🧭 What is a city brand?
A city brand is not a logo or a slogan. It is the emotional, narrative, and symbolic system that allows a city to: know who it is, decide who it wants to be,
and project that coherently to the world.
📍City branding in the era of global competition. We live in a world where cities no longer just compete for tourists. They compete for investment, talent, innovation, reputation…
And in this context, city branding is no longer an aesthetic luxury; it is a strategic tool for economic, social, and cultural development.
But let’s start with an essential idea: every city is a brand, whether it wants it or not.
The question is not whether it has a brand. The question is whether it is managing it with intention, purpose, and a vision for the future.
🧭 A city brand is the collective expression of an identity.
It is the narrative that connects past, present, and future.
It is how a place looks, feels, and is experienced.
📊 Why does it matter? Some compelling data:
Cities with clear branding strategies can increase their attraction of foreign investment by up to 20%.
78% of travelers say that a destination’s sense of cultural identity directly influences their decision to visit.
And cities with strong narratives are 25% more successful at retaining young talent.
In an era of scarce attention, branding is the difference between being a transcendent city… or not.
🌍 The TOTEM Branding team has worked on city/region/destination branding projects that demonstrate the transformative power of territorial branding. These cases show that when a city develops its identity as a living brand, it not only improves its reputation but also builds its future with coherence.
🧠 What does a well-managed city brand contribute?
✅ Internal coherence: aligns institutions, sectors, and citizens
✅ External differentiation: the city projects what makes it unique and inimitable
✅ Local pride: fosters belonging and self-esteem
✅ Attracting value: investment, tourism, talent, culture
✅ Shared narrative: gives meaning to the present and direction to the future
🔎 Branding as a lever for urban transformation
A strong city brand does not replace public policies, but rather articulates them with greater clarity, emotion, and purpose.
It’s about giving visibility, meaning, and coherence to what the city already is… and what it wants to become.
Because in a world of competing cities, identity is not window dressing.
It’s strategy. And branding is its language.
