History Matters: The Path Dependency of Place Brands

Since the start of the new millennium we have seen a growing number of cities announcing a branding strategy. Branding is not just being adopted by the ‘usual suspects’ such as the global cities, the capitals and well-known tourist destinations, but also by smaller, specialized cities and so-called second cities.1 The latter are a very interesting group when it comes to place marketing and place branding. These cities are potentially more eager to embrace branding as they have to exert more effort to attract the attention of their desired target audiences. Some of these second cities struggling with an ‘image problem’ are tempted to rebrand themselves or to design a totally new place brand, aiming to start with a clean sheet. This chapter reviews the possibility of place rebranding and attempts to develop a completely new place brand from scratch. Is it really possible for cities to break with the past and to start all over again? The next section of this chapter is concerned with the concept of place branding and the ambiguity that is still associated with it. The third section discusses the possibility of rebranding or developing an entirely new place brand from scratch. The fourth section explores the proposition that place brands are path dependent by looking at the experience of Rotterdam. The final section summarizes the conclusions.