BRANDING | SICCO VAN GELDER AND HUGH ROBERTS

B randing brings a place to life B randing theory and practice has a direct and powerful bearing on the work of urban and economic planners and urban designers , s ay Sicco van Gelder and Hugh Ro b e rt s

I n c r e a s i n g l y , cities compete with same products at much lower costs. free land, soft loans and other finan- other places for attention, Alicante in Spain struggles to cial incentives to attract investors investment, visitors, shoppers, talent, compete with equally sunny beach and to shore up local industries is events, and the like. Accelerated and destinations ranging from Antalya in clearly a ‘race to the bottom’ - intensified globalisation has lead to a Turkey to Pattaya in Thailand. ultimately one that is impossible to situation where the main Bordeaux and its region face stiff sustain. Advertising on CNN and competition is no longer the city competition from Chile, South sending trade missions into the down the road or the town across the Australia and the South African Cape world to flog the existing offer of the bay, but where competitors are Region for its primacy in premium city is equally ineffective in the long places half a world away. And this winemaking. term and a waste of precious finan- global competition is no longer Traditional car manufacturing in cial resources. Shoring up the city’s limited to the big cities that compete the West Midlands, Detroit, current offer with some new for the HQs of multinational Stuttgart and Nagoya feel the heat commercial, industrial or cultural Sicco van Gelder ( t o p ) i s corporations and UN bodies, or for from Bratislava and Shanghai. development is not likely to turn the founder of Placebrands large sports events. Meanwhile competes as a tide either. Ltd and Hugh Roberts is Thanks to technological advances global financial centre with New What is needed is a frank rethink a director of Colin and market deregulation, even York and Hong Kong, and at a about what the city offers. What can Buchanan & Partners smaller places can suddenly be regional level with Frankfurt and be created that is so valuable about confronted with competitors located P a r i s . the city that its businesses, institu- on another continent. Entire towns tions and residents want to remain, in Italy have lost their raison d’être Promise of value that will attract investors, visitors as their furniture making industry How does a city cope with this and talent, and that will make clusters have been wiped out by new multitude of contenders? commentators and influencers Chinese competitors making the Competing on tax breaks, tax credits, recommend it as the place to live, do

Illustrations: Right and overpage – Overhoeks development in Amsterdam Opposite – framed by the Thames barrier.

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4 0 Planning in London BRANDING | SICCO VAN GELDER AND HUGH ROBERTS

business or visit as the new vibrant and voluntary sectors. centre with a clear sense of its future The partnership should be one of as well as its past and present? equals between those stakeholders Your city’s brand is the promise that can realise the brand of the city of that value. City branding is about through their actions, investments, deliberately creating, developing and decisions and communications. demonstrating that value through During the city brand strategy appropriate ‘on-brand’ actions, development process, the members which consist of investments, physi- of the brand partnership need to cal and economic plans, attraction understand and reconcile differing programmes, events, communica- policies and strategies; decide on tions, and the like. what the future of their city will look City branding is not something like; what it will offer of value to that is the sole preserve of local consumers; how that will be experi- government or any of its depart- enced; and what it is they can jointly ments or agencies. It is a shared do to make that future a reality. responsibility and practice of the This requires willingness to come city’s main stakeholders who include together and work through these its residents, its businesses large and challenges even when that may be small, and all too often forgotten, difficult through conflicts of interest, those who are frequent visitors and different opinions, differing have a good sense of how the place timescales and sometimes even elegant, this needs to be reflected in often lead to (lengthy) discussions, is perceived. What is more powerful personal dislikes. all its planning and subsequent alterations and frustration all round. than having the city’s stakeholders All in one common cause: to implementation. This is not the fault of the planners jointly define and realise the brand make the city better able to This may entail thinking about and architects, but of their clients of their city, using their own particu- compete for the things that will innovative forms of access, the use who have not thought through what lar strengths to ensure the world make it a better place, a more of public spaces for performing arts, they want the place to become and receives a compelling, joined-up and sustainable and competitive place inventive forms of architecture, how it relates to its surroundings consistent message about the city? with a renewed sense of purpose for attraction programmes for specific physically, socially and economically. where it is going and how it is creative individuals, businesses and S t a k e h o l d e r s getting there. institutions, graceful landscape The relevance to London For city branding to be successful, design and attract amenities that London has recently started the it is necessary for its key stakeholder City branding and planning offer elegant and creative products enormous task of redeveloping much organisations to come together in In an ideal world, a city’s brand and services. And the same goes for of its eastern segment either side of partnership. This is not your usual strategy is developed before any places that wish to be known for the Thames, the so-called Thames public-private partnership or a pens are put to paper for master- being functional or historic, or lively, Gateway. One key starting point of committee of wise men and women. planning, economic planning, urban or tranquil, or cutting edge! this development is the Olympic This is a formal or informal body and spatial design and architecture, Using the brand of a place to Area north of , but the but one with clearly stated terms of and landscapes design purposes think and decide about planning Gateway stretches all the way to reference and a programme with alike. The reason for this is simple; issues makes planners’ work much Southend on the north bank and deadlines and deliverables, in which once you know what your place’s easier, as they are then able to work to the south of the Estuary. the key stakeholders jointly develop, agreed promise of value is these from a shared and common Large parts of this huge stretch of create and lead on the implementa- activities form part of what will viewpoint of what the place is to riverside are currently either severely tion of the brand of the city, under demonstrate the brand in action. become and what it has to offer. In degraded, economically run-down, shared responsibility. Creating such a The brand becomes your decision our practice we often experience the underdeveloped or natural areas in partnership is the first step in chang- making tool to determine whether a difference between plans and need of protection against potential ing the way the city operates, certain plan, design or activity is ‘on designs that are guided by a place’s redevelopment at the cost of the because it simultaneously crosses brand’ (i.e. in line with and reinforc- brand strategy and those that are environment. divides such as those between town ing the brand) or ‘off brand’ (i.e. not. The Gateway’s development is and gown, government and business, counterproductive or even harmful The former are usually well influenced by a bewildering array of arts, leisure and sports, commerce to the brand). For example, if a place received and reflective of the shared , Districts and and culture, and the public, private is to be known for being creative and views of clients, while the latter Unitary Authorities, not to mention

Issue 63 October-December 2 0 0 7 4 1 BRANDING | SICCO VAN GELDER AND HUGH ROBERTS

several Regional, Olympic and the national and international perspec- Thames Gateway Development tives. Agencies, the Thames Gateway The brand of the Gateway must London, and South drive what mix of functions are Partnerships and the Department of created and encouraged in the area; Communities and Local what activities, investments and G o v e r n m e n t . amenities are attracted to these Judith Armitt, CE of the places; how they are connected to Government's Thames Gateway the rest of the city; and how they are Directorate, talks of the four managed in order to remain compet- "economic heartbeats" of the itive in future. Gateway, namely Canary Wharf, the The onus, therefore, is on the Olympics and Stratford Town Centre Gateway’s stakeholders to come developments, the soon to be together in true partnership as opened high speed rail link to distinct to ones merely written on mainland Europe and its benefits for paper, and decide what its future will Ebbsfleet and the recent commit- be like and then to distil from that its ment to develop Shellhaven as a persuasive promise of value. This much enlarged port complex. These cannot solely be a government are investment initiatives which any undertaking and the key stakehold- sub region would gladly have in their ers to be involved in the partnership backyard, but even they do not alone must be drawn from the Gateway’s point to a common strategy with private and civic sectors too. which to brand and identify the area. Once they have developed their There is much more at stake here brand and know how they wish to than pulling off a successful see it implemented, planners can get Olympics, fast communications or to grips with what this means for the investment in commercial or indus- spatial, economic and social relation- trial land uses - though these will be ships in the Gateway. a good start! The future of London We firmly believe that branding involves the full range of its stake- theory and practice (originally a holders to come together and purely commercial activity) has develop a brand for the Gateway direct and powerful bearing on the which will guide all of its develop- work of urban and economic ment and provide it with sustainable planners and urban designers or the competitive advantage. Unless this ‘Place Shapers’ to use the latest term happens, the sub region will remain favoured by Government. When devoid of certain types of inward their clients have made up their investment, in particular in the form minds about the brand of a place, it of new and creative businesses, becomes much easier to develop educational and cultural institutions fitting plans and designs that will and the types of new residents who help to bring the brand of the place can at once bring fresh individuality alive and to deliver on its promise of to the area and contribute spending v a l u e . power to its recovery as a vibrant social and economic entity. The challenge of developing the Thames Gateway is to create a brand for it that is at once reflective of the diversity of the places being created within the area but also reflect their totality from regional,

4 2 Planning in London