Place branding research: A cross-disciplinary agenda and the views of practitioners

After years of separate development, there has recently been a convergence between the academic domains of urban policy, tourism and mainstream branding resulting in the emergence of a new domain of place branding. This convergence has, in part, been assisted by developments in the mainstream branding domain associated with corporate and services brands. At the same time, at least one book and several articles have been published, setting out agendas for future research. However, these might be regarded as deficient in two ways. First, they take no account of the conceptual development of mainstream branding theory, and second they take no account of the views of practitioners. In both these cases, further opportunities for research might be identified. This article addresses these deficiencies by supplementing the recently published research agendas with a thematic review of the mainstream branding and place branding literatures, and field interviews with 25 senior managers in place branding organisations. The identified themes are compared with recently published place branding research agendas and a cross-disciplinary agenda for future research is discussed. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.