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Successful place marketing practices explained in the literature seem to have general properties, and point out the importance of the role of management and leadership, local development, public-private partnerships and process coincidences (control of negative externalities), supporting the findings in the earlier literature review. The literature review further suggests that additional important factors influencing the success of place development and marketing practices could be initiatives focusing on local resources (local development), national and international links and networks (global marketplace), and political unity to reach agreements and establish community involvement. The results indicate that these elements should belong to the study’s framework.

A framework of the present study is illustrated in Figure 2.13. Its components will be explained and discussed in detail in this section. The name of the framework is that of the

name of this study “Success Factors of Place Marketing”. The building of an a priori framework makes the theoretical perspective explicit. A theoretical framework helps to focus the analysis and see the links between the context and content in a processual study. Moreover, a theoretical framework is a matter of scientific credibility. (See Strauss & Corbin 1998; Miles & Hubermann 1994). The a priori framework will be used to guide the empirical study, and is, at the same time, left open for reformulations emerging from the empirical data. The theoretical framework becomes the main vehicle for generalising the results of the case study (Yin 1994).

The framework consists of nine various success factors for place marketing practices. The success factors were pre-selected based on the findings of the pilot study and discussion in the place marketing literature. Then the layout of the framework was commented on by international place marketing scholars and place marketers and improvements suggested, before the new empirical study was started. First, the overall construct of the framework is explained and then the success factors are discussed one by one. The specific success factors of the focal study’s framework are:

1) Planning group, 2) Vision and Strategic analysis, 3) Place identity & Place image, 4) Public-private partnerships, 5) Political unity, 6) Global marketplace, 7) Local development (presented with Global marketplace), 8) Process coincidences, and 9) Leadership.

Figure 2.13 Framework of the Focal Study. Success Factors in Place Marketing

Place marketing is analysed through this framework from the perspective of the process (place marketing practices) and success factors, explaining success (or its failure) in place marketing. Practices represent the general activities in place marketing, in which the success factors can be made clearly visible or invisible in the analysis. In the framework, the perspectives of the practices and the success factors are linked together. The practices are divided into three sub-groups of events, namely the events in place marketing practices, the events in the network and the events in the macroenvironment. The assessment of the success factors is executed from the perspectives of goal, process and outcome. Place marketers set

targets, which are elaborated from the perspective of “goal.” Various place marketing practices are elaborated from the perspective of “process”, and the results from the perspective of “outcome”.

In the lowest section of the framework, the success factors are applied to explain success in place marketing practices. The core of these success factors comes from the pilot study’s framework “Developing a City as a Brand” (Rainisto 2001: 116-118). In order to have as focused a construct as possible, the number of individual factors was limited in the focal study, and the nine factor-construct seemed to cover the main success issues suggested in the literature review and the results of the pilot study. For this reason, some factors of the pilot study’s framework could be combined42. Further, resulting from discussions with Kotler & Rein & Haider (2002b) the elements of “Leadership” and “Public-private partnerships” were added to the framework. The frame emphasises managerial aspects in place marketing practices, and the term “Leadership” to describe the qualitative, skill-emphasised challenges. “Process coincidences” was added as a success factor based on the comments and recommendations of Rein 43. Places do not always act in a rational way, and the process brings to the development of the place favourable or negative coincidences.

The five success factors situated inside the “prism” of the framework, function as “self- action” factors of the framework. These factors (“Planning group”, “Vision and Strategic analysis”, “Place identity and Place image”, “Public-private partnerships” and “Leadership”) represent abilities which a place can normally actively influence, as well as the organising capacity of a place (cf. Berg et al. 1993; Helbrecht 1994b). On the lines of the “prism”, four factors represent the environmental challenges: “Global marketplace, “Local development”, “Political unity” and “Process coincidences”. “Local development” is essential, and the phrase “think globally, act locally” (cf. Borja & Castells 1997) is also more fittingly true today than ever for places. “Global marketplace” gives places at the same time a vast new

42 _{“Identity factors” and “Image” were re-named “Place Identity and Place Image”. “Activity programmes” was}

merged in “Place marketing practices”. The element “City marketing” means in this present study place marketing practices. Two success factors have remained unchanged: “Political unity” and “Planning group”. “Professional management” is now “Leadership”.

43 _{Professor Irving Rein, Marketing Communication, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, U.S., E-mail-}

potential increased global competition (See Barcleys 2002; Scott 2001; Castells 1996; Clark 2002). There is a need for “political unity,” to manage the process of the necessary decisions in a rational and consistent way. The literature brought additional success perspectives to the framework. The results of the studies of Jensen-Butler (1997) pointed out seven specific general success factors for a city (discussed earlier), and have been merged in the success factors in the present theoretical framework, that is: (the major “recipient” success factors shown in parentheses).

• Knowledge-based production (“Local development”) • Conflict management (“Leadership”, “Political unity”) • Innovation and technological change (“Local development“)

• Negative externalities (“Political unity”, “Leadership”, “Process coincidences”) • External links (“Global marketplace”)

• Decision-making power (“Political unity”)

• Amenity, environment, non-material values (“Local development”).