Stockholm School of Economics

Marketing Places Europe

How to Attract Investments, Industries, Residents and Visitors to Cities, Communities, Regions and Nations in Europe
Philip Kotler,
Christer Asplund,
Irving Rein,
Donald Haider

Europe is full of communities vying for jobs, tourists and investors. Places, like products and services, now need to be marketed and marketed well. Market forces keep changing and there is no room for complacency. By treating places as businesses and applying strategic marketing and communication strategy, Marketing Places Europe offers a winning prescription for place-sellers – business and public officials – to bring prosperity and competitive edge to their communities and shows place-buyers – investors, residents and visitors – how to identify the right locality for their needs. How can we create stronger and better communities throughout Europe?

The unified Europe will comprise the largest market in the world and the challenge to excel in the European and global marketplace has never been greater. For the responsive community, competitive forces will invigorate and produce new partnerships and star performers. To create more opportunities, communities must have skills in attracting investors, business, residents and visitors. Places, like products and services, need to be marketed with sophistication and precision.

Marketing Places Europe is the first book to offer a systematic analysis of why many European communities have fallen on hard times and makes positive recommendations for revitalisation in the new millennium. The book is crammed with case-studies examining European places engaged in various strategies to meet the competitive challenge. Some illustrate major success achieved through the principles of placemarketing, others illustrate the dilemmas and pitfalls that places have faced in trying to compete for resources. The book offers solutions for a variety of challenging place situations.

Marketing Places Europe helps Europe's decision-makers to adopt a strategic marketing plan to build a better future and bring prosperity to their communities, while those places that leave their future to chance or inertia are left behind.

About author

Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago. He is hailed by Management Centre Europe as "the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing." He has authored what is widely recognized as the most authoritative textbook on marketing: Marketing Management