Modeling a City's Branding Tools: The Case of Istanbul

Recently, studies on city branding extend across academicians and practitioners, and there is a considerable growing body of research and practice related to city branding. Probably, the most prevailing reason is that cities all over the world engage in marketing and branding efforts in order to stay competitive and relevant on the global market. Cities have to compete with others in all areas they can: city's tourism capacity, competitive advantage, quality of the place, history, lifestyle, and so on. The main purpose of this study is to present the conceptual and empirical framework of ?stanbul's branding issue in terms of a tourism plan. Therefore, this study attempts to contribute researchers and project implementers by detailing branding tools of ?stanbul. In order to determine branding tools, two groups of information were obtained: one is the data received through the meetings done with professionals, and the other is the data received through tourists and citizens. With this information, tourism-oriented branding tools for ?stanbul are developed. The following are the basic branding strategies accepted for ?stanbul: (1) tourism variability and geographic wideness, (2) originality and character, (3) interaction and communication, (4) global effect, (5) strong infrastructure and high quality of life, (6) the spirit of the city, and (7) the symbol attributed to the city.