Accentuating the Positive: City Branding, Narrative and Practice

This commentary on the contribution made by Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005) examines the antecedents to which it responded, the key ideas that it offered at the time of publication, and assesses its lasting impact. There are three main sections. The first reflects upon the informal and improvised approaches that characterised place promotion, marketing and branding in the final decades of the twentieth century. The second surveys Kavaratzis and Ashworth’s critical reflections on the existing theory and practice of city branding. The third section discusses their role in contributing a benchmark in scholarly discourse that reflected convergences with management science and policy relevance, but recognises that it was implicated in a broader meta‐narrative shaped by neoliberalist approaches and values.