Branding as a Public Governance Strategy: A Q Methodological Analysis of How Companies React to Place Branding Strategies

• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Vidar Stevens,Erik Hans Klijn,Rianne Warsen
• Date: 01 July 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13263

752

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 4, pp. 752–762. © 2020 The Authors.

Public Administration Review

published

by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The

American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13263.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

Branding as a Public Governance Strategy: A Q

Methodological Analysis of How Companies React to Place

Branding Strategies

Abstract: Public branding is a new governance strategy in the public sector. Local governments, for instance, use

brands to attract target groups to the city, such companies, tourists, or citizens. But how do target groups actually value

this governance strategy? This article zooms in on the purpose of branding, as perceived by companies as a target group

in a branding campaign. Q methodology is used to study the subjective viewpoints of 33 company owners in a neigh-

borhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that was branded as the Rotterdam Makers District. The analysis reveals that

company owners prefer a transparent branding process in which they are recognized as coproducers of the brand and

can add their story to the brand message that is conveyed to target audiences. These findings add to the resonating call

in the literature to make more use of governance theories in the field of branding.

Evidence for Practice

• Companies prefer branding as a public governance strategy as long as the brand manager is transparent about

the aims and setup of the branding campaign.

• Given the preferences of companies in this study, the legitimacy of a local government’s branding campaign

very likely increases if companies are recognized as brand coproducers.

• Public branding can be used as a vehicle to mobilize a community of companies as brand ambassadors.

• Companies will contribute to a branding campaign if doing so provides them with an added value (i.e.,

brand equity), instead of being only a public stakeholder.

Branding has rapidly emerged as an important

governance strategy in the public sector.

Politicians use branding, including brand

elements such as slogans, wordmarks, and logos,

to construct an identity that is attractive to voters.

Branding is also frequently used to promote public

organizations, policies, or services (Eshuis and

Klijn2012). Moreover, one of the most utilized

forms of public branding, “place branding,” is used by

local governments to boost certain areas for revenue

(Stevens2019). The branding of places has gained

quite some popularity among scholars. Lucarelli and

Berg’s(2011) meta-analysis identified 217 journal

articles dealing with place branding in the period

1988–2009. In recent years, new studies have been

conducted on the use and value of place branding

as public governance strategy (Braun, Eshuis, and

Klijn2014; Eshuis and Klijn2012; Zavattaro2018,

2020).

A general observation from the growing body of

literature is that very little empirical research has

been conducted so far on how the target groups

of a place branding campaign, as key stakeholders,

value a local government’s effort to brand a place

area (Stevens2019). This is striking as it means that

we have limited knowledge about the most effective

way for local governments to reach a certain target

audience and the way target audiences want to

be involved in a place branding campaign. Target

audiences can, for example, be a part of a branding

campaign by acting as passive brand receivers, as

brand ambassadors, or even as brand coproducers (Ind

and Schmidt2019; Zenker and Braun2017). Hence,

this article zooms in on the value of place branding

as a public governance strategy, as perceived by

stakeholders of a place branding campaign. In doing

so, this article aims to contribute both empirically and

theoretically to the public administration literature by

combining insights from the branding and governance

literatures.

Place Branding as Public Governance Strategy

Place branding refers to the development of brands

for geographic locations with the aim of triggering

positive associations about the area and distinguishing

a place from other places (Kavaratzis and

Kalandides2015; Stevens2019). For example, the city

of Amsterdam used the place brand “I Amsterdam” to

imbue the city with meanings such as “inclusion” and

Vidar StevensErik Hans Klijn

Rianne Warsen

Mulier Institute

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Rianne Warsen is assistant professor in

the Department of Public Administration

and Sociology, Erasmus University

Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her research

focuses on public-private partnerships,

performance, collaborative governance,

and the dynamics between contractual and

relational aspects in collaboration.

Email: warsen@essb.eur.nl

Erik Hans Klijn is professor of public

administration in the Department of Public

Administration and Sociology, Erasmus

University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

His research focuses on complex decision-

making in networks, network management,

public-private partnerships, branding, and

media influence on governance.

Email: klijn@essb.eur.nl

Vidar Stevens is a medior researcher

at the Mulier Institute in Utrecht, the

Netherlands. His research focuses on

collaborations, network governance, public

branding, and violence and integrity in

sports.

Email: v.stevens@mulierinstituut.nl

Symposium Article