Behind the scenes of place branding: Unraveling the selective nature of regional branding

Processes of globalisation, internationalisation and rescaling of statehood have led to an increased competition between regions. Place branding has become one of the central concepts for promoting local competitiveness and for capturing significant mind and market share. It is a promotional strategy that includes all activities that increase the attractiveness of an area as a place for working, living and spending free time. Place branding involves the development of a place brand, which entails selecting place-specific attributes and values to represent the place. A vast number of different actors contribute to the creation of the regional brand and the way it will be developed and communicated. This paper focuses on place branding at the regional level and investigates the selections that are made by the regional actors involved in two regional branding projects in Flanders. Furthermore, it unravels which underlying factors influence these selection processes.