Marketing for better cities: setting the agenda for responsible, inclusive, smart, and equitable places.

The aim of the event was to set the foundations for a conclusive link between place marketing and the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of places; to theoretically frame tensions and trade-offs between the economic growth of cities and regions and their sustainability goals in precarious and uncertain times.

The panel considered how the pandemic became a fertile ground for revitalising the attention to sustainability and speeding digital transformations in cities and regions and how Covid-19 drove significant changes in marketing and consumption practices and left its mark on all aspects of people’s engagement with places. Discussions also reflected on consumer empowerment, and how widening opportunities for stakeholder engagement have resulted from the rapid advancement of information and communication technology, and the growing ‘blended’ practices of place consumption (e.g., for work, study, visit and shopping) all of which have imposed new forms and practices of place marketing.  Finally, a debate also ensued around the growing awareness of social sustainability driving place marketing and branding to operate under socially sensitive democratic pressures, to cater for the needs of the weaker and to allow resident participation in decision-making that affects the future of the place. These trends have reshaped and strengthened the necessary relationship between marketing, public policy, and the collective interest.

The event initiated discussions between scholars that focused on responsible, inclusive, smart, and equitable place marketing practice. In addition to those working directly on place marketing and branding the event was particularly relevant to academics in the areas of tourism, hospitality, retailing and services, public sector, and sustainability.

• Sustainability: the challenge of boosting a collective sense of Identity in a global crisis (Sonya Hanna, Bangor University, UK)
• The Challenge of Scale (Dominic Medway, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
• Ethics of Vulnerability: an approach to place branding (Cecilia Cassinger, Lund University, Sweden).
• City Branding Beyond Greenwashing and Deceptive Social Advertising (Martin de Jong, Erasmus University, Netherlands).

Panel Chairs: Mihalis Kavaratzis (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) and Cecilia Pasquinelli (University of Naples Parthenope, Italy).