Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges in Management, Economics and Accounting
Year: 2021
DOI:
The impact of citizens’ involvement on their perception of the brand’s image: The case of the city of Casablanca
Abderrahmane Mousstain & Ez-zohra BELKADI
ABSTRACT:
Many authors support more participatory and inclusive place branding practices that empower stakeholders’ participation. According to this participatory point of view, the effectiveness of place branding strategies cannot be achieved without citizen involvement. However, the role of all residents as key participants in the city branding process has not been widely discussed. The aim of this paper was to determine how citizens’ involvement impacts their perceptions of the city’s image, using a multivariate model. To test our hypotheses a hypothetical-deductive reasoning by quantitative method was chosen. Our investigation is based on data collected through a survey among 200 citizens of Casablanca. Results show that, the more citizens are involved, the more they tend to evaluate positively the image of the brand. additionally, the degree of involvement seems to impact satisfaction, and sense of belonging. As well, the more citizen develops a sense of belonging to the city, the more favorable his or her perception of the brand image is. Ultimately, the role of citizens shouldn’t be limited to reception. They are also Co-creators of the brand, who ensure the correlation of the brand with authentic place roots.
keywords: city branding, sense of belonging, satisfaction, impact, brand’s image.