Trying to sell an idea of a place or taking the first step and creating its reputation. This is the main difference between Place Marketing and Place Branding, according to Ares Kalandides. The Greek urban planner, Director of the Institute of Place Management and President of Inpolis Berlin, is co-initiator of the City Innovation Lab, the knowledge platform by the Graduate Schools of Università Cattolica, directed by Federica Olivares, international publisher and professor in Cultural Design. We met him at the seminar on Place Branding organized by the Graduate Schools.

«Place Branding - says Kalandides - is an important instrument in local development, but neither the first nor the most important one. Territorial development needs above all a coordinated policy with a possibly strong agreement with a broad population. What Place Branding teaches us is that every single development measure creates associations in people's minds, which is common sense for everybody working in communications. But considering these associations and using them strategically to improve a place's reputation and image, that is what Place Branding does. In other words, Place Branding is a strategic instrument that accompanies, but does not substitute serious planning». 

Talking about development and innovation strategies, Place Branding can support cities, public and private authorities in their goals of competitiveness and social growth. Place Branding is the strategic plan to improve the image and reputation of a territory. In that sense it always includes a vast array of elements that communicate an image, in particular physical elements, such as buildings or landscapes and human relations such as everyday practices or habits. One very important element is culture in all its different facets, as a representation of the world we live in. Culture also has the particular feature that it "travels well", it can reach very different people in many different places. Countries with a rich cultural production (historic and contemporary) such as Italy have a particularly good starting position. 

What about the engagement of territorial marketing, tourism and cultural policies in the creation of a new value in the eyes of citizens, investors, and tourists? Place Marketing uses classical marketing techniques to create positive associations in people's minds and is thus an instrument of Place Branding. Tourists are the typical case of a group that is attracted by place images and mental associations and thus one of the major target groups of place marketing. Place Branding is more generic than that and does not necessarily act in the market: for example the way that inhabitants behave in their own space has a lot to do with the way they perceive it. It is more likely that inhabitants will not love their place if it has a bad reputation and Place Branding can influence that. Finally, we know that investors are influenced in their decisions both by very material, quantitative issues (in particular costs and labour force) but also by the reputation of places. Thus, Place Branding can have an effect, though probably secondary, in the attraction of investment. 

What’s going on in the debate on Place Branding today? Which are the real means of implementation? The discussion of Place Branding has matured and has become common sense among most local administrational bodies around the world. Sometimes it is such an integral part of any planning strategy (in particular in culture and tourism) that it is not discernable as a seperate field of action.

The next year the city of Milan will host the Expo 2015 on “Feed the Planet. Energy for life”: which are the common elements between Place Branding and the research in the fields of sustainable development, the smart and eco-cities? All these subjects, sustainable development, smart-city and eco-city, produce in themselves very strong associations with a place. Their problem, at the same time, is that they have been used so often without any real meaning - as empty signifiers - that for most people they have lost their power of association. A city that calls itself an "eco-city" today will need to prove it, not just say it. That is in reality the big difference between Place Marketing and Place Branding: while the first tries to sell an idea, the latter does the first step and tries to create it.