برندینگ شهر در پایتخت های اروپایی: تجزیه و تحلیل از دیدگاه بازدید کننده City branding in European capitals: An analysis from the visitor perspective

1. Introduction Most European cities are undertaking marketing efforts to increase their visitor arrivals while distinguishing themselves from other cities and destinations (Ashton, 2014; McManus & Connell, 2014). These circumstances have prompted cities increasingly to use promotions within the destinations themselves at events and fairs to generate interest in creating a brand image to bring distinctive value to the city with respect to rival destinations (Page, Stone, Bryson, & Crosby, 2015). Although the promotion of cities dates back to the 19th century, the emergence of concepts such as place marketing, place branding, and city branding is relatively new in the academic world (Zenker & Beckmann, 2013). A literature review on city branding reveals that brand equity is a fairly well-studied topic from the perspective of brand-related marketing, defined as a name or symbol that adds value to or subtracts value from a product, service, or firm (Aaker, 1991; Lei & Chu, 2015). However, most of these studies have focused on the definition, and they have presented different proposals for measuring brand equity (Lucarelli, 2012; Zenker, 2011). Therefore, identifying and measuring a city’s main features are crucial for firms in the sector and for the managing bodies of cities (Hankinson, 2007). Some studies have developed brand equity research for tourist destinations as a multidimensional construct that includes brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived value, brand image, and perceived quality (Bianchi, Pike, & Lings, 2014; Fatemed & Badaruddin, 2015; Kladou, Giannopoulos, & Mavragani, 2015), but a few studies focus on the backgrounds and consequences of brand equity in the city context. In this regard, attitudes toward brand and brand image are considered important antecedents that provide brands with value (Keller, 1993). Moreover, brand preference is defined as a consequence of brand equity that represents the client’s choice (Hellier, Geursen, Carr, & Richard, 2003). Having determined the relevance of conducting research on the antecedents and consequences of the brand equity of cities, the next step is to define an approach. In this case, studies that approach the analysis of brand equity from the demand perspective have been reviewed (Bianchi et al., 2014; Callarisa, Sánchez, Cardiff, & Roshchina, 2012; Fatemed & Badaruddin, 2015). Therefore, to conduct this research, the visitor perspective was considered relevant. The city selection was based on the relevance of tourism and the number of visitors to European countries and cities. In particular, it was decided to focus the study on European capitals, especially in the five capitals most relevant for the tourism sector based on the number of overnight stays (Wöber, 2014). There have not, however, been many studies comparing the brands of different European capitals, although some authors have reported a variety of expectations among visitors.