The Voice of Dwellers - Developin a place brand by listening to the residents

Abstract

<p>Purpose – Listening to the customers has long been a key phrase and success element in product branding.<br>This paper aims to highlight the importance of listening to residents during the branding of a place. The<br>study explores ways of listening to residents to ensure they are heard and also discusses the challenges and<br>benefits related to place branding flowing from having residents participate in decision-making processes.<br></p><p>Design/methodology/approach – Listening to residents and offering opportunities to participate requires<br>place branders to fully attend to, comprehend and respond to residents’ comments, requests, ideas and feedback. This study reports on how two Nordic cities – Turku and Helsinki – listen to their residents. The data used comprise face-to-face interviews, telephone and e-mail conversations and documentary material.<br></p><p>Findings – Residents should not be considered as one homogeneous target; participation options and channels should be adapted to the demographics and geographic issues of the different regions and resident groups.<br></p><p>Research limitations/implications – The role of residents and the importance of listening are crucial<br>features in the emerging concept of inclusive place branding (Kavaratzis et al., 2017); its future conceptual<br>development could benefit fromthe case examples at hand.<br></p><p>Practical implications – City authorities should listen to residents and provide them with opportunities<br>to actively contribute to decision-making. Other cities could learn from the examples introduced in the paper.<br></p><p>Originality/value – This paper documents two Nordic examples of cities putting into practice a policy of<br>listening to the residents, a previously neglected research area.<br></p><p>Keywords Stakeholders, Participation, Residents, Listening, City governance,<br>Inclusive place branding<br></p><p>Paper type Research paper<br></p>