AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

City branding is becoming increasingly important as a tool for cities to distinguish themselves and to create an attractive image. Competition between cities is growing as they are aiming to attract the same target groups in order to grow their local economy with access to high educated talent, enterprises, and funding. In this competitive environment a strong City brand is an important differentiator. Also, the municipality of Rotterdam is in the process of developing a strong city brand to support the future of the city. Considering that small and medium enterprises make up over 90% of the businesses in the Netherlands, the central question in this project is how to apply city branding to connect small and medium enterprises to the city of Rotterdam. The first step in this process is understanding the scope. Three segments were explored : city branding theory, internal research of municipality of Rotterdam, and the external context of Rotterdam, that is the city brand, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). City branding is a bottom-up principle and the aim is to find a group of SMEs in Rotterdam that represent the city. Through an in-depth analysis 10 key insights were formulated. On the basis of these insights a group of SMEs in the city was selected who are yet to become a part of the municipal SME policy; the makers, creators, and innovators. This group is a component of an international trend of local manufacturing, which is enabled by rapid developments in digital manufacturing and design. The next step is deepening the knowledge about this focus group. The selected group of SMEs does not fit the description of established industries, but it has similarities to the creative industry and the manufacturing industry. For this reason this group is classified as Urban Manufacturing. Urban Manufacturing includes small companies that design, develop and manufacture tangible products within the borders of the city. The methods of manufacturing range from craftsmanship to high tech. The group flourishes in Rotterdam and is attracted by core strengths of the city and, besides being an interesting addition to the current city brand, the focus group can have an influence on the development of the city; on the infrastructure, the society, and the economy. The core elements of the vision form the groundwork of the third step; designing a brand strategy for the municipality. In this brand strategy the bottom-up principle of city branding is applied. The five strategic elements are mentality and pride, space in the city, forming an industry, connecting stakeholders, and establishing a strong city brand. These five strategic elements are translated into tactics for the municipality to implement the brand strategy. The implementation plan is visualized in a roll out scheme based on a ten year plan, with set targets linking back to the five strategic elements.