a theoretical frame and

adopting principles and knowledge from or with consideration of

experts in place brand and branding field, such as S. Anholt, M.

Kavaratzis, L. de Chernatony, G. Ashworth. And second – applying

empirical qualitative data from publications, our interviews and

questionnaires and building it upon that theoretical frame, so

that in the end we have a solid ground to work on strategy

formulation.

The first aspect of brand is brand identity; S. Anhold refers to

it as ‘the core concept of the product, clearly and distinctively

expressed’13. This first step is very important in the process of

fully understanding brand Aalborg, because it is dealing with

visual side of the city, something that tourists (true for both

leisure and business tourists, but only the latter ones are our

main concern in this paper) see at the first encounter with

Aalborg. So it is crucial not to overlook the obvious role of

brand purpose. That said, such aspects are going to be analyzed:

- Slogan of Aalborg

11 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.412 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.413 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.5

- Logo of Aalborg

- Image of Aalborg portrayed in advertisements made by Visit

Aalborg

- Other ideas/concepts connected with official representation

of Aalborg coming from Visit Aalborg side

Another component of a brand is image. Image development lies in

the middle of all branding activity14, as every city wants to put

itself on the map and one step ahead in competition with other

destinations. Common sense, backed up by scholars suggests there

is evidence pointing towards a direct correlation between choice

of travel destination and quality of image Gartner (1989),

Woodside and Lyonsky (1989).15 This also means image is one of the

factors taken into consideration when searching for satisfactory

experience (Pearce, 1982).16 What creates such a difficulty for any

service provider, company or place is the fact that image is not

‘made’ by the creators, not entirely at least. This is due to

brand being thought the prism of human feelings: associations,

memories, expectations and other feelings controlling human

behavior towards a destination.17 Some countries invest enormous

14 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.3215 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.20 (Gartner (1989), Woodside and Lyonsky (1989)16 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.20 (Pearce, 1982)17 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.4

amount of money in PR campaigns in hopes of becoming more

favourable, thought it shows to be futile proving a point that

image is not ‘in direct control of the ‘owner’ of the brand’18.

While in case of service and product brands images may be created

by reaching the audience through marketing and advertisement,

place brands tend to be more complex in the nature. Moreover, S.

Anholt’s position on this topic is that though some country

officials are trying to control the information channels, it is

futile, as in the world where no information is enclosed is not

bound to one place rather is travels a long way from the

destination. As an example we can recall the incident with a Dane

drawing a cartoon, which became worldwide-known and turned out to

be taken more offensive than entertaining. The only way when

controlling the image are successful is when we are dealing with

entirely closed societies.19 ‘From a marketing point of view, the

induced brand image is the central device whereby a set of

functional, experiential and symbolic associations are

communicated to target audiences in order to create a holistic

image which encapsulates a unique and desirable identity’.20

Country image as a concept is a solid thing, which was created

from various actions of a country over a long period of time and

changing perception of people with only marketing campaigns is

truly a wishful thinking.21 As Socrates said: ‘the way to achieve a

18 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.1219 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.620 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.2921 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.6

better reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to

appear’22 – the starting point in acquiring a good name for oneself

begins with changing what one is, in this case it is referred to

investing into brand identity.

That said, after identifying aspects of brand identity, we look at

the following aspects which form a brand image:

- Image of Aalborg based on field research – image of Aalborg in

publications

- Image of Aalborg based on field research – what conference tourists

value based on ‘suppliers’’ experience (from our interviews with Visit Aalborg; AKKC;

AAU; etc.)

We move on to identifying brand purpose, the inner culture of

Aalborg, its beliefs, goals in connection to the city and

relationship with the place. These are the people’s motivation

drivers for contributing to the development of the brand. In a

city well-established on the map, as in a successful organization

in business world, people involved in the process are working

better if they see the purpose, the end goal, when they are united

and go in the same direction. It is impossible to sent a message

to the audience and convince people to be loyal to the brand if a

company or city can’t successfully implement this idea within its

own ‘walls’. Thus, to fully understand all the subpoints of brand

Aalborg, we believe these aspects are to be considered:

22 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.6

- description, vales and mission (vision) of Aalborg from Visit

Aalborg side

- articles and publications from the internet

- book references to Aalborg

- interviews with citizens

Brand equity:

Since we mentioned before that the concept of place brand takes

its roots from other types of brands, we again take company brand

as an example in this case. Many people not familiar with business

principles wonder why such big at times enormous amounts of money

are involved in vendition and acquisition between ventures. For

example, NBC News reports that in 2006 Google bought YouTube for

1.65 billion US dollars23. One might ask why so much? Does this

company really have the net value of 1.65 billion? In reality

YouTube might not be cheap, but it’s the reputation that add the

extra zeroes on the check. Established name in fact costs more

than tangible assets of an organization combined together; this is

due to the fact that the company is able to maintain business on a

profitable level because of being known to its audience and them

being loyal to the brand. Creating brand equity requires going

beyond creating a good image, the place must also live up to the

promises made by the image. According to G. Ashworth and M.

Kavaratzis ‘as consequence, to be successful, place image creation

must be accompanied by investment in the development of both the

23 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15196982/ns/business-us_business/t/google-buys-youtube-billion/#.UXsI2731dIg

primary services and the infrastructure required to form the place

product experience’.24 Thus the following is being analyzed:

- investment of Visit Aalborg into Aalborg and activities,

promotion and funding of events and reconstruction of the

city

- cooperation of many public/private sector partners in case of

events (e.g. Aalborg holds a conference – Visit Aalborg, AKKC and hotels,

restaurants, transport are cooperating)

Having to look at four aspects of the brand: brand identity, brand image,

brand purpose and brand equity, from a theoretical side, we must move on

to applying this knowledge in practice. The next chapter is going

to be based on various types of sources to analyze each element in

order to confidently say what is actually meant when referred to

brand Aalborg.

Brand elements

Brand identity

Represents the main idea a place is sending. In a way it is

similar to brand identity of a product, which case attributes are

simply identifiable: logo, slogan, packaging, overall design.

Though, while a given product may benefit from such brand24 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.30

communication method as graphic design, any place is far more

complex notion than a single product or organization.25

‘From fast-paced fun to peaceful

oases

From a foaming draft beer to

sublime gastronomy

From the Viking to the Middle

Ages to modern international

art’26

There are many sources out there where man can find information

about various regions, though, common sense of scholars and

researchers as ourselves, are sorting the information so that only

relevant and reliable data is used. Many of our references are to

VisitAalborg, Aalborg’s main and biggest tourism organization,

which purpose is to create awareness of the city and develop

tourism sector.

The city of Aalborg is the third largest city of Denmark and is

also the capital of Northern Jutland region. With its 200.000

inhabitants, the city is welcoming tourists with the vibe of charm

and cosines. 27

25 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.526 http://www.maerskbrokeragency.com/DENMARK/AALBORG/TOURIST_INFORMATION.aspx27 http://www.ucnorth.dk/Home/Facilities-Services/Where_is_UCN/About_Aalborg

‘The regional capital of northern Jutland is Aalborg. With over

200,000 inhabitants, it is the third largest city in Denmark.

Aalborg has developed from being dominated by the large industries

of the past to being dominated by art, culture, music, shopping, a

wide range of arrangements, Danish 'hygge' (cosiness) and charm.

UCN has seven locations in Aalborg.’

Critical approach towards chosen framework

We have chosen to use approach to place brand identity suggested

by S. Anholt (2007), though we find it crucial to mention there

are scholars with different views. Konecnik and Go (2008),

Balakrishnan (2009), (Cai, 2002, 2009)28 suggest more complex

framework for identifying place identity, many elements are

considered and analyzed before deciding what is an identity in

each case of city branding. We have decided to take the other path

and agree with S. Anholt (2007) he argues that there are four

distinguishing components of a brand (brand identity, brand image, brand

purpose and brand equity), which give a clear understanding of the

purpose of every part, whereas in the cases of mentioned scholars

some of these elements are included in the model and framework and

others are completely absent. Moreover, some of the parts

contradict the meaning of brand identity, which as we stated.aspx28 Developing and applying a place brand identity model: The case of Slovenia; M. Konecnik Ruzzier, L. de Chernatony; June 2010 p.46-47; (Konecnik and Go (2008), Balakrishnan (2009), (Cai, 2002, 2009))

before is the visual component of the place (logo, slogan,

packaging, overall design). Not to go too much of track and spend

time on discussing every aspect we, as the researchers of the

topic disagree with, we bring two examples to state our point:

Balakrishnan (2009, p. 622) includes vision as a part of brand

identity, which we believe goes with brand purpose (contradiction

is seen from above definition of a brand identity, we won’t go

into details with brand purpose as this is explained in detail in

the following chapter); in the case of Cai (2002, p. 725 and Cai,

2009, p. 100) he suggests a destination brand image should be one

of the identifying aspects of city brand identity (which again is

discussed it details in the next chapter, but already now is, as

we see it, wrong according to the definition of the brand

identity). 29 Thus stating the reasons of our choise of framework

we move on to discuss other aspects of a place brand.

Brand image

According to S. Anholt (2007) ‘brand image is the perception of

the brand that exists in the mind of the consumer or audience –

it’s virtually the same thing as reputation – and it may or may

not match the brand identity. It includes a range of associations,

memories, expectations and other feelings that are bound up with

the product, the service, or the company’30. As it is not a product

of offices or factories, but resides in heads of consumers, making

29 Developing and applying a place brand identity model: The case of Slovenia; M. Konecnik Ruzzier, L. de Chernatony; June 2010 p.47; (Konecnik and Go (2008), Balakrishnan (2009), (Cai, 2002, 2009))30 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.5

it impossible for city, country or nation officials to go inside

peoples’ minds and meddle with their thoughts, they can ‘[...]

tinker with the brand identity as much as they like, but whether

this affects the brand image is another matter’.31

City of Aalborg, alike other European countries and cities has

shifted from shipyard industry to service provider. In connection

to that arose the problem with misfit image, thus stakeholders,

city officials and policy makers saw a need for re-branding the

destination. A campaign directed to that, Aallborg Kommune

launched a Branding Aalborg campaign in the period of 2004-2009.

VisitAalborg was one of eight stakeholders involved in the process

and later on was represented on the brand board. As the result of

the campaign it was decided to transform the identity of Aalborg

as a place ‘where things happen’, in addition VisitAalborg was

ought to enrich local events and locate them on their webpage. All

the initiatives were done with the purpose of making a better name

for Aalborg among tourists and outward investors.32 However, A.

Therkelsen, H. Halkier and O. B. Jensen point out astonishing

absence of brand Aalborg. Misfit between brand identity, namely

agreed upon logo and slogan are nowhere to be fond, instead they

are replaced by VisitAalborg own logo and the country name.

The authors of the paper lead to several conclusions to Branding

Aalborg campaign. First, VisitAalborg seems to have ‘bitted more

than it can chew’, meaning it was ambitious in the goal setting,31 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.632 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.150

but ended up presenting a shallow marketing campaign that failed

to satisfy intentions of some stakeholders. Urban development

initiatives and decision to bring more events, however, was

greeted positively from the stakeholders. Though, establishment of

Branding Aalborg campaign revealed the lack of coordination of

stakeholders and failure to conduct a thought-out strategy.33

From all the above it is safe to conclude that the message and the

identity of Aalborg is not yet finished. This means sending mixed

messages to outside world and in return receiving scattered feed

back; moreover, all the confusion is not representing Aalborg as a

strong brand, at least not yet, and unfortunate result is the

inevitable outcome to have.

The part is yet to be broadened, image of Aalborg according to ‘suppliers’ will be added.

Brand purpose

One more component of a brand is called brand purpose; drawing a

parallel with company brand, it is similar to corporate inner

culture, or internal image of a brand. Building a solid brand

involves sending the right messages to the audience, conducting a

clear and well thought over goals, being aware of the market flow

and many other activities, thought companies operating behind a

strong brand don’t overlook the importance of workers’ and

stakeholders’ involvement. Convincing customers to believe in the

brand is futile, if the people involved from within aren’t united

by common goals and sharing the same values. Numerous companies,33 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.154

many of those having a good brand, are paying attention this and

it pays out in the business world overcrowded with competitors.

The same is true when talking about brand on a country or nation

level, though in this case inner culture is amplified in size.

Again, brand purpose must be aligned and work together with brand

identity, external promise supporting internal values.34

Answers from questionnaires are to be transcribed and added

Brand equity

Aalborg – charming city full of ‘hygge’ (cosines):

‘Our vision is to preserve and enhance the distinctive character of

the City and District, making it an outstanding place in which to

live and work and to visit, where everyone enjoys a range of

quality and efficient services in a progressive community’, states

Aalborg Kommune.35

We believe words are only true when backed up by actions, for that

purpose we obtained a list of actions Aalborg municipality has

done to implement vision into the life of the destination.

Cultural life is an important aspect of that, therefore we provide

the following chart36:

Municipal support leisure and cultural life

34 Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities andRegions; S. Anholt; p.635 http://www.aalborgkommune.dk/english-version/Sider/english.aspx36 http://www.aalborgkommune.dk/Om_kommunen/fakta-om-kommunen/Aalborg-i-tal/Documents/Aalborg-in-figures-2012.pdf

Numbers speak for themselves – budget is spread throughout

different kind of activities and is concentrated on covering

representatives of different age groups. In our world, where we

often see counties’ budgets stretched, Aalborg is paying attention

to promote the cultural life of its inhabitants, which we define

as a clear fact of investment going beyond immediate return on

investments, rather contributing to the value of the brand.

During our interview with state the people we had interview with and the

organization, we got to acquire first hand knowledge of what gives the

city an ‘edge’. After that we knew how different stakeholders are

cooperating with the common goal to be more successful in

conducting business with other organizations. This united

approach, as we see it, makes Aalborg stand out from other cities

of Denmark going for the same audience. As we went into the topic

of supply and demand in business tourism framework in previous

section, we could identify which parties are the suppliers, the

intermediaries and the demand parties state again which are those namely;

based on that we can also better understand relationships among

them and cooperation practices in making business. During our

interviews we asked how conferences are planned and executed and

why it is done the way it is.

We find it useful to remind the reader about these relationships

in this part by bringing up an example of one of those

relationships: AKKC, being the biggest supplier of facilities and

therefore services for business tourism, is cooperating with

VisitAalborg, an intermediary, and hotels, restaurants, it uses

infrastructure such as taxies to help transport people from the

airport to the destination. According to the specialist in the

field of place branding G. Ashworth and M. Kavaratzis, ‘... to be

successful, place image creation must be accompanied by investment

in the development of both the primary services and the

infrastructure required to form the place product experience’37

Another source referring to developed infrastructure is University

of Northern Jutland’s webpage with useful information about the

city:

‘The city provides its inhabitants with good living facilities as well as an

efficient public bus transport system and good train connections.

You could be gazing over the blue waters of the Limfjorden only to find

yourself a few minutes later in the middle of the bustling life of the

shopping streets’38

37 Towards effective Place Brand Management. Branding European Cities andRegions; edit. G. Ashworth, M. Kavaratzis; 2010, p.3038 http://www.ucnorth.dk/Home/Facilities-Services/Where_is_UCN/About_Aalborg

For duration of already 4 years starting in 2008, Aalborg

is part of ARCHIMEDES, an EU project focusing on

advertising sustainable mobility. The program operates in

eight group, we state them below:

Green vehicles

• Bio-diesel fuelling facilities

• Bio-diesel in 50 city buses

• Bio-diesel in 50 vehicles from Post Denmark

Public transport

• Green City Circle bus

• Online traffic information

• Information screens in buses

• Mobile travel information

• Travel smart card testing

Low emission zone

• Environmental zone in Aalborg’s city centre

Focus on cycling

• City bikes

• Bicycle commuter route

• Bicycle campaign for schools

Safety for pedestrians and cyclists

.aspx

• Perceived traffic safety and accessibility at

Østerbro

• Speed reduction zones in Vejgaard and Aalborg East

Green learning

• Eco and safe driving

Travel behaviour and transport choices

• Commuter travel plans

• Car sharing campaigns

Parking information

• Improved parking information system39

This information leads to an idea that Aalborg officials

understand the importance of the field not only for

business, but for students and locals to get around and,

this way, making Aalborg a good place to stay at.

Brand Aalborg

Yet to be put together from all the element from above when all the information is

gathered

39 http://www.aalborgkommune.dk/english-version/archimedes-sustainable-transport-in-aalborg/Sider/default.aspx

Branding strategy

Sketches yet to be agreed upon

- ‘Traditional’ (corporate, product) branding strategy

- Similarities and dissimilarities between ‘traditional’

branding strategy and destination branding40

- Specifity of place branding

- Lack of agreed upon city branding strategy and variety of

those existing41

- Observation of tendency of confusion between branding and

promotion and one-sidedness of looking at branding42

- Chosen place branding strategy

- Argue for and against choice of the strategy

- Relevance of the chosen framework to our research topic

- Expected outcomes and finding

- Branding framework (4 or 7 Ps)43

- Substance, strategy, symbolic actions44

40 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.5// and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.2941 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.12, 13//42 Cities and Their Brands: Lessons from Corporate Branding; M. Kavaratzis; p.27// Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.3, 4, 5,43 Promotion: http://www.allthingswilliam.com/advertising.html44 Places. Identity, Image and Reputation; S. Anholt; p.13

- cultural influence (Developing and applying a place brand

identity model

- Emotion marketing (as in Brand Canada campaign)