Factores de éxito y fracaso en la comunicación política de la marca de ciudadel caso de Murcia (1978 – 2020)

Abstract

Dealing with city branding has become a subject of study in leading world universities and put into practice by governments and organisations of cities and countries. Thanks to good brand management and its effective communication, it is possible to demonstrate the achievements of management in strengthening competitiveness and the image of cities, even in a political key. Cities are spaces of reference regarding facing challenges and are also spaces of social, cultural and economic authority. Science, art, and technological innovation emerge more easily in cities, and social change and advances also allow for universal improvements in quality of life. States are not the operational units in this new knowledge based economy, but rather cities. Perhaps for this reason, the smartest way to create a competitive advantage in a globalised and open society is through a city project that invigorates the different parties, stimulates the feeling of belonging to a place and values human capital. It is what in the Anglo-Saxon world they have called ‘city branding strategies’. Territorial brands have been analysed by scholars belonging to different disciplines, predominantly those specialised in marketing, tourism, advertising, architecture or even sociology. That said, hardly any studies on city brands are carried out by professionals or experts in politics, which has underlined the complexity of this research. The intense bibliographic review carried out in this thesis has allowed us to analyse the phenomenon of branding as a holistic concept. Its application has been decisive in delimiting its study as a whole, regardless of the discipline in question. The study of a specific case of the municipality of Murcia has been an opportunity, given that the search for success or failure factors in the political implementation of its brand has resulted in a panoramic view of the elements and variables that define the possible construction of a successful city brand, of any city brand. To determine these variables, according to the theoretical framework, we have isolated a set of eight factors, based on the reference set by Kloter and Gertner (2010), who established an exhaustive decalogue for city brand processes. Braun's (2012) model, whereby the municipality's stakeholders, or interest groups, represent an influence of 30% so that the brand is clear and coincides with the perception of the rest of the citizens, has served to set the independent variable and address the main hypothesis of this research that places Participation and Dialogue as the most relevant factors. The eight selected variables have directed each open debate through the three techniques, group and individual, that we have applied: the Delphi method, in-depth interviews and focus groups. Using this methodological framework, we have tested the main objective of this research: to evaluate the influence of management, participation and communication variables on the success of the city brand implementation processes. We have also tested specific objectives, particularly demonstrating the various failed attempts that have been made in implementing the Murcia Brand since 1978, the date on which the first municipalities of democracy in Spain began to be constituted, up to 2020. Through documentary analysis we have delved into the reality of Murcia’s brand and the history of its failure. In the early years of democracy (1978-1995), the municipality of Murcia made no attempt to implement a city brand as, like all city councils in Spain, it was immersed in the democratic transition. Since then, few communication strategies have been carried out to improve the image and reputation of the city of Murcia abroad, until 2015, the date on which the ‘City of Murcia 2020 Strategy’ and its continuity with the Urban Agenda 2030 began to be defined. To conclude, the content analysis and the benchmark study have allowed for the monitoring of all elements of Murcia’s branding, and have allowed also to compare the same variables from three other Spanish cities as a tool to test the factors that determine the implementation of a successful branding strategy. The final conclusions of this thesis contribute to enriching the social function of the University and the Academy by offering, in a general manner, new possibilities to local political authorities and interest groups in the search for a city brand that lasts in the future. Also, in a particular way, it offers new possibilities and methods to define the territorial, human and cultural values that make up Murcia’s brand.