Urban Marketing: Impact over Competition between Cities

URBAN MARKETING AND ITS IMPACT OVER THE COMPETITION BETWEEN CITIES
Lecturer PhD Lidia Elena ALEXA “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi
Abstract: In the globalization era, characterized by profound political and economical reforms of which main objective is the increased competitiveness, whether we talk about goods, companies, cities or countries, the proactive attitude and the marketing strategy is a must in order to survive and develop. Now more than ever the cities have become brands of their one, because they are in an endless competition for attention, investments, inhabitants and tourists and the main competitor is no longer the city located a couple of kilometers away, but any city across the globe. Cities and regions need competitive strategies in order to attract more tourists, investors and inhabitants and for this they have to make a change in the decision makers’ attitude. The new city is no longer a plain urban conglomerate; it becomes a Company, a Product, and a Market depending on the target group it applies to. Key words: urban marketing, destination marketing, city branding, competitiveness

Destination marketing
In the marketing literature, there are two theoretical approaches regarding the destination marketing: one concentrates over the successful strategies applied by different entities, while the other one underlines the connection between destination branding and the aspects regarding the impact of the economical and political factors and the effect of the business stakeholder’s involvement over the communities’ development (Bradley, 2002). Although the destination marketing concept is not a new notion, it became more popular in the literature in the 80s, once the cities became more aware of the importance of marketing and promotion impact over their development. Thus, destination marketing has many definitions. For example, according to Gold and Ward, destination marketing is defined as the conscientious use of marketing and

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