The Brand Potential of „Soft“ Factors of the Territorial Capital: A Study of Eight Medium Sized Cities in Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to explore the brand potential of certain “soft” fac tors of territorial capital in the medium-sized cities in Serbia. The concept of territorial capital refers to the total city development potential that combines objective, “hard” and subjective, “soft” factors of an area, in order to attract investment and generate local development. As city branding has become an imperative of local development strategies, this paper aims at connecting these concepts in order to emphasize a po ssible brand potential of some “soft“ dimensions of territorial capital. The paper is based on the data obtained from the research conducted from 2013 to 2015 by the Institute for Sociological Research of University of Belgrade on a representative sam ple of population aged 18-65 in eight medium-sized cities in Serbia. The first part of the paper presents the concept of territorial capital and clarifies its connection with the city branding. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis related to Serbia. It begins by summarizing the key features of its socio-spatial transformation in the post-socialist period and points to the discordance between the state of territorial capital and the city branding process. Then the method of research which focuses on the citizens’ perception (a neglected soft dimension of territorial capital) is presented. The obtained questionnaire results are analysed through the lens of the city branding approach and the application of somewhat modified dimensions (presence, pulse and people) of the City Brand Index (CBI). The concluding part briefly recaps how and why the observed soft dimensions of the territorial capital might be recognized as a relevant potential in the process of (re) branding of the researched cities.