Discussions between Place Branding and Territorial Brand in Regional Development—A Classification Model Proposal for a Territorial Brand

Abstract

There is a clear controversy between the concepts of place branding and territorial brand in the context of regional development, with different meanings being attributed depending on the regions of the world. On the one hand, there are the typological designations attributed to place branding coupled with marketing, and on the other hand, the typologies attributed to local governance and often mixed with the territorial brand but not considering the regional development. This discrepancy creates a gap in the scientific literature for a uniform classification model for the territorial brand. To fill this gap, this study adopts qualitative content analysis, and its main objective is to present a uniform territorial brand classification model. Through a review of the scientific literature on the subject, 18 variables were found to build the theoretical model, which was then applied to the analysis of 60 territorial brands. The results of this study led to the Territorial Brand (TRbrand) Classification Model, with 16 dimensions of analysis and generated 13 concepts. The conclusions reveal a new typological classification model for the territorial brand in regional development, the TRbrand Classification Model, which includes the brand, the territory, the cultural diplomacy, the local governance, the social actors, and the regional development.