Branding Global Cities: Insights from Barcelona

About

In the globalized context, cities have to compete with each other in different matters such as: to attract investment or human talent, to favor exportations, or to position themselves as tourist destinations. This reality advocates the adoption of marketing techniques to manage cities’ positioning since cities are no longer only a container of all the goods that can be consumed within it: the place itself offers symbolism desired by all its audiences. This course provides an overview of the main changes that have motivated the contemporary role of cities. It is focused on the understanding of the new symbolic role of the territory and explore the difficulties to build up a coherent brand that represents the complex offer of places. It also emphasizes on the importance of involving the different stakeholders in the process of branding the city, the challenge to control the impact of tourism activity and its effect on residents lifestyle, and the importance of the communication activity. The case of Barcelona will help students understand the content of the theoretical sessions. Combining lectures and practical sessions, students will study in-depth how Barcelona is represented as the international brand it is today.

Course leader

José Fernández Cavía and Sara Vinyals Mirabent

Fee info