Jordi Montaña

The fundamental goal of this article is to show the implications that place branding has for regional public management through a case study of the brand “Vic, a city with a human dimension” [Vic, ciutat a la mesura humana, in Catalan language], a project commissioned by the city council of Vic and carried out by the city’s university (University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia). Vic is the capital of the Osona region, in the centre of Catalonia, with a population of 45,040 inhabitants. Methodologically, this research utilised 14 focus group discussions, two in-depth interviews and a survey addressed to citizens and answered by 855 people. In regards to results, the research shows that the practice of place branding transcends the traditional action areas of place marketing and place promotion, in order to be fully integrated in the region’s overall management policies, that is to say, its urban governance. The article also concludes that the processes of conceptualisation and implementation of new place brands must be framed within a bottom-up approach, integrating all the stakeholders (public–private cooperation) in the decision-making process.

Esta nota de investigación está basada en el resumen de un caso sobre el cocinero Ferran Adrià y su restaurante elBulli. Ferran Adrià está considerado por los especialistas el mejor cocinero del mundo en la actualidad, llamado a veces “el alquimista de la cocina”. La revista norteamericana Time lo incluyó en la lista de los 10 personajes más innovadores del mundo en el año 2004. En los años 2006, 2007 y 2008, el restaurante elBulli fue elegido como el mejor restaurante del mundo por la revista The Restaurant Magazine. En el caso pueden estudiarse distintos aspectos que destacan el papel de la creatividad y de la innovación en la estrategia de un modelo de negocio que va mucho más allá de un simple restaurante.

Fundamentos históricos han propiciado que la ciudad de Barcelona sea asociada al concepto de diseño, lo que es atractivo para la promoción económica de la ciudad, pero para lograr consolidar y promocionar la marca Barcelona Design se requiere un planteamiento estratégico. En el artículo se reflexiona sobre los elementos determinantes para el desarrollo y promoción de la marca Barcelona Design y se ofrecen unas líneas estratégicas con este objetivo. La asociación del concepto diseño a la marca Barcelona Design se justifica a partir del análisis histórico de los fundamentos socio-políticos y económicos de la ciudad y de la realidad actual.

The goal of this study is to extend the research and further validation of Lee and colleagues' measure of community-based consumer well-being. The measure is based on the notion that consumers experience well-being to the extent that they are satisfied with local marketplace experiences related to (1) shopping for desired consumer goods and services in the local area, (2) preparing locally purchased consumer durables for personal use, (3) consuming locally purchased goods and services, (4) owning consumer durables purchased in the local area, (5) using repair and maintenance services in the local area, and (6) using selling, trading-in, and disposal services in the local area. Data were collected from ten localities in nine countries/states (California, Minnesota, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Egypt, and China) using the mall intercept method. The data provided support for the predictive/nomological validity of the measure by providing empirical support for the relationship between the consumer well-being construct and other well-being constructs such as life satisfaction.