This professional guidebook highlights brand development and management for cities, regions, countries, and destinations. It presents a unique collection of expert interviews, combined with latest research insights and thoughts on the most relevant topics and trends linked to the reputation, brand development and management of cities, regions, countries and destinations. This is a book which offers inspiring personal stories and reflections, and at the same time serves as essential know how guide for busy place managers, marketers and developers who care about the reputation and well-being of their community.

Usually, a country brand is not focused, resulting in unsuccessful place branding. It is possible to successfully raise your national identity to the level of an attractive brand. Building a country brand is an investment, with strong positive returns. This book will guide you along the path to building a successful brand.

Thoroughly revised and updated, a new edition of the most popular guide to the UN for students and interested readers Prominent NPR journalist Linda Fasulo's guide to the United Nations has established a reputation as the most lively, authoritative, and insightful book on its subject. The fourth edition comes at a time when nuclear proliferation has moved to the top of the Security Council's agenda, followed closely by the Syrian crisis, the effects of climate change, and international terrorism. Thoroughly revised and updated, with many new profiles and interviews with the organization's current diplomats, this edition remains an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to understand the role and structure of the UN.

As part of an emerging literature on place branding, this book fills the important gap between practice-oriented literature—which lacks in-depth and critical analysis—and technical academic literature—which tends to miss down-to-earth practitioners' concerns and to overlook policy and political contexts. Providing frameworks and knowledge on how to practice place branding effectively, this book anchors place-branding practices in a solid analytical framework. It presents place-branding practices through the lenses of public sector marketing, strategic management, and governance processes and structures, as well as communication tools. Marketing a place is more than creating a logo and a motto; this book presents the key strategic aspects to be considered when promoting a place. Readers will gain knowledge about the most important features of place promotion: the development of brands and marketing campaigns in the public sector, the establishment of dedicated politico-administrative structures, and the increasing involvement of various stakeholders that play a central role as place promoters. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers and postgraduate students across place branding, marketing and management, and urban studies, as well as public management, administration, and policy. The practical conclusions discussed in the book will also appeal to practitioners, business consultants, and people working in public administration and politics.

Much city marketing and branding activity is future-oriented; aimed at achieving a forward-looking vision for places. The aim of this activity is to attract visitors, residents and/or inward investment, and focus on communicating attractive place attributes to create a differentiated spatial ‘product’ that will appeal to particular target audiences. In seeking to achieve this, place marketing campaigns have been criticized for emphasizing generic attributes, such as accessibility, infrastructure and a skilled workforce—which can serve to homogenize places which in reality are very different. However, a city’s distinctive character is a consequence of its history and development over time, and this book analyses the role of these temporal dimensions in place marketing and branding. The book analyses how the past—both material (i.e. the historic built environment) and intangible (i.e. routines, practices and the ‘character’ of the populace)—is appropriated, in order to ‘sell’ the city into the future. It acknowledges the inherent selectivity involved and discusses the factors influencing what is remembered from the past—and equally importantly, what is forgotten. Adopting a range of theoretical approaches to understanding temporality in this context, the book will appeal to advanced students, academic researchers and reflexive place branding practitioners by introducing a ‘temporal paradox’ incorporating both fixity (the material and immaterial elements of the city’s past) and fluidity (relating to the creation of the place product as a dynamic assemblage of individual elements and attributes aimed at particular target audiences).

Americans are loud. Amsterdam equals sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Mexicans are lazy and Germans are boring, but punctual. Paris is romantic, Wuhan infectious, Ukrainians heroic, and New Zealand untouched. This is the way people around the world think about cities, regions and countries and the communities that live there; through cliches and stereotypes. It can be frustrating and hindering trade, diplomacy, investment, tourism, or talent attraction. Many believe that such image problems can be resolved with advertising campaigns, but the classic tourism promotion model is broken and insufficient. This book explains what works and what doesn’t when it comes to improving the reputation of cities, regions, and countries. It does so without the use of jargon and with reference to numerous case-studies. The book primarily aims to inspire readers and offer them a broad overview of an issue in modern society that is of interest and relevance to all of us: the reputation of our communities.

Culture transformation expert Siobhan McHale defines culture simply: “It’s how things work around here.” The secret to the success or failure of any business boils down to its culture. From disengaged employees to underserved customers, business failures invariably stem from a culture problem. In The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, acclaimed culture transformation expert and global executive Siobhan McHale shares her proven four-step process to demystifying culture transformation and starting down the path to positive change. Many leaders and managers struggle to get a handle on exactly what culture is and how pervasive its impact is throughout an organization. Some try to change the culture by publishing a statement of core values but soon find that no meaningful change happens. Others try to unify the culture around a set of shared goals that satisfy shareholders but find their efforts backfire as stressed employees throw their hands up because “leadership just doesn’t get it.” Others implement expensive new IT systems to try to bring about change, only to find that employees find “workarounds” and soon go back to their old ways. The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change walks readers through McHale’s four-step process to culture transformation, including how to: Understand what “corporate culture” really is and how it impacts every aspect of the way your organization operates Analyze where your culture is broken or not adding maximum value Unlock the power of reframing roles within your company to empower and engage your employees Utilize proven methods and tools to break through deeply embedded patterns and change your company mind-set Keep the momentum going by consolidating gains and maintaining your foot on the change accelerator With The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, watch your employees go from followers to change leaders who drive an agile culture that constantly outperforms.