Perspektiv på platsmarknadsföring

Sammanfattning: The overarching aim of this study is to contribute with new perspectives on place marketing, theoretically as well as empirically. More specifically, the aim is to characterize the place marketing research literature, describe its content and explore the extent to which it is valid in a Swedish municipal context. This basic approach is important, partly because it is difficult to comprehend the difference between central concepts and different types of research literature within the field of place marketing, partly because the research literature tend to generalize from a specific empirical material, foremost large cities in the western world.In the first part of the study a literature review is carried out. The review includes a typology which shows two broad lines of research within the field of place marketing: one which conceptualizes place marketing by examining what is being done in cities, municipalities and regions, and another one which is anchored in the discipline of marketing. The first tradition is referred to as “place” and the other one as “marketing”. The typology also shows, among other things, different approaches within each research line. The research which is referred to as place is described as empirical and/or critical. The research which is referred to as marketing is described as prescriptive and/or theoretical.The second part of the study is based on two surveys, both distributed to all 290 municipalities in Sweden. The surveys bring questions about competition and cooperation as well as entrepreneurial policy and efforts to increase the attractiveness of the municipalities in to focus. The results partly confirm and partly call for a more in-depth analysis of these phenomena.The study makes a distinction between place marketing and place selling. Place marketing is described as a demand-oriented approach in planning and place development and place selling as the opposite, i.e. as a supply-oriented approach. In the study it is argued that most place marketing research appears to be about place selling rather than place marketing. Furthermore, it is argued that efforts to increase the attractiveness of the municipalities appear to be characterized by place selling rather than place marketing.