Public Policy Networks in City Branding; a Comparative Case Study

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Dissertation December 2010

Public Policy Networks in City Branding;

a Comparative Case Study

Name: M. C. Hoekstra

Student number: 109044778 (UK)

S1629530 (NL)

Programme: Dual degree programme; IB&M- IM Supervisors: Kees van Veen

Klaus Schoefer Subject area: City Marketing

Abstract: This research analyses the public policy networks that exist in the branding of the cities of Newcastle and Groningen. According to the literature, the effectiveness of city branding depends to a large extent on the existence of networks in city branding in order to create a consistent brand message. It finds that there are significant differences between the cities in terms of organisation of city branding, cooperation and the existence of networks. It is argued that the most important cause for these

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Chapter 1- Introduction

While city brand management is used by a lot of cities for many years now, the effectiveness of city branding has not been proven. One important argument for the lack of proven effectiveness is the limited integration of the several aspects that form the city branding process. The different aspects that incorporate the city brand, like events or architecture, are influenced by multiple stakeholders. The consistency of the messages that are send by the stakeholders has an influence on the effectiveness of the branding process. The integration of these aspects is thus mainly dependent on the cooperation between these stakeholders, or actors, and thus the existence of networks within the city branding process. However, the actors in the city branding can be expected to have different objectives in branding the city which makes collaboration complex. Aligning these objectives and creating a consistent brand message is the role of the policy networks.

Although several authors (Hankinson, 2001; Kavaratzis, 2007) argue that the city branding is a complex process because of the many stakeholders, no research so far has focussed on the networks, that theoretically should exist, between the partners in the city branding process. In order to get a complete image of the city branding practices and to set the next step towards effective city branding, there is a need to study this collaboration between the public and private sectors within city branding (Marzano, Scott, 2006; Morgan, Pitchard and Pigot, 2003; Trueman et al, 2001). This research will investigate and compare the networks structures for city branding that exist in two cities. This

dissertation will thereby contribute to the work on effectiveness of city branding. This research will fill a gap in the city branding research by doing case study research into the effects that networks have on city brand management policy. New in this research is the clear focus on what cities actually undertake in the city branding process, whereas other articles mostly focussed on the theoretical development of city branding policy. The main research question that this research aims to answer is: What is the shape of the city branding policy landscape and how are the policy networks structured?

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with the stakeholders in the process. I will have a closer look at the stakeholders in the city branding process and how these stakeholders try to work together to form a consistent city brand management approach. This research aims to gain an insight into the degree of integration of the different aspects in the city branding process. Moreover, its aim is to find out how networks are structured to create this integration and how this influences the city branding policy of the city. In order to do this I will use public policy network theories. I will link these theories to the practice of city brand management in order to develop a model for cooperation in city promotion. Although several authors (Marzano, Scott, 2006; Morgan, Pitchard and Pigot, 2003) seem to acknowledge the importance for networks between partners in the city branding process, it will be interesting to investigate how this cooperation happens in practice.

The structure of this research is as follows; The next chapter deals with the research design and methodology. The chapter after that is the literature review which deals with general brand

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Chapter 2- Research Design

City branding is a complex process that involves different actors that need to cooperate and negotiate a city branding policy. This research aims to give a complete view on the city branding policy of two cities, to compare these policies with each other and with the literature. City branding is more than communicating a message by the use of visuals and slogans, to promote a city in a successful way, several organizations should work together. For this research I have borrowed theory from the field of public policy networks to take a first step in the analysis of the networks of stakeholders in the city branding process. As there is no research into the field of public policy networks within city brand management up till now, I hope to open up the field to further research. This dissertation not only sheds more light on what happens behind the scenes at city brand management but it will also create an interesting case for more research into the complexity of public policy networks with public/private partners. The question I thus aim to answer is: What is the shape of the city branding policy landscape and how are the policy networks structured?

In order to do this, I aim to answer the research questions stated below. The first question is aimed to describe the organization behind the city branding, this question needs to be answered first in order to be able to compare the two cities.

• How are the city branding processes organized within the city?

• To what extent does a network exist between the stakeholders in the city branding process? • How is this network managed to promote the city?

• How are the public policy networks of the two cities different?

• What are possible grounds for the differences between the city branding policies?

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considered. The money that comes with these responsibilities is the next point in the framework that is of importance. The money flows explain which actors in the process are influential. After that, the use of public policy is discussed, we will look at which city branding policies are in place and who makes up these policies. Following is a description on the activities that are undertaken both online and offline to brand the city, it will be interesting to see which actors undertake which activities. In order to get a more in depth view on the workings of the networks, the meetings and relationships between the actors and in the networks are described. The meetings can be frequent or infrequent and can be structured or unstructured. This brings with it that the relations can be formal or informal. Comparing and analysing the findings for both cities with the use of this framework gives a structured overview of the city branding networks and the organisation of these networks in both cities.

History • The history of the DMO

Actors and Networks • Actors relevant to the process

• Networks in the city branding process Responsibilities • Responsibilities and delegation of activities

Money • Money flows

Policy _• Use of a public policy in branding the city

Activities and Branding • Vision • Slogan

• Offline activities • Online activities Meetings and relationships _• Frequency of meetings

• Formality of relationships

Table 2.1 Framework city branding analysis

2.1 Case Studies

This dissertation will be based on two in-depth case studies, these case studies will be compared and contrasted in order to gain a better understanding of the strategic alliances within city branding. A case study is not a representative sample and thus it does not aim to be generalizable, it merely describes a unique example and presents a start for further research in this area. A case study is a way of

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compared and contrasted. The case studies are chosen for literal replication, meaning that both case studies are expected to display the same characteristics in their public policy networks (Thomas, 2004). The two cases that are used for this dissertation are the cities of Groningen and Newcastle. The city branding management of Groningen (NL) is compared with that of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK).

However, as Newcastle is branded together with Gateshead, a city that lies very close to Newcastle, the branding of Gateshead will, to some extent, also be included in the research. The cities to be compared in this paper are both middle large cities. Groningen and Newcastle are twin cities (Gemeente

Groningen) and the cities share some characteristics. Both cities are far from the capital of the country and both have been confronted with a negative image in the past. Newcastle was seen as a industrial city whereas Groningen was seen as a rural city. In a reaction to these negative images, both cities started an active promotional campaign. Both cities, nowadays, have a high population of students due to their universities (Marketing Groningen, Times Online 2008). Both cities do not have a particular international appeal or reputation but with increasing globalisation the cities need to compete with cities around the globe to attract multinational business and international tourists.

Because the cities share many characteristics it can be expected that the city branding of these cities is comparable. The similarities in characteristics of the cities makes it interesting to compare the cities on their brand management. Marketing Groningen is the marketing organisation for the city of Groningen. The organisation has been given the task to market Groningen by the municipality of Groningen. About 5 years ago Newcastle established, together with Gateshead, an initiative that provides a permanent and formal structure for cooperation between the actors in the brand management process. The Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI) is a public/private organisation that coordinates the

promotion of the cities and provides a platform for the negotiation between actors in the process. The board of the organisation exists of members from all actors in the city, from councillors to

spokespersons, from large employers in the city (even the British establishment of Heineken has a representative on board) to university representatives. Moreover, every other actor that is interested in cooperation can join the NGI. The many similarities in the characteristics of the cities and this one large difference in city brand management organisation makes these two cities interesting to compare. A report from the European commission for Regional Policy (2007) shows that Newcastle and

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towards the city is not only dependent on a marketing strategy from the Destination Marketing Organization, it is also, for example, dependent on the marketing strategy and the attitude of the hospitals (healthcare), public transport organization, local government (resources spend), police (safety), employers (jobs) and so on. Thus, although it gives us not a complete overview of the web of stakeholders, the report does shows us the significance of multiple stakeholders in the city branding process.

2.2 Methodology

Because of the relative complexity of the concept of city branding, the research firstly incorporates an extensive literature review into the already existing literature on city branding and marketing. The focus of this literature review is on the practices of city brand management and the stakeholders in this process. Because of the link between city branding practices and public policy networks, the second part of the literature review focusses on the concept of public policy networks. This literature review not only gives an overview on the existing literature and theory that is applicable to the topic, the literature review also shows the most important reason for the lack of proven effectiveness of city branding activities; the different actors in the process and the need for networks. With the use of the framework I can analyse the networks of different actors in the city branding process. The purpose of this is to analyse if the practice of city branding aligns with the theory on city brand management that states that a network between the stakeholders in the process is necessary in order to create an effective campaign. The first part of the research is mainly based on secondary research that builds on public

Figure 2.1 quality of Life in Groningen and Newcastle

Satisfied to live in the city easy to find a job easy to find a good house at a reasonable price Foreigners are w ell integrated Air polution is not a big problem Satisfied w ith Public transport Satisfied w ith green spaces You feel safe in the city satisfied w ith healthcare by hospitals City spends resources responsibly

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

New castle Groningen Mean

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policy network, city branding and brand management theory.

The second part of this research focusses on primary data derived from interviews. This second part is focussed on the analysis of city branding networks in Newcastle and Groningen. In this part, the city marketing practices of Newcastle and Groningen are analysed on the basis of the framework that has been developed. By using the framework it is possible to compare the practices of both cities. As the research into public policy networks within city branding is a new field of research it is useful to do a qualitative research. Qualitative research has several characteristics that are of advantage for this

research. First of all, Qualitative research is an inductive approach to explore complex issues (Marshall, 1996). As explained before, there is not yet a comprehensive theory on public policy networks in city branding, thus an inductive approach would be a first step to establishing a theory on the complex subject. Second, qualitative research leaves room for flexibility in the research process (Marshall, 1996). As the research field is a new one, it is of importance to be able to adapt the process to issues that arise during the research. By conducting interviews with 19 stakeholders and by using documents, brochures and websites, it is possible to gain a deeper insight into the relations between these

stakeholders and the consistency of the city's image portrayed by the actors in the city branding networks.

2.3 Interview Method

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semi-structured interview was chosen as a best fit to the research aim. Thus, the topics for discussion in the interviews are specified beforehand but the interview structure will depend on the settings of the interview. The actors that where seen as the most influential of these networks are interviewed.

Because the interviews in Groningen where done in Dutch, the quotes are translated to English, paying attention not to loose the meaning of the quote. Other sentences or slogans are also translated to

English.

Although several potential actors in the city branding process where specified beforehand, the primary actors in the process provided me with other actual actors in the network who are worth talking to. For the analysis, interviews with the DMOs of the cities where conducted, from these first interviews the primary networks that are in place and the actors that are a member of these networks where derived. The aim was to talk to the same actors in both cities, however, not all actors exits in both cities or where willing to talk to me. The full list of organisations that where kind enough to make some time for an interview is shown in appendix 1.

2.4 Ethical Issues

For this research project the most important stakeholders in the process are the subjects and the scientist. The interviews built a relationship between the subject and me, this relationship should be built on trust and clarity in order to avoid ethical problems. The most important in this process is explaining clearly to the respondent what the aim of the research is, which material will be used. This raises the issue of confidentiality, the respondent needs to be aware of how the material gathered from the interview will be used, and needs to trust the scientist in the analysis of the information (Thomas, 2004). The ethical issues where given great attention, apart from explaining the respondents the aim of my research, the interviews where only recorded with permission of the respondent and the issue of confidentiality is solved by using as little direct quotes as possible. Moreover, in order to avoid ethical problems with anonymity, little quotes are used in the case study analysis.

2.5 Limitations

A possible limitation of this research is the interviewer bias. As the interviews are semi-structured there is a chance that characteristics, attitudes and behaviour of the interviewer will affect the answers or the description of the answers of the respondent (Thomas, 2004). Another limitation inherent of the

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can be argued that the results will not be generalizable for other cities. Moreover, one can argue that it will difficult to get a complete view on the city branding process as the respondents will only give the information they are comfortable to provide. Thus, one can argue that the research will miss out on information because the respondents are unwilling to share. However, as I will speak to several stakeholders it is possible to derive from the comparability of the answers the degree of cooperation between the stakeholders. In essence, I am cross-checking by asking the same question to different sources. Furthermore, as the study is exploratory in nature, it does not aim to provide all the answers to all the questions that are raised by the study. It only aims to give a deeper insight in the concept of public policy networks in the process of city branding as a starting point for further research on a larger scale. The fact that the interviews with city branding actors in Newcastle, due to the high costs of travelling there, where done by phone could be considered another limitation. Telephone interviews are supposed to be less in depth. However, this argument is not shared by everyone, several studies

(Rogers, 1976; Sturges, Hanrahan, 2004)) show that the information provided in a telephone interview does not differ from the information provided from an interview in person. Moreover, giving

respondents in Groningen a choice between a face-to-face or a telephone interview made it possible to talk to more respondents than would have been possible by doing only face-to-face interviews.

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Chapter 3- Literature Overview

3.1 (City) Brand Management

Cities started using city marketing in the early 90s (Bakker, 2009). Nowadays, most cities in the world use city marketing to promote their city. Cities are branded in order to create a positive image. This positive image in turn should lead to an increase in tourism, investment and employment. In order to portray the complexity of city branding, this literature review will start with a short explanation of regular product branding theory and its use on city branding practices.

Brand management is an important part of every marketing program. Marketing of a product aims to internally and externally promote a product to an audience. This audience can be consumers, but also employees or other stakeholders. The function of brand management in this process is the promotion of the brand that is associated with the product.

Product brand management consists of six main brand building blocks (Keller, 2008). These building blocks are important because they form the basis of every brand, including city brands, be it in a more complex sense than for regular brands.

The first building block is brand salience. Brand salience is about the awareness of the brand, it is about the ability of the consumer to recall the brand and what is stands for (Keller, 2008). The question here is how many people know what Newcastle or Groningen has to offer for them?

The second building block is performance. The

Performance building block is about the product itself and its quality. The question here is if the

product meets the functional expectations of the consumer. The functional expectations a consumer has are based on intrinsic attributes. For city marketing this could be architecture. These attributes are difficult to influence because they are to a large extent determined by politics. Moreover, consumers often use extrinsic attributes for their choice because products often do not differ much in their intrinsic attributes. The third building block is brand imagery. Brand imagery, depends on all the attributes of the brand that do not influence the functionality of the product. It is focussed on the extrinsic attributes.

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This could for example be the brand name, pricing, packaging, marketing communications and slogan. A City's extrinsic attributes are more difficult to define, the city does not have a price or a packaging. However, a slogan and marketing communications is something that a city has and is able to change. Brand management policy can influence these extrinsic attributes. Thus, the most important instrument for city branding is communication. For brand imagery, an important part are intangibles, intangibles make up the image of the brand that is portrayed to its consumers. There are four main types of

intangibles that are linked to a brand, these are; user profiles, purchase and usage situations, personality and values, history, heritage and experiences. For branding a city these intangibles are applicable as well. For a city to present itself as a brand it needs to have a clear idea about which intangibles it wants to link to the brand.

The fourth building block is judgements. These are customers individual opinions on a product which consumers form through all the information they have on the brand. There are four main types of brand judgements; quality, credibility (expertise, trust and likeability), consideration and superiority over other brands. Thus, customers need to perceive the brand as a high quality brand, they need to believe that the brand is capable of delivering what it promises, they need to consider buying the product and see the relevance of the product, and they need to feel that the product is superior over others. For cities, the creation of a brand that consumers judge as superior over other cities is the main challenge. Moreover, making sure that the city can deliver what it promises is important, the city brand should be credible and plausible.

The fifth building block is the emotional response of consumers to the brand. Brand feelings are an important part of the brand management process. Examples of feelings that people can have for a city are warmth, security or excitement. Feelings like those can be associated with the brand and create a positive response from the public. Creating such positive feelings with the public is one of the main objectives in a city branding campaign. However, these feelings are not only dependent on city branding communication but also on tangible aspects and the atmosphere in a city.

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inhabitants feel loyal to the city and engaged with what the city stands for, the city increases the strength of the brand.

Although the six building blocks are central for branding a regular product, city branding is more complex than using and applying these building blocks. In city branding, just like regular branding, it is first and foremost about the image of the city (Kavaratzis, 2004), however the image of the city is a much more complex concept for cities than it is for regular products. It is argued that city branding is essentially the same as product branding and thus can be branded by simply using the six building blocks described above. However, city branding has proven to be a much more complex process than product brand management (Hankinson, 2001; Morgan et al, 2003). In fact, the process is widely used and little understood. Although the city brand management process has a similar structure as regular product branding, the aspects of the process are more complex to organize than in regular product branding.

The city branding process has a familiar structure, at first glance it looks much like building a regular brand. The city branding process (Pellenbarg, 2007) is structured in 7 steps:

• Set objectives for the program • Market analysis (SWOT) • Setting strategy

• Choosing instruments • Implementation • Evaluation

• Changing policy to match new objectives

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stakeholders than any product, the use of simple product branding frameworks is debatable. For example, one of the pillars of product branding is the internal branding (Keller, 2008), in regular product marketing this would mean making sure your employees understand the brand and carry out a positive message about the brand. In city marketing however, the ambassadors are the residents of the city. Internal branding would thus mean making sure the residents of the city understand the city brand and the importance of brand management. Residents are not only harder to reach than employees, they are also more difficult to convince of the usefulness of branding the city. Hence, creating a consistent message with integrated marketing communications is important not only for the external promotion of the city but also for the internal promotion of the city. Apart from that, city branding has several other characteristics that differ from standard product branding. For instance, city branding is the

responsibility of the public sector and city marketing does not only need to achieve economic goals but also political and social aims. Moreover the city incorporates much more facets than a product, this brings with it the difficulty in defining the city as a product (Hankinson, 2001); is the city as a product only the spatial area or does it also constitute events in a city, its population and the general identity of the city? The complexity of city branding in comparison with product branding is thus mostly caused by the different aims and the difficulty in defining a city as a product. This complexity brings with it the different stakeholders, with different objectives in the city branding process.

Hence, although the building blocks for product branding are applicable for city branding, the practice of branding is much more complex for cities than it is for regular products. Applying regular brand management instruments is common but not always applicable. The complexity of branding the city brings with it the discussion on effectiveness of city branding activities. The effectiveness of city branding and the underlying reason for a lack in proven effectiveness is discussed next.

3.2 Effectiveness and Stakeholders

Although journal articles have been written on city branding, these articles focus mostly on an overview of city branding or the effects of city branding. Kavaratzis (2007) argued that city branding enhances the 'sameness' of cities as cities all use the same marketing tools and have the same marketing goals. Another view on city marketing is provided by Pellenbarg and Meester (2009). They too are not positive about the effects of city marketing, they argue that city marketing does not change the long term image of a city. They also argue that city branding is not an effective tool to change the

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concludes that it cannot be proven beyond doubt that geographical marketing changed the image of the province over the long run (Pellenbarg, Meester, 2009). A reason for the lack of proven effectiveness of the city marketing practices, and thus also city branding, is argued to be the lack of integration of the different aspects that incorporate city branding and the lack of cooperation between the stakeholders. Collaboration between stakeholders is necessary to create 'consistency in the delivery of the destination brand values through a set shared meanings' (Marzano, Scott, 2006, pp. 1293). Thus, in order to send a consistent brand message, the stakeholders in the city branding process need to work together. In order for the stakeholders to work together we should firstly try to identify these stakeholders. Anholt (2010) argues that the development of a country as a brand can be represented in a hexagon. An adapted version of this model can be used for the city branding process. His hexagon implicitly presents the stakeholders in the process of city branding.

The hexagon structure shows the different aspects and the complex structure of relationships between the aspects, objectives and stakeholders in the process. The attributes of this model can be linked to groups of stakeholders. Stakeholders that we can derive from this model are the city's population (people), the local government (Regional policy, culture and heritage), the Destination Marketing Organization (tourism), companies (regional brands, investment and immigration) and universities (investment and immigration). These different groups of stakeholders need to work together to built an effective city branding strategy. The hexagon structure shows that every objective in the process is influenced by the other objectives, and thus other actors, in the process. An example of the complexity of this network of stakeholders is the link between the Destination Marketing organization (DMO) and Tourism The city's tourism promotion and people's experience

of visiting the city are, collectively, often the loudest voice in branding the nation because the tourist board usually has the biggest budgets and the best marketers.

Regional Brands The city and regional brands are powerful

ambassadors of its image, but only when it's clearly stated where they are made.

Regional policy policy makers are much closer to the media

than they used to be. Policies are not only communicated through the traditional diplomatic channels.

Immigration and investement To business audiences, the

way the city attracts inward investment, foreign talent and foreign companies speaks volumes.

Culture The city's cultural activities and exports can leave a

strong impression.

People The people of the city themselves – the high profile

leaders, the stars and the general population,

including how they behave and how they treat visitors- are profound influencers of perceptions of the city.

Table and Figure 3.2 City branding hexagon Text and Hexagon based on: Anholt, 2010

Tourism Regional_Brands

People

Culture and

Heritage Investment andImmigration

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the universities. Universities promote a city to attract students, in order for the universities to attract good students the university needs to promote the city not only as a city for fun and partying but also as a pool of talent, however the DMO's main objective is increasing tourism, their promotional message is thus mainly based on the fun parts of the city. This clash in objectives shows a need for communication and compromises between the actors. From this example we can deduct that all stakeholders are

dependent on each other and that the different stakeholders have different objectives for the promotion of the city. In this model the different stakeholders, like the businesses and residents, do not only have an interest in the promotion of the city, they are also part of the product that is being promoted, the activities that every stakeholder undertakes affects the image of the city. The image of a city in turn is also influenced by messages beyond the control of the city marketeer, these messages are called tertiary communication and include influences by media and competitors' communication (Kavaratzis, 2004). City branding can not be effective without cooperation between several stakeholders with different objectives. Each stakeholder or organization markets itself and the city separately, in doing so every organization adds to the promotion a city (Hankinson, 2001). However, if there is no cooperation between the stakeholders, some of these promotional activities and messages will be inconsistent and thus will not lead to a consistent brand message. Whereas the core of a strong brand is the consistent and clear message it gets across about its brand (Taylor, 2005). One can image that with the manifold of stakeholders in the process, an important aspect of city branding is the management of the stakeholders. Only if actors in the city branding process are able to work together in a long term relation it will be able to brand the city effectively. The success of American cities after the de-industrialization is an example of the importance of cooperation between stakeholders as its success was dependent on a model that focussed on deep co-operation between public and private sectors (Ward, 1998).

3.3 Public Policy Networks in City Branding

With this complex structure of stakeholder relationships it is important to have a structure in the cooperation between the most important actors. This structure can be offered by a public policy network. A public policy network is in essence a network of actors that aims to solve a societal

problem. To gain more insight in public policy in general we will first elaborate on the topic on public policy before looking closer at public policy networks.

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the societal problem is redefined so that intervention can be used to solve it. Public policy is first of all focused on a meaningful and efficient performance by the policy actors. There are many instruments that can be used to reinforce a public policy. However, in the case of city marketing, only persuasion and information can be used as a instrument to reach the objectives that are stated in the public policy. Persuasion and information provision have a strong link with the branding of a product, where the focus is also on informing and persuading the customer.

There are five stages in the public policy cycle: 1. agenda setting

2. policy formulation 3. decision making 4. policy implementation 5. policy evaluation

The first phase in the public policy cycle is the agenda setting. In this phase the definition of the problem is important. Societal problems that need a solution can be categorized in tame problems and wicked problems (Harmon, Mayer, 1976). Tame problems are well defined and have a technical solution, like building a bridge to cross water. Wicked problems on the other hand have no definitive formulation and no simple solution. Moreover, wicked problems often do not have a stable definition, how we see the problem at a particular time determines the solution at that time. Thus, forming public policy for a wicked problem is not a purely rational decision with one actor that decides what the ultimate solution is. The process is about giving and taking between several changing actors in the field. City branding can be defined as a wicked problem as there is no general definition for the problem, the problem could, for example, be a lack of investment or a slowing down of migration into the area. The solution for this problem thus depends on the definition of the problem. Moreover, for the realization of the objectives of a city branding policy one needs several actors that negotiate the

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The network is thus not limited to a formal structure or public actors. In a network of different actors in the public sector the interdependence between the actors is most important. The control over the

process of forming public policy is mainly in negotiating solutions and linking different objectives (Abma, in ‘t Veld, 2001). There is no distinct hierarchy in the network, instead there is an interplay. In this sense there is never a one sided relationship but the objectives are always negotiated within the network. Within the general objectives and policy, every actor strives for its own objectives and uses its own instruments to realize these objectives. Because of the differences in objectives within the

network, and within a city branding network in particular, certain groups of actors with the same objectives form a coalition with actors with the same objective. Every actor in essence strives for its own success with the least use of its own instruments. The autonomy of these actors needs to be traded if the ambition of the network is large, with large ambitions there needs to be more general agreement on the objectives and the way these targets are going to be reached (van den Heuvel, 1998). Thus, compromises on objectives need to be formed if the city branding network wants to create a consistent and strong brand message. A network is most useful if there is a central control over several actors with several independent relations. In the end, for public policy, the government has the final responsibility. Thus, in making public policy networks work, the final responsibility lies with the government as well. This is in contrast with a cooperative network, where the corporations often share the responsibility for reaching the objective (van den Heuvel, 1998).

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Chapter 4- Case Study Analysis

From the literature review we can conclude that city branding is indeed a complex process. The reason for the lack of proven effectiveness of city branding activities is mainly due to an inconsistent brand message which is in turn due to differing objectives of the actors in the process. In order to create a consistent brand message the actors in the city branding process form networks for cooperation. In this part of the research, the structure of these networks and the workings of the networks are analysed for Groningen and Newcastle. On the basis of this analysis possible grounds for the differences are sought. The analysis is done on the basis of the framework discussed in the research design.

4.1 History

Groningen

Before Marketing Groningen was started up in 2002, Groningen used to have a tourist information centre (VVV) that took care of promoting the city to tourists. This tourist information centre got into financial problems and worked ineffectively. Therefore the decision was made to reform the

organisation and the entire marketing of the city. Before Marketing Groningen was established, there was no clear city marketing plan and the initiatives where scattered around the municipality, retailers and the event organisers. The municipality decided to start Marketing Groningen, an organisation that had two main tasks; to come up with and execute a marketing strategy for the city and to promote cooperation between stakeholders in the process. The organisation is characterised by its dynamic structure and short linkages between the different departments. Marketing Groningen employs 22 people and 17 on-call employees. The organisational structure of Marketing Groningen is shown in detail in appendix 2.

The municipality created one clear objective for Marketing Groningen: to make sure more people come to the city, stay longer and spend more money. The main focus of the organisation is thereby the

tourism sector, 70% of its activities focusses on the the tourism sector. Marketing Groningen, is very straightforward about this choice, a tourist is easier to convince to visit a new city while an employer or new inhabitant is much more difficult to persuade to move to a city.

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Groningen' campaign, after that the campaign split again to form 'City of Talent' that is linked to 'Er gaat niets boven Groningen' but not part of this campaign. The employers network 'Ambassadors of Groningen' and subsequently the GPO (Groningen Promotion Group) is also established in 2005.

Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead

The NGI has been founded in 2000 by the Newcastle City council. The NGI was initially called the Newcastle Initiative and came about because of a need for the council to delegate some of its tourism activities to an external body. In 2008 Newcastle and Gateshead together bid for the European Capital of Culture. This project forged the cities and created a bond that made it possible to work together. On the reason why the two cities work together, the NGI states: “we are only separated by 100 yards of water, so it was pointless, the two cities working against each other”. Thus, the choice of branding the cities together can be legitimated internally but the probability of confusing the visitor with two city names in one brand, especially when focussing on international visitors, is high.

The focus of the NGI is for 100% on tourism promotion. Tourism promotion includes the business tourism, the NGI also has a convention bureau. The NGI is partly publicly and partly privately funded. The two city councils are the founding and majority funders, apart from them the NGI has a member structure with 180 paying members. The membership is based on several levels, with the principal members also having a seat on the board of the NGI, they are thus the only members that have a formal say in the activities of the NGI. Apart from the members the daily tasks are handled by a team of 29 marketeers. The complete organisational chart of the NGI is included in appendix 3. In comparison with the organisational chart of Groningen it is formal and hierarchical.

Apart from the establishment of the NGI, Newcastle has been designated Science City in 2004. From the designation of Newcastle as a city of science another network originated. Newcastle Science City is a collaboration between several partners and focusses on branding Newcastle as a Science city.

Comparison

The DMOs of both cities originated from the wish of the municipality or the city council to implement a more effective way of promoting the city. In Newcastle it was decided to set up a DMO in

cooperation with Gateshead while in the city of Groningen the cooperation was sought with the

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outsiders.

A difference in the roles of the DMO is also apparent. Whereas Marketing Groningen also has the role of the spider in the web of city branding activities and networks, the NGI operates on its own and has no structural influence on branding activities undertaken by other actors. Apart from that, while the NGI also incorporates a convention bureau for business tourism, Groningen has an independent Convention Bureau that works closely together with Marketing Groningen. In order to get a clearer image of all the actors that play a role in the city branding process and the networks that are formed between them now the next paragraph focusses on the networks and actors in both cities.

4.2 Actors and Networks

Groningen

All the actors in the city branding process have a different role in the process and they all influence the brand message to a different extent. The municipality sees the importance of cooperation between the actors. The municipality for instance sees the need of working together with the knowledge institutions in the city, because the image of the city is largely dependent on the student population.

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Marketing Groningen sits in with nearly all the projects, it thereby keeps control over the brand and the brand message. By sitting in with all the projects Marketing Groningen can make sure that the brand message stays consistent. However, there is one network where Marketing Groningen is not a member. Noorderlink is a network of companies that aim to promote the region to business and employees and that aims to create a HRM network for companies in the region. In order for Marketing Groningen to make sure the branding message stays consistent, the cooperation with Noorderlink should be sought. The largest of the branding projects, in terms of broad cooperation between several partners and the significance for branding the city is the GPO, the GPO is mostly an advise institution. At the GPO the partners talk about what they think are useful activities to promote the city. The project is funded by the employers of the city that are a member of the 'Ambassadors of Groningen'. The members of this

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network all pay a membership fee which is used as funding for the GPO. The GPO also takes on the job of branding the city in an economic perspective. But most of all, the GPO is a networking

institutions, it gives actors in the branding process the opportunity to talk, to form relationships and to come to one-on-one agreements.

Another large project, in terms of cooperation, is the 'City of Talent' project. City of Talent is an image campaign to promote the more serious side of the city. It focusses on two specific fields of science; energy and healthy ageing. It is a separate project from the Marketing Groningen campaign but in its branding activities it is indirectly linked: “Here you find space for talent. Space to learn. To work. To grow. To develop yourself. To get the best from yourself. Moreover, here you find the space to live, to do sports and to enjoy life. Nothing tops Groningen.” (City of Talent). The partners of the City of Talent project are very exited about working together in this network. Although the activities and goals of City of Talent are not yet completely clear to all partner organisations, the partners are proud of the cooperation and the willingness to promote the city together. The reason for the ease of cooperation has been mentioned several times by different actors during my research; Groningen is small enough so that it is possible to know one and another and to run in to one and another every once in a while. Groningen has been described as an ant-hill, everyone is running around in the small city centre, you are bound to meet up with people. This makes it easy to meet and work together and the formal policies and meetings loose significance.

Newcastle

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The main actor in the branding of Newcastle is the NGI. This initiative is a network of private and public members that work together to brand the city. Corporations and organisations can become a member of the NGI for a membership fee and receive in return the opportunity to have a say in the branding of the city and several services with respect to the marketing of the organisation. A complete list of the, approximately 180, members of the NGI is provided in appendix 8. The members meet several times a year on networking events. The NGI is mostly seen as a networking platform and a way to bundle the strength of organisations when it comes to advertising. The City Councils of Newcastle and Gateshead are also members of the NGI, however on contacting the city council of Newcastle, the council directed me to the NGI and claimed not to have an officer in place to talk about the branding of the city.

Apart from the NGI, another network of actors in branding of the city is Newcastle Science City. This

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organisation focusses on branding Newcastle, without Gateshead, as a city of science. The organisation is a collaboration of organisations that are also members of the NGI. In this sense the consistency of the brand message could be kept by the organisations. However, as there is no clear brand message for the city provided by NGI, the Newcastle City of Science has no guide to the branding of Newcastle. The organisation therefore takes its own lead. Moreover, because Gateshead is not included in the

Newcastle Science City project, this leads to more confusion about the brand name and identity. Newcastle Science City is lately in bad weather because of a large scale development plan involving One North East, the organisation that needs to make large cutbacks.

In Newcastle City of Science there is a clear resemblance with City of Talent. Both campaigns focus on the science perspective and have the universities as leading partners. The campaigns even focus partly on the same fields in science for promoting the city. Newcastle has a focus on Ageing and Health and sustainability

Comparison

The differences between Groningen and Newcastle with respect to actors and networks in the city branding process is clear. Whereas in Groningen there are a lot of networks with all kinds of different actors, in Newcastle the networks that focus on city branding are thin. The actors in Newcastle feel less the need to work together in different networks than in Groningen. In Groningen the actors form networks in order to create an influence on the image of the city. The feeling of joint responsibility for branding the city is stronger in Groningen. An example of this is the role of the municipality. In Groningen the municipality made clear that the responsibility of marketing the city is delegated to Marketing Groningen but upon talking with the municipality it turned out that the municipality is in constant consultation with Marketing Groningen and that the municipality does its own marketing towards future investors. Whereas in Newcastle the city council is a member of the NGI but claims to not have any role in branding the city.

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Groningen is also a partner in the process, they can thus guarantee the consistency of the brand message with the message Marketing Groningen distributes itself.

This evaluation automatically links with the responsibilities of the actors in the process. The differences in the networks and actors between both cities has an evident influence on the responsibilities of the actors.

4.3 Responsibility

Groningen

The municipality delegated the responsibility of Marketing the city to Marketing Groningen. Marketing Groningen is an independent organisation with its own role and objectives. Marketing Groningen is the only organisation in Groningen that is directly responsible for the city branding process. It is a stand alone organisation that promotes the city. There are meetings with the municipality, but the structure is informal and the municipality has no structural influence on the course of the branding process.

Marketing Groningen has the full responsibility for the brand message that the city sends out and are responsible for the consistency of this message. However, the responsibility for city branding for

inward investment and employment is not entirely delegated to Marketing Groningen. The municipality has their own account managers that deal with branding the city towards employers and investors. Because there is no consultation between the municipality and Marketing Groningen in this area, there is a danger of inconsistency in the brand message. Marketing Groningen states that, although they have the responsibility to brand the city, “the brand Groningen is everyone's brand, it is not owned by

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Newcastle

In Newcastle the situation is quite different, the responsibility of branding the city lies completely with the NGI. Unlike the situation in Groningen, the city council does not claim responsibility for the city branding. Although the City council is a member of the NGI, when asked to the role of the City

Council in branding the City the Council states that this is solely the task of the NGI. The NGI has 180 members that have are stakeholders of the NGI's activities. There are several levels of membership; the principal, the corporate and the convention bureau. The principal level earns the member a seat on the board of the organisation. The other member organisations can make comments or remarks but do not have a formal influence on the organisation's activities. One could thus say that the responsibility for branding the city is very dispersed over 180 organisations but in the meantime centralised in one organisation that takes the decisions. Most of the member organisations I have spoken to do not see a role for themselves in branding the city, they leave the responsibility of branding the city to the NGI. The benefits for the member organisations of being a member are mostly the provision of branding resources, like Newcastle pictures, by the NGI, the bundling of advertising strength and the ability to attend networking events. The benefits are thus also mainly passive with respect to the role of the member organisations. Thus both the formal responsibility as the informal responsibility for branding the city lies with the NGI. Apart from that, because the NGI's only focus is tourism, the responsibility for branding the city on the other territories is uncertain.

Comparison

The clear difference between the two cities with respect to the responsibility of branding the city is the centralisation versus decentralisation issue. In Groningen the responsibility of branding the city in essence lies with Marketing Groningen but many actors in the process want to have, and get, a say in what activities are undertaken to brand the city. In Newcastle on the other hand, the NGI is made up of many actors that formally do have a say in branding the city, the members pay a fee for which in return they have influence. However, the members of the NGI do not seem to feel a need to have an influence on the city branding activities. Members point out that the benefits of being a member lie more in consuming than in actively contributing. This difference in responsibility leads to an important

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4.4 Money

Groningen

The largest part of the funding for Marketing Groningen comes from the municipality. In exchange for this money the municipality sets tourism goals for the organisation. These goals are evaluated at the end of every period and the decision whether or not to keep funding marketing Groningen is made. The evaluation criteria are based on the increase of tourism in the city. However, after 6 years of Marketing Groningen, still 25% of the budget is funded by incidental funding. This means that the municipality needs to decide each year if they keep spending this money on Marketing Groningen. This way of funding makes sure that the municipality keeps a degree of control over Marketing Groningen, because if Marketing Groningen does not do what the municipality wants them to do they could loose 25% of its funding within a year. This contradicts the statement of the municipality that Marketing Groningen is an independent organisation.

Another part of the funding comes from the province of Groningen, the 'Er gaat niets boven Groningen' campaign is in essence not a city campaign but a campaign for the whole of the province of Groningen. The campaign uses the city mostly uses the city to persuade tourists to come to the city, the province is used as an argument to stay longer in the region. The province did a call for tender in 2008 for a tourism campaign until 2011. Marketing Groningen received the assignment to promote the province. The other projects, like City of Talent and the GPO are funded by contributions of the partner

organisations in the projects. For most projects, the funding partners are also the active partners in the network. This is with exception of the Ambassadors of Groningen, which fund the GPO. The majority of the ambassadors are companies in the city that pay a contribution to the network but have no active role in it.

Newcastle

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Comparison

The NGI can, in structure, be compared to the Ambassadors of Groningen project, where the members also only pay contribution but have no active role in the network. The execution of plans an activities is mainly done by the NGI in the Newcastle case, and by the GPO in the case of Groningen, not by the members of the network. An interesting difference between the two cities is that in Newcastle the NGI focusses only on tourism while the GPO in Groningen is not the tourism promotion body in the

branding process. The aim of GPO is also on economic and educational promotion. Which can be considered logical because the member companies have more interest in economic promotion than in tourism promotion.

For both cities the funding for branding the city comes from public and private partners. However, in Groningen the core branding activities are funded by public funding whereas in Newcastle the majority of the funding comes from private funding. While in Groningen politics in the municipality is influence the activities of Marketing Groningen by being its majority funder, in Newcastle the private members influence the activities of the NGI, causing the NGI to undertake more services activities for its members instead of overall branding activities.

4.5 Policy

Groningen

Groningen has no formal policy for city branding. The municipality chose to delegate the city branding to Marketing Groningen entirely and did not develop their own city branding policy. In terms of

tourism the responsibility is clear and thus a policy for tourism branding is claimed not to be necessary. However without a general, overlapping public policy for the city brand that also incorporates city branding towards investors and (potential) employers, the risk is that the brand message is inconsistent or even contradictory. Nonetheless, because of the intensive cooperation between the actors in the city branding process the risk of inconsistency and contradiction in the brand message is diminished considerably despite a lack of formal policy.

Newcastle

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objectives. However, to accomplish this the NGI not only needs to convince its 180 members but also all kinds of other actors in the branding process and networking platforms.

Comparison

Groningen and Newcastle both do not have a formal policy for city branding. Whereas in Groningen there is no want, and because the cooperation between actors maybe not even a need for a branding policy, in Newcastle there is a want for an overarching branding policy. The NGI is currently working on such a policy. It will however be a complicated task to get all actors on board.

4.6 Branding and Branding Activities

Vision

Groningen

The vision of Marketing Groningen focusses on an integral approach of city marketing. The brand is directed at tourists but Marketing Groningen states in its vision that “the brand Groningen, that focusses on tourism, can not be seen apart from the Groningen that focusses on potential students, employers or new inhabitants.” Marketing Groningen thus aims for an integral approach with tourism, education, culture and economics as important elements. However, because Marketing Groningen is established as a representative of all tourism and recreational attractions in the city and province, the focus is on tourism. It is therefore to be questioned if the integral approach is possible while having an unambiguous focus on tourism.

Newcastle

The vision of the NGI, as stated on the website is: “NewcastleGateshead recognised worldwide for its culture, icons, business innovation and reputation as a place to learn and do business.

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Comparison

The vision of the NGI and Marketing Groningen have something in common, both vision statements claim an integral approach while the practice is a focus on tourism. In comparison with Groningen, the vision statement of NGI is slightly more vague and overambitious.

Slogan

Groningen

The slogan of Marketing Groningen is 'Er gaat niets boven Groningen' (Nothing Tops Groningen). The slogan is a point of discussion for the actors in the branding process. It is certain that the slogan is well recognized within The Netherlands. The reason for this is probably because it is the longest running campaign of the Netherlands. It thus builds awareness, however the slogan does not necessarily built a strong image for the city. There is a debate running between the actors of the field with respect to the slogan that is used. The slogan is being used by the public sometimes ironically, in this sense it does not portray a positive image of the city. Other arguments against the slogan are that the slogan is

expressionlessness and that it does not translate well.

Newcastle

The NGI does not use a slogan to promote the city. There is no clear, short slogan that provides me with the reason to visit Newcastle. On the website, the logo is shown with, instead of a slogan, the sentence, “The official website for the area including Sunderland, South Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay” (NewcastleGatesheadInitiative), this will confuse the visitor. The visitor is confronted with all kinds of place names that are unknown and of no interest to him.

Comparison

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Offline Activities

Groningen

The activities of Marketing Groningen in 2009 where mainly focused on promotional campaigns and attracting and promoting events in the city. Because Marketing Groningen undertakes many activities every year, only the most prominent in 2009 and additional activities in respect to 2008 are mentioned here.

• Events:

◦ Attracting Tros Muziekfeest (Music festival)

◦ Attracting 3FM Serious Request (Fund raising event for charity) ◦ Promoting the Uitmarkt (launch cultural year)

◦ Hiring an event coordinator • Campaigns

◦ Campaign to promote water sport tourism

◦ Promotional campaign in Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium ◦ City centre campaign, promoting day visits

◦ Summer campaign and Christmas campaign, inserts in newspapers

◦ New 'Er gaat niets Boven Groningen' campaign with commercials made by the public called SpotGroningen

◦ City of Talent; bus with add on it drove around the city, inserts in newspapers ◦ Inspirational campaign, external assignment; focus on cultural history

• Other

◦ Google Streetview, premier together with Amsterdam ◦ 4 press and publicity trips (focus on Germany)

The information on activities in 2009 comes form the annual report from Marketing Groningen. Interesting to see in this overview is that there are new developments on 'Er gaat niets boven

Groningen' and the City of Talent campaign, City of Talent but there is no news on 'Groningen Life' or 'Ambassadors of Groningen'. Nor are these campaigns mentioned in the annual report.

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wish of the partners to steer the campaign more towards the content of science fields and less on brand awareness. In appendix 6, the logos of several projects are shown. Interesting to see is the consistency in the logos, although the logos all have a different message and background, they do fit one and the same picture.

Newcastle

Unfortunately the NGI does not keep a record of its activities in the form of a annual report of some sort. The NGI has currently three campaigns running.

The first campaign is a domestic city breaks campaign with the title: 'Have the Tyne of your life'. The aim of the campaign is to promote the Newcastle and Gateshead as a “city break destination to the Nesting Cosmo Audience (couples, friends, aged 25-40 years)” (from website). Activities undertaken for this campaign are:

• Insert in Sunday Times and Guardian Weekend (18/19 Sept), print run 200,000 copies distributed across North and Scotland.

• Online advertising on Guardian Website and through Specific Media targeted geographical and behaviour profiling (20 Sept – end Nov)

• Press Advertising in Metro Newspaper w/c 20 Oct and 3 Nov

• Cinema (on screen, posters and postcards) at cinemas in Scotland and Yorkshire (13 Oct – end Nov)

• Radio (on air and online) with Real Radio in Scotland and Yorkshire

The second campaign that the NGI is running is a family campaign, with the title: 'Discover Days Out at the Coast'. The aim of this campaign is to “promote family days out across Tyne and Wear”. The activities undertaken for this campaign are much less clear, at least brochures, flyers, posters, micro site, press and online advertising and PR has been used for the campaign.

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Comparison

The comparison in activities between the two cities is striking. While Marketing Groningen undertakes all kinds of activities and publishes this in an annual report, in Newcastle the NGI it is not very clear what is undertaken and the campaigns that are known are described in a vague sense. The explanation for this difference is most likely the different structures of the organisations. Whereas Marketing Groningen needs to report back to the municipality what its activities are and is dependent on the appreciation of its activities for its funding, the NGI needs to report to its members that are themselves not very active in city marketing and are more focussed on direct commercial benefits that need to come from being a member. Because of this striking difference in offline activities it will be interesting to see if this difference exists in the same way in the online activities.

Online Activities

Groningen

When typing in 'Groningen tourist information' in Google, the first 'Local business' result is labelled 'VVV Stad Groningen', which links directly to the Marketing Groningen website. Once on the website, it provides information on what Groningen is (salience), an event highlight (imagery) and links directly to all the things to do and see in Groningen (performance). The homepage thus already ticks off three of the main brand building blocks (see pyramid). Aside from the local business results in Google, the first general result is also the Marketing Groningen homepage so it is highly unlikely that one ends up on the wrong website. Marketing Groningen moreover owns several URLs, the URL

www.tourism.groningen.nl leads to the website as does www.vvvgroningen.nl or

www.marketinggroningen.nl. When typing in www.groningen.nl you end up on the municipality website that has a clear and direct link on the homepage to the tourism website.

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Newcastle

One of the most important guidelines for building a brand online is to create a strong online brand identity (Keller, 2008), in this respect Groningen and Newcastle differ substantially. To be a strong online brand that can be found on the internet, the first thing that should be made clear is the brand name. For Newcastle here lies a problem; is it Newcastle, as is commonly used by most? Or is it Newcastle upon Tyne, the official name and the name that renders the right google search results? Or is it maybe NewcastleGateshead, the name of the NGI and the name that is used in the NGI's logo and on the website? Because the main city branding in the city is the NGI and the NGI uses

NewcastleGateshead as the brand name, that should be the answer to the brand name question. The next question that a visitor of the website would ask itself is why brand Gateshead and Newcastle as one? A tourist did not ask for Gateshead, nor does he want to go there. Although Gateshead has some valuable tourist attractions, like The Baltic museum and the Millennium Bridge, Gateshead, in contrast with Newcastle, has no (international) reputation for itself. The brand name plays a very important role in the establishment of a brand on the internet. The internet is crowded with information and a brand name gives a clue for the URL of the website and is a search key (Rowley, 2004).

In creating a strong brand identity, choosing the right URL is priority (Keller, 2008). A tourist that searches for information on a city needs to find information fast and needs to understand the

information provided. The URL of the NGI is www.newcastlegateshead.com. This seems like a clear enough URL, it is easy to find when one has already discovered the link between Newcastle and Gateshead. Most people however nowadays use Google to search for the website they need. When typing in Newcastle tourist information, the first result is a website of the City Council which stars an article on libraries. A tourist, or other visitor or new inhabitant, would have no idea why he should be on this website or what to find there. When browsing through it for a considerable amount of time he would a page with links to all kinds of websites, internal and external, with tourist information. On the bottom of this list is the link 'visit Newcastle Gateshead', which is also the first result in Google after having looked through the local business results. Visiting this website is a bit overwhelming. I can see that there are lots of events in Newcastle that make the city interesting but what kind of city is

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The website not only provides information for tourists, it also provided heaps of information on joining the NGI. Visiting the website feels more as a way for the NGI to internally brand itself to companies in the region that can become a member, than as a part of a branding campaign for tourists or other visitors or new inhabitants. The reason behind branding of the NGI on the website is most likely because the NGI is dependent on the membership fees of the companies in the region and its main task thus becomes not branding the city but branding the NGI. And in turn, branding the companies in the region instead of the city itself so that the members would benefit enough from it and stay a member. Searching for 'Newcastle upon Tyne, student and information' on Google leads me to the two

universities in the city, this is not surprising because the city does not have a campaign focussed on students, the universities websites are thus the most logical source for information. Searching for 'Newcastle upon Tyne, company, information' interestingly does lead to the NGI. However, this result is only brought about because of the Live Theatre Company that is mentioned on the website, the NGI website does not include information on existing companies or starting up a company in Newcastle. One could be fooled by the menu item that is labelled 'Corporate' but this

Comparison

In Groningen the online branding activities are organised well and the presence of Marketing

Public Policy Networks in City Branding; a Comparative Case Study