Ewa Glińska

Background. The challenge of building a strong territorial brand is an area of growing interest among practitioners and academics alike. Culture, which is an important element of local identity, is increasingly used as a basis for building a territorial brand. Its important creators are local cultural institutions, such as theatres, museums, or galleries. In Poland, public cultural institutions have a high degree of autonomy towards local authorities / local administration and their effective inclusion in the processes of building a territorial brand requires adopting an adequate approach.

Research aims. The aim of the paper is the identification of ways in which cultural institutions can cooperate with local administration to build a brand of a city. On account of the varying roles of individual types of cultural institutions in the process of communicating the city brand, our deliberations have been limited to theatres.

Methodology. To implement this goal the authors used the case study method. The analysis considered two cities: Bialystok and Lodz. The selection of these cities was connected with the clearly accented role of culture in the development strategies of these two urban centres. The case study made use of individual in-depth interviews with theatre managers as well as with heads of municipal office departments responsible for promotion within the two cities covered by the analysis.

Key findings. In the paper, the authors: determine the types of shared projects implemented by theatres and local administration contributing to the development of a city brand, diagnose the benefits resulting from this type of cooperation for both parties, as well as formulate conditions for the success of this type of cooperation. 

JEL Codes: R58, H83, M3

The use of marketing concepts in the management of the city has become more and more popular. Municipalities in Poland are increasingly turning to various types of marketing tools in order to improve its competitiveness. Definitely more professional marketing strategies are developed by the biggest cities and capitals of regions. In the case of small and medium-sized towns we can observe a lack of long-term plans for creating a territorial brand and marketing image. This is due to many reasons, including limited knowledge and associated narrower interpretation of the concept of territorial marketing by local government practitioners, and the mentality of the local leaders. The main research method used to prepare this paper was individual depth interviews (IDI) with 11 mayors of towns in the Podlasie Province. IDIs have shown that even in smaller towns there is a belief that marketing plays an important role in city management. Mayors are aware of the complexity of the concept of territorial marketing, but most of them define it through the prism of promotional activities. Only mayors of bigger towns identify with understanding place marketing as a philosophy of management of a territorial unit, as well as directing marketing efforts for city branding.