Correspondence: Susanna Heldt Cassel, Department of Human Geography, School of Economics and Social Sciences, Dalarna University, Borlänge SE- 781 88, Sweden. Tel: +46 (0)23 778531; +46 (0)733 727395; E-mail: shc@du.se

¹has a PhD in Human Geography from the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden (since 2004). She currently holds a position as Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Geography, School of Economics and Social Sciences, Dalarna University. Her main interests of research are the fields of urban and regional studies with a focus on strategies for regional development and tourism including efforts of place marketing. She is currently doing research on the development strategies of peripheral regions in Sweden in terms of the use of culture and territorial identity as development tools. She teaches at the International Tourism Management Programme, the Spatial Planning Programme and at the Master Programme in Destination Development at Dalarna University.

Received 8 November 2007; Revised 8 November 2007.

Abstract

Efforts of creating and communicating positive images constitute a considerable part of contemporary regional development strategies. The use of different marketing practices has become a popular way to promote attractiveness for tourists, business and in-migrants in growth regions as well as in peripheral and economically vulnerable regions across Europe. In this paper, I explore the employment of different place marketing strategies as a development tool in specific local contexts. The study aims at understanding the role of place marketing in the process of image building in municipalities with experiences of negative economic development and unfavourable images. The empirical material used consists of a case study with six small industrial municipalities in the Swedish Bergslagen region. Strategies of image building are described and analysed by using a conceptual model of different cultural economy approaches to development. The case study indicates that place marketing in a broader sense should not only be looked upon as a matter of selling the municipality to outsiders such as tourists and potential in-migrants. In some types of municipalities, place marketing efforts are rather a matter of adding new aspects to, or entirely changing the place brand. An important target group is in this case the inhabitants of the region. By selling itself to 'insiders', the municipalities are trying to create a discourse of attractiveness.