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Competitiveness and contemporary changes in our society and modern technologies force countries to apply the innovative processes in their managerial and marketing activities. Cities as the places of life of human beings and their coexistence with modern technologies could benefit from the implementation of place marketing and branding strategies and from the accepting of new approach to their consumers, predominantly citizens, but also local and international businesses and visitors. This process should be governed by the active and effective co-operation of public authorities, which means a symbiosis of multilateral parties aiming at one goal – a successful and satisfied city users and a destination with modern and effective leadership. For this reason, not only a concept of the effective co-operation is crucial, but also a concept of modern technologies application, for instance a model of smart city or the co-creation principles applied in the fulfilment of service provision to citizens. In order to succeed in competitiveness, it is important to support in destinations the application of the innovative development and sound managerial strategies. This chapter explored a strategy applied in city marketing of one city in Slovakia, Banska Bystrica. The methods of comparison and benchmarking to propose the innovative approach to marketing have been applied. In primary and secondary researches, mixed methods have been used, a combination of quantitative methods (demand side perspective) and the application of the importance–performance analysis and qualitative methods (interviews with the representatives of municipalities, private sector and non-governmental sector representatives, e.g., supply side perspective).

Introduction – Today, just like the goods and services, cities may provide a context for marketing activities. In this way, through the right marketing strategies and activities, cities can turn into brands, as well. Starting from this fact, it can be readily thought that cities can also be experienced as well as goods and/or services and some behaviours such as satisfaction and positive word of mouth can emerge, as a result of the experience.

Purpose – In this sense, the authors attempted to examine the interplay between experience, satisfaction and positive word of mouth within the context of city marketing.

Methodology – The authors designed the study as a causal research. The sample of the study was reached through convenience sampling method. Data were collected via survey method. The data compiled for the study were analysed with Model 4 in Hayes Macro Process Models.

Findings – The findings of the study displayed an interaction between experience, satisfaction and positive word of mouth regarding a city. Additionally, it presented the mediator role of satisfaction on the relationship between experience and positive word of mouth. In this respect, it is thought that by emphasising the importance of experience regarding the city and showing the importance of measuring satisfaction level of visitors, the findings of the study are expected to contribute to the activities of local governments which want to promote their cities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine urban destination marketing from a mainly practitioner standpoint, though one of its principal observations is the gap between theory and practice; while the former is premised on related notions of difference and competitive advantage, in practice the greater part of urban destination marketing eschews competitive advantage, resulting in a pervasive marketing of “sameness”.

The paper is in three parts. The first set out the urban tourism context in respect of historical, market, supply, impact and definitional/measurement dimensions. Part two profiles the bespoke delivery mechanisms established for urban destination marketing, examining nomenclature, core purpose/mission, status, size and finances, as well as overhead and operating parameters.

The final section comprises a state-of-the-art review, setting out a five variable model of purposeful urban destination marketing, concluding that “good” in urban destination marketing is atypical and currently in Europe is confined to only a handful of European cities.

This paper is intended to give the reader a better understanding of why, in such an important field of human endeavour, success is so problematic. It hopefully gives pointers to practitioners and academics as to how best in future there can be more winners and fewer losers, so that increasing numbers of towns and cities maximise the impact locally of the world's largest industry and at the same time become “known”.

This article seeks to explore the usefulness of city marketing as a method to attract new residents and firms from a geographical perspective.

To answer the research question, the paper reviews relevant theoretical concepts, empirical data on migration flows and Dutch case examples.

A geographical approach towards city marketing makes clear that residents and firms show spatial self‐preference and do not easily move. This insight questions the usefulness of cold city marketing aimed at attracting newcomers.

The article is largely based on Dutch migration data and cases. More detailed research on other countries is needed to be able to generalize.

Local authorities should shift their focus from cold to warm city marketing: they should invest in existing residents and firms rather than in newcomers. To operationalise this approach, the literature on relationship marketing might be helpful.

City marketing is mostly aimed at attracting new investors, residents or visitors. This geography‐based paper sheds a new light on the topic and provides empirical support to take into account a city's existing population in city marketing.

The present chapter aims to assess how digital transformation impacts current trends in city branding, to analyze the role of digital communication in the branding of selected cities, and to compare the level of exploitation of digital communication for city branding between European and Slovak cities. We conducted empirical research in several phases, and the overall sample consists of 155 cities in Europe and Slovakia. The results of our research showed that European and Slovak cities use to some extent all the investigated tools of digital marketing communication in city branding with a dominant position of social media, both in terms of exploitation and importance for city branding in European and Slovak cities. European cities score significantly better than Slovak cities in all elements of the City Brand Hexagon, as well as in the overall city brand index. Therefore, city branding strategies in the best European cities can serve as a good practice example or inspiration for Slovak cities. Cities with lower rankings and scores on city branding should focus on strengthening their city branding or strengthening their digital communication. The possible trajectory is also the concerted strategy for the branding of the city and its digital communication.

Smart cities and their internationalization process and efforts in order to gain the competitive advantage in the international arena have received a great deal of attention by marketing scholars and practitioners alike. Yet, the growing number of studies focused on this topic has led to considerable fragmentation and theoretical confusion.

To move the domain forward, this study applies the systematic review methodology and reviews 41 peer-reviewed articles published in highly esteemed publication outlets.

Building on the antecedents–phenomenon–consequences framework, the authors discuss the antecedents and consequences of the various innovative marketing strategies that smart cities adopt for their internationalization and development of an international competitive advantage. In the process of doing so, the authors synthesize the findings of the studies as well as literature gaps that provide fruitful avenues for future research.

This article offers a systematic review of extant marketing research on smart cities and their efforts to internationalize. In particular, this study advances the conceptual development of smart city internationalization and innovation by a marketing lens, provides an integrative, international-oriented framework that maps the extant literature across disciplines and countries, expands the boundaries of this research domain into new research paths and offers implications for policy and practice.

This chapter explores the concept of branding in a contemporary competitive arena of places. The multi-dimensional interpretations of places offer a variety of possibilities to better understand the true essence of destination branding. One of the common interpretations of places is through the study of their images, as destination branding requires a thorough understanding of destination image. The important foundation and relation of destination image are specified and explained. The notion of destination branding has evolved from the fields of marketing and urban studies and has become a cross-disciplinary research area. Thus, the researchers explain that destination branding as well as ‘place branding’ are dynamic concepts that are being continuously being explored in academia for the benefit of practitioners in travel and tourism. This chapter suggests that the use of brand equity is also one of the frontier areas of study in ‘place branding’ as it emphasises the need to thematise destinations (e.g. for their historical heritage, cultural value, natural attractions, etc.) and places for residence (e.g. as green cities, creative cities, smart cities, etc.).

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that serves as: a potential how‐to guide for place managers; an evolution of place branding strategy; a cautionary tale about place brands developed without stakeholder involvement; and a way to open up the theory space to arrive at a potentially ideal marketing mix. The framework reveals consequences of relying on imagery with little connection to the place's reality. Place brands developed without these characteristics could lead to auto‐communication, which could affect the organization‐public relationship by stunting genuine organization learning and simulating meaningful two‐way dialogue.

A conceptual framework was developed using Qualitative Media Analysis to explore several constructs – market‐based models of governance, public relations models, Baudrillard's phases of the image, and six promotional tactics cities are used to promote the place.

Based on the concepts employed, it is argued that cities need to be cognizant of after effects of place brands, as the organization‐public relationship might be fractured.

A limitation might come from theories selected, but implications for place branding academics and practitioners are potentially great. Further research questions are presented.

Practitioners could use the piece as a how‐to guide when developing a place marketing strategy, as well as become cognizant of when auto‐communication could take place based on the communications strategies employed.

The paper develops a workable tool for place marketers while bringing attention to an area not often explored, be it theoretically and empirically, which is the after effects of place marketing.

A critical concern for corporations test marketing new products involves test market city evaluation. In order for test marketing to be successful, corporations must identify cities that offer a good fit with the firm’s overall product strategy. Unfortunately, little has been written to aid corporations in making complex test city selection decisions. Presents a model that combines the concepts of marketing, the management science technique of goal programming, and microcomputer technology to provide managers with a more effective and efficient method for evaluating test cities and making selection decisions. Extends the existing literature on test market evaluation by applying a computer optimization model to test market evaluation in a way that has not been done before.