theme
Regardless of the lack of due attention paid to branding in cities, it has tried to establish a real foothold among cities and today city managers have accepted the matter as an undeniable reality that a city, besides the utilities, infrastructure, social welfare etc., needs a brand. City branding is a complex issue that deals with marketing, politics and diplomacy as well as culture, history, economics and tourism. When speaking of brand we don’t mean the brand logo or advertising message, but we mean the image of a product, a person, and a city in the minds of the audience. The main objective of brands was to create a logical and sustainable connection between brand elements which can be a product, a city, a person and a way of thinking on one hand and the audience who can be called a consumer, citizen, tourist, etc. on the other hand. If we believe that cities will need prosperity to continue their lives, we certainly find that prosperity has a secret and it is palatability, desirability, and appropriateness; the more desirable, the more prosperous. With the help of the growing thought of branding, each city can adjust itself so that it has greater compliance to attract interest and resources for development and progress in competition with other cities. Urban Marketing has a slogan and a main goal i.e. design and implementation; and urban management is based on citizen orientation and citizen satisfaction. The science sees tourism as an opportunity for the city and it believes that economic dynamism will not happen unless a city is connected to sources other than their native sources. Scholars have likened brands of a place to DNAs (what builds a city and makes it distinct from other places). City brands are specialized in linking places with people and act in a way that the city, with all its vastness, gets so close to a human being that wins its heart and mind. Then the city becomes a part of humans and when getting away from the city, people feel mental anguish. Then the competition between cities starts and thereby the branded city will win the material, spiritual and social capitals. The branded city will become 15 stronger and show its strength in increased prosperity and quality of life for its residents and the story continues. There are many cities and nations that have established a reputation in various fields in the world in these days. For example, The Hague is famous for peace and justice or France is famous for art or Rome is famous for history or New York is famous for the global economy. It is difficult for a city to obtain such a level but not impossible. What is important is that planners and managers identify the capabilities of a city and raise them to achieve perfection and turn into a reputation for that city
