ABSTRACT
With the rise of branding as the predominant marketing strategy of our time, cities of all sizes and regions try to distinguish themselves by estab-lishing a unique place-identity as their urban brand. Competition is the motivating factor, for since the 1970s cities have increasingly vied for the attention of companies that could bring investments and jobs and for afflu-ent visitors and residents who funnel their spending power into the local economy. Although public officials define their efforts in terms of growth and jobs, they are pursuing a moving target, for the underlying dynamic is propelled by the mobility of both people and capital. Time annihilates space, as Karl Marx wrote more than a century ago, and with ever faster jet planes and electronic communications, both tourists and businesses eas-ily move from place to place. It is impossible to ensure their loyalty. But cities try to be “entrepreneurial” about economic development (Eisinger 1988; Harvey 1989). They offer subsidies to companies to locate factories and offices within their borders, hire famous architects to design flagship projects that will spur media buzz, and promote their reputation as “the biggest,” “the best,” or “the capital of the world” for one kind of activity or another. Yet the uneven reward structure of a “winner-take-all” economy (Frank and Cook 1995) reduces the chances that first-and second-tier cities will achieve equal results.
