Destination branding for small cities : the essentials for successful place branding

www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/ vendors, front line tourism employees, government, local media, lodging and hospitality executives, not-for-profi t groups, opinion leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, sports representatives, visitor attractions and services, and volunteers in visitor centres. Although such a list may appear dauntingly long, Baker is at pains to stress that without the buy-in of the above groups, any city branding campaign is likely to fail because the excluded groups will resent any city brand that is imposed from above without any prior consultation. On the other hand, Baker cautions against including too many individuals within what he terms the city ’ s ‘ Brand Advisory Group ’ (BAG). He recommends that the group should ideally comprise 8 – 12 representatives of a cross section of community and business organisations. He warns that ‘ the more people in the group, the higher the risk that too many unrelated issues may start to play a role ... this can slow things down, impair the sense of cooperation and objectivity that is needed, and dilute the brand itself ’ . In this regard, Baker expresses his incredulity at the relatively huge number of people – 120 – who were on the Image Gap Committee of the Pittsburgh Region Branding Initiative. ‘ We can only wonder where they all In this excellent book, consultant and author Bill Baker draws on over three decades ’ experience of place marketing to provide a succinct yet comprehensive guide to the challenging task of branding small cities. The book starts off by reviewing the nature of brands and branding in the fi rst three chapters, before focusing specifi cally upon the issue of small city branding in a very useful chapter titled, ‘ Prepare to Start: Mobilize the Forces ’ . In this chapter, Baker emphasises the importance of strong leadership by observing: ‘ We have found that the only way for the brand to take off is when the CEO “ gets it ” and has the passion, energy, skills and vision to make it work. If he or she takes a passive role, the brand will almost certainly fail ’ . In addition to strong, committed leadership, Baker identifi es the other key success factor in branding a small city as the need to develop a collaborative approach in which all key stakeholders are engaged. The list of potential participants in the process of branding a small city should, according to the author, include association executives, businesses, Chamber of Commerce members, Convention and Visitor Bureau members, community leaders, developers and investors, the city ’ s Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) staff and marketing Book Review