Evaluation of urban branding strategies in Iranian cities

Urban branding, as a new approach toward urban development, improves marketing of the city image in different ways by changing the visual image of the city into a brand image. This paper aims to survey the element of urban branding strategies in Iranian cities by examining the criteria of urban branding theory in Iranian cities. The main goal of this investigation is to describe how the cities become branded, how branding succeeds, and how a viable city image is created. This study is an applied research and descriptive-analytical method conducted in five steps: 1) identifying the study area, 2) identifying economical capabilities of branding in study area, 3) identifying the spatial level of potential using a specific questionnaire, 4) selecting the capabilities with a higher average score as superior capabilities for strategic planning, and 5) performing a strategic planning. The paper explores the concept of urban branding from theoretical, analytical, and practical viewpoints. In practical terms, a questionnaire is administrated to planners and designers to identify the stages by which an Iranian city (Qazvin) might be effectively branded. The results showed that the QPSM method and its integration with the SWOT method have a high ability to extract urban branding strategies and can be used in this field.