City marketing in the context of economic restructuring in Manchester

Abstract

Even though urban marketing is quite a new concept it has often been used for city or even national developments in the past (Kavaratzis, Ashworth 2005). The decline of manufacturing around the early 1980s sprouted new economic activities and changed the approach to urban planning and development. As a consequence, the territorial characteristics of settlements gained in importance and became the engines of growth in a competitive market. Thus, city marketing gained higher importance and especially nowadays plays an important role in the process of urban planning and management.

However, what does this look like in practice? The former industrial cities serve as good examples regarding urban marketing. Great efforts are made to cope with the decline of traditional industries by attracting inward investments (Paddison 1992) and developing the tourism industry. One of the best known examples is Manchester, one of the largest cities in the United Kingdom.

The aim of the study is therefore to understand the role of place marketing in the regeneration of a former industrial city such as Manchester. The study briefly introduces the theoretical background of city marketing and branding, elaborating its role in urban development. The research is about Manchester but concentrating on the city’s regional scale, i.e. on Greater Manchester. The objectives of the research are to understand the concept of place marketing and its significance in the re-development of former industrial cities, to explore the role of place marketing within the city region and examine the perceptions as well as the marketing tools and the means applied throughout the place marketing process.

The study aims to understand the significance and contribution of place marketing to the regeneration of a city region and, in the end, to formulate a series of recommendations which could facilitate greater integration of benefits resulting from place marketing into the local planning practice within the boroughs. In order to mine rich sources of information from experts with place marketing experience, elite interviewing was used involving decision makers, policy makers and marketing experts working in the fields of urban management and city marketing. Overall, the findings show that presenting a city on a regional scale makes it difficult to create a true and strong brand. As a result, city marketing and urban development remain fragmented. The conclusions show, however, that place marketing and branding play a significant role in the contemporary urban regeneration nevertheless. But the promotion attempts need to be coherent and part of a model which works as a machine in the regeneration of the city region as a whole.