How cities can attract highly skilled workers as residents: the impact of city brand benefits
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2017-1605 |
| Published date | 19 November 2018 |
| Pages | 847-857 |
| Date | 19 November 2018 |
| Author | Michael Schade,Rico Piehler,Andreas Müller,Christoph Burmann |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
How cities can attract highly skilled workers as
residents: the impact of city brand benefits
Michael Schade, Rico Piehler, Andreas Müller and Christoph Burmann
Chair of Innovative Brand Management, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of city brand benefits (cost efficiency, job chances, social life, recreation and self –
brand connection) on highly skilled, potential residents’attitudes toward the city brand.
Design/methodology/approach –A literature analysis and qualitative study inform a conceptual model, which is tested with structural equation
modelling using 354 evaluations of the six largest German cities by 294 highly skilled, potential residents, in terms of their perceptions of city brand
benefits and attitudes.
Findings –Social life and self–brand connection positively affect the city brand attitudes of highly skilled, potent ial residents. In contrast, cost
efficiency, job chances and recreation do not affect these attitudes.
Research limitations/implications –The relevance of city brand benefits might be specific to a country or culture, so further research should test
the conceptual model in other settings, including smaller cities. Further studies might compare the relevance of the effects for actual and potential
residents.
Practical implications –Social life emerged as the most important city brand benefit, so cities must ensure they offer and commun icate a rich
social life. Cities also should identify and communicate congruent characteristics between the city and the self-concepts of relevant target groups.
Originality/value –This study identifies relevant and irrelevant city brand benefits for highly skilled, potential residents. In addition, it establi shes
self–brand connection as symbolic benefit that previous research into potential residents has not considered.
Keywords Place branding, Creative class, Place image, Migration research, City brand attitudes, City brand benefits, Highly skilled workers,
Potential residents
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Highly skilled workers can greatly improve the economic
development of cities (Florida, 2007;Glaeser, 2005;Khoo
et al., 2007), and so cities actively seek to retain their highly
skilled residents and attract potential residents with needed
skills. That is, cities compete for highly skilled workers,
prompting more and more of them to adopt brand
management techniques to compete more effectively (Anholt,
2007;Green et al., 2016;Kavaratzis, 2004). City brand image
is critical as a powerful predictor of the behaviors of both
internal (e.g. retaining actual residents) and external (e.g.
attracting potential residents) target groups (Gertner and
Kotler, 2004).
Keller (1993,p.3)defines brand image as “perceptions
about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in
consumers memory”. Brand associations in turn reflect brand
attributes (i.e. descriptive features that characterize a product
or service), brand benefits (i.e. the personal value consumers
attach to the brand) and brand attitudes (i.e. overall evaluation
of a brand) (Keller, 1993). Brand attitudes represent strong
predictors of consumer behavior and mainly are determined by
brand benefits (Keller, 1993). Therefore, city brand managers
must identify the particular brand benefits that influence the
brand attitudes of their important target groups,such as highly
skilled workers.
In contrast to extensive research that investigates the migration
of highly skilled people between countries (Khoo et al.,2007),
research that focuses on migration within countries is more
suitable to identifying relevant city brand benefits. This research
offers two perspectives to explain the migration behavior of highly
skilled workers: a macro-level and micro-level perspective
(Brown, 2015). On the macro level, migration research
investigates characteristics of places as antecedents of migration
behavior. These characteristics typically include so-called
amenities such as cultural offerings or consumption-oriented
spaces like bars and restaurants (Florida, 2002;Glaeser, 2005).
Unfortunately, this stream of research is not suitable to explain
reasons for migration on the individual level (Brown, 2015). In
contrast, micro-level migration studies focus on motivations for
migration. This stream seems more appropriate to identifying
relevant brand benefits because motivations of individuals are the
basis for the development of favorable brand benefits (Keller,
2013). Thus, this study focuses on the micro-level perspective of
migration research.
From the literature review in this field, only a few studies
(Brown, 2015;Darchen and Tremblay, 2010;Zenker, 2009;
Zenker et al., 2013a) were identified that investigate the
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
27/7 (2018) 847–857
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-10-2017-1605]
This work was funded by Bremeninvest (WFB Wirtschaftsförderung
Bremen GmbH).
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