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The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the role of place branding, specifically at the regional scale, as an instrument for the attainment of strategic spatial planning goals. It also aims to contribute to the academic debate on place branding by discussing its relevance and effectiveness in supporting economic and social spatial realignment through civic participation and the shaping of clearly envisioned agreed futures.

Exploratory in nature, this paper’s theoretical exploration is developed by detailing relevant findings from a case study on the significance of a regional branding initiative, integrated in a wider planning strategy for northern Portugal (NUTS II). In conducting this exploratory research, primary data were gathered through 16 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key regional actors and organizations with a stake (and expertise) in the region.

Findings show the key strategic domains in which the region excels. These domains could fuel a potential regional branding initiative. However, the key regional actors interviewed agree that the diverse and fragmented regional assets and the socioeconomic scenario all require and yet hinder regional coordination efforts. In addition, territorial reorganization and the definition of a regional economic model, plus decentralization of decision-making and the establishment of leadership, are imperative for the effectiveness of a regional branding strategy aligned with the ongoing strategic spatial planning initiatives.

Managerial implications of integrating the opinions and perspectives of regional actors into a potential place-branding initiative as strategic spatial planning instrument include improving socio-spatial and spatial-economic condition of the region and envisioning shared futures.

By guiding the thoughts of scholars, practitioners and policymakers towards a strategic spatial planning approach to place branding, the paper contributes to the advancement and maturation of the place-branding field, by lending a more strategic approach and geographical/spatial consciousness to the process of place branding. The paper also sheds light on the challenges and complexity of branding regions, a scale of analysis seldom explored in place-branding literature.

The purpose of this paper is to study ways, which regional administrations affect place branding effectiveness.

The study was conducted based on qualitative analysis. In total, 10 place branding cases of federal subjects of Russia were considered to estimate short-, mid- and long-term effects of place brands and quality of regional administrations’ place branding process management. The information on these cases was taken and systematized from three groups of sources, namely, official information from regional administrations (including regulatory acts); scientific publications focused on the brands of selected regions; data from federal and regional news agencies.

It is revealed that the quality of place branding processes is positively related to the presence and power of place branding effects, while the branding budget has no observable impact on place branding. The areas of attention for regional administrations intending to develop the place brand are defined.

The limitation of this study is that the chosen approach is based on secondary data on brand-management practices that are publicly available. This information is mostly fragmentary and may not provide a complete view of place branding practices.

This paper provides a view on place branding success factors from the standpoint of the quality of branding process, rather than quality of the brand itself. The role of regional administrations in this process is studied, thus proposing a basis for integrating place branding in a public administration field.

As Australia embarks on the new millennium, marketers must understand the basis of consumer choice, both domestically and internationally. Generally, brands are becoming globalised (Boze and Patton, 1995), but the wine industry provides an interesting example of global branding in the context of a plethora of brand names. In Australia alone, over one thousand wine companies produce over 16,000 wine brands (Spawton, 1998). This array of wine product creates a complex marketplace, which causes consumers great difficulty when making a purchase decision (Greatorex and Mitchell, 1988). To combat this problem, wine companies have been using branding as a means of differentiating their product (Lockshin, 1997). The introduction of geographical indicators (registered names for specific regions of origin) has spurred on the use of regional branding as a branding tool. This research is being conducted to clarify the effect of regional branding on consumer choice behaviour. The results from the qualitative research stage highlighted the fact that a small number of consumers used regional branding as a cue in their choice decision. These consumers generally had higher perceived knowledge of wine, greatly enjoyed purchasing wine and spent a longer time in the wine retail outlet than other consumer groups. A quantitative study will now be conducted to clarify which consumer groups use regional branding as part of the choice process and to determine the importance of a company's brand and price used in consumers' choice process. As wine is not the only product branded by its region of origin, this research will be beneficial to other product categories such as cheese, seafood and olive oil (Belk King, 1997).

This study aims to analyze Asian branding strategies at the regional level, and provide a map of opportunities and challenges for Asian regional branding.

The study takes, a multi‐sited interpretive approach and interview 22 brand managers throughout the Asian region. The length of interviews was approximately 1.5 hours/respondent. In‐depth case studies of two prominent pan‐Asian brands, Tiger Beer and Zuji, were also conducted. An interpretive analysis to this data set was applied and five themes were developed.

The two major challenges for regional Asian branding are negative country of origin perceptions and regional positioning being inherently fragile. Despite these key challenges, our respondents saw clear opportunities for regional branding initiatives. Brands can achieve a regional positioning by focusing on Asian modernity rather than on common cultural heritage. They can also capitalize on newfound Asian pride and confidence, and finally they can use a Western stamp of approval to signal to Asians the viability of the brand.

The paper extends previous work on the globalization of marketing activities by advancing the region as an important unit of analysis. It helps understand the development of brands in a part of the world that is becoming more important at the economic and political level. The study shows how marketers are shaping culture in the Asian context. Finally, the paper contributes a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with a regional positioning and the development of regional branding strategies.

The contribution of the present research and aim of the present paper is a provision and discussion of eclectic interdisciplinary concepts constituting a body of knowledge for developing and managing inter‐regional brands, hence contributing to closing the scientific gap as to an inter‐regional brand development conceptualisation.

The research method used was a case study, targeted to develop an understanding of a neglected academic field. Based on a documentary analysis, semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted and interpreted. The InterReg IIIB‐supported RegioMarket project and a case study on Liechtenstein provide the background for the project.

Based on an extensive literature review, the present paper states that interdisciplinary theoretical development of the concept of branding has not kept pace with the increasing practical application of the branding concepts in a variety of sectors leading to application gaps and dissatisfying results. Representing the ultimate level of complexity, the development and management of inter‐regional brands crossing nations and cultures currently lacks any empirically researched systematic theory. Following the exploratory stage, an initial conceptualisation is presented to bridge the scientific gap as to the development of inter‐regional brands.

The major limitation of the research is that it focuses on only one participating region. Hence, the initial conceptualisation needs to be validated in other participating regions. A further limitation refers to a lack of research on the specific influence of SMEs on the success of the development of inter‐regional brands.

The discussion interlinks the interdisciplinary concepts of branding, perception, region, leadership, culture and identity and provides an initial conceptualisation so far not identified in the field of inter‐regional branding.

The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) models affect place branding (PB) performance in Saudi Arabia.

In hierarchical administrative systems, central governments exert control on PB, influencing its effectiveness. While PB as such is widely studied, the effect of MLG on PB performance in centralized administrative systems remains understudied. The study is approached as a multiple case study of nine cities.

The study reveals that different MLG models indeed affect PB performance differently. Direct access to central leadership and resources boosts branding performance, while privatization promotes flexibility with similarly positive effects. Study findings, furthermore, show that some cities are considered too big to fail. Cities such as Riyadh and Neom are of prime importance and receive plenty of resources and leadership attention, while others are considered peripheral, are under-resourced and branding performance suffers accordingly. Emerging differences in PB performance associated with different MLG models are thus likely to deepen the gap between urban economic winners and losers.

This paper introduces five MLG models based on the actors involved in PB, their interactions and their access to resources. For each model, this paper assesses other factors which may influence the effectiveness of PB as well, such as access to the national leadership and staff capacity. This research thereby adds to the literature by identifying specific factors within MLG models influencing PB performance in hierarchical administrative systems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transition of a place brand identity from a cultural anthropological perspective. More specifically, the paper analyses the ritual features and magical qualities of the development process of a regional brand in Scandinavia.

The study consists of an exploratory, longitudinal single case study of regional branding. An abductive research design was used in which the data, consisting of qualitative interviews, policy and promotional documents, were analysed with an interpretive approach.

Three place branding rituals of re-naming, managing ambiguity and instilling faith are identified as central in the transition process. These practices generate different forms of magic that facilitate transition and accommodate change.

The study suggests that the theoretical lens of the anthropological concept of the rite of passage is useful to capture the mechanisms and practices of the transition from an old to a new place brand identity.

The approach outlined in this paper is relevant for brand development and planning in that it demonstrates the ritual features and magical qualities of branding. In contrast to the linear step-by-step approach to brand planning, the study visualises brand development as overlapping phases in a process.

The study demonstrates the value of anthropological insights into transition rituals for understanding how change is alleviated in the development of place brands.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different levels of place‐based marketing in the form of region of origin strategies used by wineries in their branding efforts. The overall aim is to obtain insights into wine consumer dynamics such as product involvement level, consumption frequency and differences between segments on the basis of gender and age from a regional branding perspective.

Data collection took place by means of a highly‐structured online survey of wine consumers across the USA. The request to participate was directed to legal wine drinking age people of 21 years and older to 9,922 e‐mail boxes that yielded a response rate of 5.7 percent, finally resulting in 570 usable surveys.

Consumers used regional branding cues, information and images in their assessment and valuation of comparative wine labels. Almost without exception, the addition of regional information on a wine label increased consumer confidence in the quality of the product.

Any follow‐on work to the study should also include a broader sampling of consumer types throughout the USA and comparisons made with the study to assess the validity of generalising the results here.

Regional branding efforts should be targeted at high wine product involvement consumers rather than their low involvement counterparts, as high involvement consumers are likely to be more influenced by brand‐based cues.

The paper is of value to academic readers, wine industry practitioners and regional trade and tourism associations and other commercial entities that market their products with regional branding cues.

Since early 2000s, several efforts have been initiated to market the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) globally, and the BaltMet Promo project is among them. Simultaneously, several other cases of supra‐national branding have emerged, e.g. the Greater Mekong region, Danube region, and Visegrad countries. Little attention has yet been paid in the literature to branding of supra‐national entities. The purpose of this paper is to discuss branding of BSR using the examples of supra‐national product building of the BaltMet Promo project (2010‐2011).

Branding BSR has faced criticism against its supra‐national perspective which may be seen as a direct competitor to city or nation branding. To shift from competition to cooperation BaltMet Promo acknowledged a bottom‐up approach and nine organisations from six countries created supra‐national products to promote tourism, talent attraction, and investments. Each product concept was built on intensive background research and transnational triple‐helix cooperation.

The case of BaltMet Promo shows that supra‐national branding benefits from a bottom‐up approach that uses concrete products and services as the core of the brand identity. To shift from competition to cooperation the partnership promoted BSR as a common region with a common work plan. Different scales of branding serve different markets. The more distant the market, such as Japan in the case of BaltMet Promo, the more cost effective supra‐regional branding becomes compared to more narrow scales of branding.

The paper introduces recent developments in supra‐national branding using data of the BaltMet Promo project. The analysis aims to contribute to product building, triple helix stakeholder cooperation, and policy making.

While international and even national brand owners may be more concerned with tailoring their brands for local markets, local and regional brand owners are still keen to expand to national level. Examines the elements of the decision‐making process for brand owners expanding beyond their home region, and compares this process with the internationalisation of national brands. Case study research in five companies from the UK food and drink sector provides examples, and a checklist for decision making is proposed.