A place’s future is shaped not only by its industries, infrastructure and institutions, but also by its identity: how people perceive it, talk about it and imagine what it can become. The stories attached to a place, rooted in its history, culture, industrial legacy, physical landscape and shared values, influence whether communities feel trapped in decline or confident to create and pursue opportunities. They impact whether people stay, move in or leave a place; whether firms see potential for investment; and whether visitors are drawn to it. In places facing economic decline, stories of loss and discontent can hinder transformation, but local pride and strong attachments can also be harnessed as resources for economic and social renewal. In an era of growing competition for talent, capital and visibility, how a place is viewed on the global stage is increasingly important.
This report shows how policymakers can better harness place identity, branding and attachment as part of the broader local development toolkit. It examines how these factors can contribute to economic development, from strengthening a talent pipeline through retaining young people and attracting new residents, to shifting local production to higher value-added activities, to attracting external investment. It also considers their role in fostering social cohesion, for example through participatory processes that help to build public trust to valorising local assets and social infrastructure that strengthen community pride. While more can be done to strengthen the quantitative evidence base, the cases highlighted in this report offer concrete examples of how communities across the OECD have put these approaches into practice.
In order to take stock of how a place is viewed internally and externally, a natural first step for policymakers is to map a place’s identity. This can help leaders to understand and address community aspirations and concerns and fears, for example in response to economic restructuring brought about by technological change or environmental transitions. Working with actors trusted by the community to engage in these conversations can help create conditions for communities to express both positive and negative storylines in a constructive way. Combining qualitative methods, such as interviews, listening exercises and participatory workshops, with analysis of economic data, media coverage and social media posts can illuminate the stories different actors tell about a place. Many places that have experienced industrial change stand at a crossroads between long-standing identities, such as “coal towns” or “textile towns,” and a range of alternative visions of their future. Different stories might be told by internal and external actors, long-time residents and newcomers, younger and older generations, or residents and the business community.
Stories of discontent and disaffection may sit side by side with stories of hope and pride. For instance, based on extensive qualitative research, Brand Tasmania (Australia) learned how the community experienced the struggle of geographic isolation and sentiments of not feeling good enough, while also hearing stories of perseverance and a striving for exceptional artisanal quality to earn its higher price premium.
In some cases, it may be necessary to invest in unearthing and communicating a more constructive, forward-looking narrative. Increasingly, places are using branding to clarify and communicate what they are and what they want to be. This goes beyond a tagline or slogan and builds on existing roots and what makes a place distinct, such as its heritage, values, specialised knowledge or natural landscape. This can lend the narrative authenticity and, when married with traditional economic data, foster a strategic vision that is attainable. For example, in Durham (Canada), analysis of regional economic data revealed that the “car town” narrative that had long defined it no longer held up, as its clean energy sector had overtaken it as the industry producing the most economic value. Brand Estonia backed up its brand values and claims with a database of facts. For instance, its “clean environment” was based on its vast forestland and urban air quality, while its “digital society” reflects how almost all its state services are online.
When a place’s story identifies and builds on unifying values, this can help different members of a community to focus on what they have in common, rather than what divides them. In Paisley, Scotland (United Kingdom), the community drew on the town’s legacy textile industry to articulate “a new take on an old story,” as a “textile town” that emphasised design, manufacturing, fashion, artisanal production, and upcycling. In Brand Tasmania’s (Australia) efforts to unearth a unifying place narrative, Tasmanians were found to identify with the values of creativity, determination and community connection, among others.
Once an overarching place narrative is developed, governments can segment their audience and tailor the story accordingly. For example, after unearthing the overarching Tasmanian story, as the “quiet pursuit of the extraordinary,” Brand Tasmania worked with sector stakeholders to develop complementary stories for specific audiences. For instance, its trade story highlights its culture of invention and enterprise, which focuses on “better, not more,” reflected in the quality of its fine wool and hemp, and the innovation of its products, from catamarans to camera kits. In parallel, its maritime story focuses on the challenges of the Southern Ocean and the need to cooperate to design solutions for the turbulent waters that the maritime sector must contend with.
A narrative gains force when many can use it as place “ambassadors”, from political leaders to local residents. Governments can provide accessible tools and guidance to support brand consistency while allowing the story to be told in different voices, and contribute to building confidence and trust. For example, Brand Scotland’s (United Kingdom) Story Book provides practical language guidance, a set narrative arc and real-world examples narrated using its guidance to help diverse stakeholders tell a consistent story about Scotland in their own voice. In another approach, Invest Durham (Canada) communicated its narrative as the “Clean Energy Capital of Canada” by drafting talking points for political speeches and sharing its research with university and industry leaders.
These narratives can help fuel local economic development, including by contributing to investment and talent attraction. In Durham Region (Canada), the region’s narrative, built on promoting clean energy businesses and supply chains, is mutually reinforcing with its higher education ecosystem. Together, they support talent attraction and the growth of strategic sectors. Place brand narratives can also add value to local production through umbrella brands or place-of-origin markers. For example, the designation of the Colombian Coffee Region as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the creation of an internationally renowned umbrella brand assisted local producers to upgrade in value chains. Local and regional coffee brands meant they were no longer simply suppliers of low-value raw coffee beans. Furthermore, narratives can contribute to shaping balanced approaches to tourism development. For instance, the Magdalen Islands (Canada) tourism development strategy foregrounds linkages between local supply chains and the visitor experience to foster year-round tourism, while seeking to preserve the islands’ natural landscapes and community well-being.
A narrative can also be embodied in physical regeneration and cultural projects that provide visible signals of change, such as the reuse of industrial buildings that reinterpret local heritage. When such processes engage communities from the outset, and anticipate and manage potential risks of displacement, narratives can help drive broadly shared economic prosperity and social well-being. For example, in Nantes (France), symbolic repurposing of its former shipyard halls into the iconic mechanical animals of Les Machines de l'Île positively commemorates the city’s maritime heritage and attracts tourists, while former industrial halls have also been repurposed as affordable creative workspaces.
Where strong levels of pride and belonging exist, policymakers can support and channel this towards bottom-up local development. Entrepreneurs who are deeply invested in a place can play a catalytic role in fostering a local culture of entrepreneurship, including through social entrepreneurship. Governments can support this by reducing administrative or financial obstacles, providing tailored support and capacity building, and facilitating access to local heritage sites and buildings. For example, entrepreneurs in Derry (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom) and Donegal (Ireland) harnessed local business creation and property investments to train and employ local youth, mentor budding entrepreneurs, and reinforce their place’s economy by procuring locally. In another example, a youth-led co-operative in Rione Sanità, Naples (Italy) was granted access to the district’s heritage catacombs and baroque churches, and leveraged their restoration to train local youth, catalyse a local tourism industry, and create social infrastructure for arts and sports. These initiatives both harnessed and further reinforced place belonging, among longstanding residents and newcomers alike.
Governments can help create conditions under which young people with strong attachments to a place can choose to stay or return and invest in it. Giving young people a voice in shaping local priorities, collecting more data on the factors shaping youth mobility decisions, and investing in formal and informal, place-sensitive education alongside job creation can contribute towards this aim.
Institutional and capacity questions impact the degree to which place branding can deliver on these possibilities. In many successful jurisdictions, the place branding unit is positioned close to the political or administrative centre: within the Mayor’s office, a Chief Executive’s portfolio, or a strategic division of economic development. As place branding is inherently multi-disciplinary, it requires staff capacities that span strategic foresight, participatory design, policy literacy, communications expertise, cultural competence, political acuity and data capability. Together, this can help maximise the potential of place branding to be embedded throughout the policy cycle, for example upstream in strategy and decision making (e.g. does going after this investment align with our shared vision for the community), and not just a siloed, promotional activity. For example, at the upstream level, Brand Tasmania (Australia) supports brand-informed strategy by working with policy and decision makers to embed the brand into long-term planning, promote sustainable growth and support broader strategic outcomes for Tasmania.
Finally, capturing the outcomes and impacts of place branding requires taking into account the different ways it can add value to local development strategies, from fostering confidence in the business climate, to increased talent attraction or strengthened civic pride. Given such outcomes and impacts can be difficult to quantify and tend to unfold gradually over long time horizons, approaches to evaluation need to move beyond short‑term output metrics, towards mixed‑method, longitudinal approaches. Such approaches can be geared at assessing contribution rather than direct causation. There is emerging experience of this kind of evaluation. For example, Copenhagen (Denmark) has used resident sentiment analysis to assess tourism’s perceived effects on the local economy, city atmosphere, quality of life, and environmental conditions. Stockholm (Sweden) is increasingly positioning well-being as a core evaluative lens for place-brand impact.