Branding Brings a Place to Life

8/12/2019 Branding Brings a Place to Life

1/3

4 0 Planning in London

BR NDING | SICCO V N GELDER ND HUGH ROBERTS

B randing brings a place

to lifeB randing theory and practice has a direct and powerful bearing on the work of urbanand economic planners and urban designers , s ay Sicco van Gelder and Hugh Ro b e rt s

Sicco van Gelder ( t o p ) i s

founder of Placebrands

Ltd and Hugh Roberts is

a director of Colin

Buchanan & Partners

Illustrations:

Right and overpage Overhoeks development inAmsterdamOpposite Canary Wharfframed by the Thamesbarrier.

w w w . p l a c e b r a n d s . n e t

I n c r e a s i n g l y cities compete withother places for attention,investment, visitors, shoppers, talent,events, and the like. Accelerated andintensified globalisation has lead to asituation where the maincompetition is no longer the citydown the road or the town across the

bay, but where competitors areplaces half a world away. And thisglobal competition is no longerlimited to the big cities that competefor the HQs of multinationalcorporations and UN bodies, or forlarge sports events.

Thanks to technological advancesand market deregulation, evensmaller places can suddenly beconfronted with competitors locatedon another continent. Entire townsin Italy have lost their raison dtreas their furniture making industry

clusters have been wiped out byChinese competitors making the

same products at much lower costs.Alicante in Spain struggles tocompete with equally sunny beachdestinations ranging from Antalya inTurkey to Pattaya in Thailand.Bordeaux and its region face stiffcompetition from Chile, SouthAustralia and the South African Cape

Region for its primacy in premiumwinemaking.

Traditional car manufacturing inthe West Midlands, Detroit,Stuttgart and Nagoya feel the heatfrom Bratislava and Shanghai.Meanwhile London competes as aglobal financial centre with NewYork and Hong Kong, and at aregional level with Frankfurt andP a r i s .

Promise of valueHow does a city cope with this

new multitude of contenders?Competing on tax breaks, tax credits,

free land, soft loans and other finan-cial incentives to attract investorsand to shore up local industries isclearly a race to the bottom -ultimately one that is impossible tosustain. Advertising on CNN andsending trade missions into theworld to flog the existing offer of the

city is equally ineffective in the longterm and a waste of precious finan-cial resources. Shoring up the cityscurrent offer with some newcommercial, industrial or culturaldevelopment is not likely to turn thetide either.

What is needed is a frank rethinkabout what the city offers. What canbe created that is so valuable aboutthe city that its businesses, institu-tions and residents want to remain,that will attract investors, visitorsand talent, and that will make

commentators and influencersrecommend it as the place to live, do


2/3

4 1Issue 63 October-December2 0 0 7


business or visit as the new vibrantcentre with a clear sense of its futureas well as its past and present?

Your citys brand is the promiseof that value. City branding is aboutdeliberately creating, developing anddemonstrating that value throughappropriate on-brand actions,

which consist of investments, physi-cal and economic plans, attractionprogrammes, events, communica-tions, and the like.

City branding is not somethingthat is the sole preserve of localgovernment or any of its depart-ments or agencies. It is a sharedresponsibility and practice of thecitys main stakeholders who includeits residents, its businesses large andsmall, and all too often forgotten,those who are frequent visitors andhave a good sense of how the place

is perceived. What is more powerfulthan having the citys stakeholdersjointly define and realise the brandof their city, using their own particu-lar strengths to ensure the worldreceives a compelling, joined-up andconsistent message about the city?

S t a k e h o l d e r sFor city branding to be successful,

it is necessary for its key stakeholderorganisations to come together inpartnership. This is not your usualpublic-private partnership or a

committee of wise men and women.This is a formal or informal body

but one with clearly stated terms ofreference and a programme withdeadlines and deliverables, in whichthe key stakeholders jointly develop,create and lead on the implementa-tion of the brand of the city, undershared responsibility. Creating such apartnership is the first step in chang-ing the way the city operates,because it simultaneously crossesdivides such as those between townand gown, government and business,

arts, leisure and sports, commerceand culture, and the public, private

and voluntary sectors.The partnership should be one of

equals between those stakeholdersthat can realise the brand of the citythrough their actions, investments,decisions and communications.

During the city brand strategydevelopment process, the members

of the brand partnership need tounderstand and reconcile differingpolicies and strategies; decide onwhat the future of their city will looklike; what it will offer of value toconsumers; how that will be experi-enced; and what it is they can jointlydo to make that future a reality.

This requires willingness to cometogether and work through thesechallenges even when that may bedifficult through conflicts of interest,different opinions, differingtimescales and sometimes even

personal dislikes.All in one common cause: to

make the city better able tocompete for the things that willmake it a better place, a moresustainable and competitive placewith a renewed sense of purpose forwhere it is going and how it isgetting there.

City branding and planningIn an ideal world, a citys brand

strategy is developed before anypens are put to paper for master-

planning, economic planning, urbanand spatial design and architecture,and landscapes design purposesalike. The reason for this is simple;once you know what your placesagreed promise of value is theseactivities form part of what willdemonstrate the brand in action.

The brand becomes your decisionmaking tool to determine whether acertain plan, design or activity is onbrand (i.e. in line with and reinforc-ing the brand) or off brand (i.e.counterproductive or even harmful

to the brand). For example, if a placeis to be known for being creative and

elegant, this needs to be reflected in

all its planning and subsequentimplementation.

This may entail thinking aboutinnovative forms of access, the useof public spaces for performing arts,inventive forms of architecture,attraction programmes for specificcreative individuals, businesses andinstitutions, graceful landscapedesign and attract amenities thatoffer elegant and creative productsand services. And the same goes forplaces that wish to be known forbeing functional or historic, or lively,

or tranquil, or cutting edge!Using the brand of a place to

think and decide about planningissues makes planners work mucheasier, as they are then able to workfrom a shared and commonviewpoint of what the place is tobecome and what it has to offer. Inour practice we often experience thedifference between plans anddesigns that are guided by a placesbrand strategy and those that arenot.

The former are usually well

received and reflective of the sharedviews of clients, while the latter

often lead to (lengthy) discussions,

alterations and frustration all round.This is not the fault of the plannersand architects, but of their clientswho have not thought through whatthey want the place to become andhow it relates to its surroundingsphysically, socially and economically.

The relevance to LondonLondon has recently started the

enormous task of redeveloping muchof its eastern segment either side ofthe Thames, the so-called ThamesGateway. One key starting point of

this development is the OlympicArea north of Stratford City, but theGateway stretches all the way toSouthend on the north bank andMedway to the south of the Estuary.

Large parts of this huge stretch ofriverside are currently either severelydegraded, economically run-down,underdeveloped or natural areas inneed of protection against potentialredevelopment at the cost of theenvironment.

The Gateways development isinfluenced by a bewildering array of

London Boroughs, Districts andUnitary Authorities, not to mention


3/3

4 2 Planning in London


several Regional, Olympic and theThames Gateway DevelopmentAgencies, the Thames GatewayLondon, Kent and South EssexPartnerships and the Department ofCommunities and LocalG o v e r n m e n t .

Jud ith Armitt , CE of the

Government's Thames GatewayDirectorate, talks of the four"economic heartbeats" of theGateway, namely Canary Wharf, theOlympics and Stratford Town Centredevelopments, the soon to beopened high speed rail link tomainland Europe and its benefits forEbbsfleet and the recent commit-ment to develop Shellhaven as amuch enlarged port complex. Theseare investment initiatives which anysub region would gladly have in theirbackyard, but even they do not alone

point to a common strategy withwhich to brand and identify the area.

There is much more at stake herethan pulling off a successfulOlympics, fast communications orinvestment in commercial or indus-trial land uses - though these will bea good start! The future of Londoninvolves the full range of its stake-holders to come together anddevelop a brand for the Gatewaywhich will guide all of its develop-ment and provide it with sustainablecompetitive advantage. Unless this

happens, the sub region will remaindevoid of certain types of inwardinvestment, in particular in the formof new and creative businesses,educational and cultural institutionsand the types of new residents whocan at once bring fresh individualityto the area and contribute spendingpower to its recovery as a vibrantsocial and economic entity.

The challenge of developing theThames Gateway is to create abrand for it that is at once reflectiveof the diversity of the places being

created within the area but alsoreflect their totality from regional,

national and international perspec-tives.

The brand of the Gateway mustdrive what mix of functions arecreated and encouraged in the area;what activities, investments andamenities are attracted to theseplaces; how they are connected to

the rest of the city; and how they aremanaged in order to remain compet-itive in future.

The onus, therefore, is on theGateways stakeholders to cometogether in true partnership asdistinct to ones merely written onpaper, and decide what its future willbe like and then to distil from that itspersuasive promise of value. Thiscannot solely be a governmentundertaking and the key stakehold-ers to be involved in the partnershipmust be drawn from the Gateways

private and civic sectors too.Once they have developed their

brand and know how they wish tosee it implemented, planners can getto grips with what this means for thespatial, economic and social relation-ships in the Gateway.

We firmly believe that brandingtheory and practice (originally apurely commercial activity) hasdirect and powerful bearing on thework of urban and economicplanners and urban designers or thePlace Shapers to use the latest term

favoured by Government. Whentheir clients have made up theirminds about the brand of a place, itbecomes much easier to developfitting plans and designs that willhelp to bring the brand of the placealive and to deliver on its promise ofv a l u e .

Documents

Branding Brings a Place to Life