In recent years, thanks to the process of economic globalization and new information and communication technologies, cities, countries, and territories compete to attract the attention of investors, tourists, talent, and international institutions or research centers. The objective is to improve perception, positioning, and what we have come to call reputation. Intangible capital has become a critical vector of competitiveness and economic development in the era of "the reputation economy." During the last decades, these territorial positioning and promotion strategies were based on marketing techniques in an attempt to emulate the best practices of the corporate sector and multinational companies. Marketing, an Anglo-Saxon term that began to be used in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, was very oriented towards selling the benefits of a product or service. When transferred to the territorial sphere, it influenced the promotion policies of countries and cities, turning our territories into products like commercial brands. That is why today we speak of nation-brand or city-brand.
However, a nation-brand, and especially a city-brand, should not copy corporate marketing strategies. The most successful nation-brands or city-brands are those that are based on a territorial identity managed coherently from both a rational and emotional point of view. A territorial brand must efficiently integrate those elements of differentiation that make them unique, such as culture, history, heritage, nature, connectivity, or economic advantages. Attributes that allow reinforcing the projection of their key sectors to generate new economic and social value.
Today we no longer speak of territorial marketing but of place branding, that is, the promotion of a territory's brand. Place branding ---or territorial branding---, is a strategic process that allows territories to build, manage, and communicate their identity. It must be unique, differentiated, and bold to position itself in increasingly competitive environments and thus attract investments, tourists, talent, companies, and resources. But a territorial brand is not a marketing campaign; it is a value proposition. The best city-brands or country-brands are those that tell us stories about "us." They know how to generate and project the territory in the collective imagination as a meeting place. Good territorial brands are culturally open and help us discover where we are going together to build a shared future. In short, a territorial brand is nothing more than knowing how to design and project a shared purpose that generates solid and lasting emotional connections.
All this reflection is necessary to analyze and build a coherent and efficient strategy for promoting Catalonia in the world. In the field of promoting Catalonia as a country-brand, significant mistakes have been made for years that hinder the possibilities of projecting the country in a powerful and coherent way. We know that public institutions of all kinds often err on the side of self-referentialism in an attempt and obsession to gain visibility and centrality. Whether in the field of place branding or specifically in economic promotion, it is as important to know how to promote a territorial brand as it is to know what a country-brand or a city-brand is not.
A brand is not a logo, which is a secondary product. Visual identity is solely a symbol of differentiation, it aids marketing and reinforces the brand from a legal standpoint. A brand is also not a slogan, although it reinforces the value proposition and gives it personality, but it is simply an element of verbal identity. A brand, especially a country-brand or a city-brand, cannot be a product, because a product or a service is something that can be replicated or imitated. A territorial brand is an intangible, an indicator or a perception of quality and a value proposition that translates into a good reputation based on shared beliefs. And it is there where the Generalitat de Catalunya has traditionally made relevant international projection and positioning errors time and again.
An example of this is the recent institutional presence of Catalonia at the World Urban Forum (WEF) held in Cairo (Egypt) from November 4 to 8, 2024. A forum dedicated to addressing the most urgent problems facing the world from an urban point of view on central themes such as housing, economy, public policies, or the impact of climate change. In it, Catalonia traditionally has a stand as a shared space for the different participating Catalan institutions to build a common narrative. Something logical from the point of view of resource optimization. However, the umbrella for the promotion of the country-brand at the great United Nations World Urban Forum was Catalonia 2050, an unrecognizable identity for the vast majority of the thousands of WEF participants.
Catalonia is not a recognizable global brand, and whether we like it or not, the most powerful global brand in the country is the Barcelona brand.The experience of recent years, especially in international economic promotion, shows that the Catalonia brand must be associated with the Barcelona brand to have greater notability, reach, and reputation. Catalonia is not a recognizable global brand, and whether we like it or not, the most powerful global brand in the country is the Barcelona brand. The Barcelona brand is an umbrella brand that must be at the service of the entire country, projecting it, using it, and protecting it from all administrations in an intelligent and coherent manner. This is how we do it at many international economic fairs and events, presenting ourselves with the brand Barcelona-Catalonia, and it works. Barcelona has achieved in recent decades ---despite the political ups and downs of the country and the city in the last decade---to become a global brand that evokes a recognizable collective imaginaryand that connects emotionally with people as well as with important actors in the great global value chains of the new economy. We should also take advantage of it from Catalan institutions by deploying a strategy of promotion and institutional presence that generates a sense of belonging and political, economic, social, and cultural cohesion.
There is no need to fear the power of the Barcelona brand. We need a well-designed and structured Catalunya brand that articulates and integrates the plurality of the territory and that reinforces the country's own cultural identity, the sense of belonging, and increases the competitiveness of a large community of citizens who aspire to be relevant in Europe and in the world. The key is to know how to build strategic alliances between the country's institutions to project Catalunya ---and Barcelona--- to the world as an example of territorial and international collaboration. Intelligently projecting our local and national identity is an asset to facilitate cooperation with other territories, as well as with international organizations and global companies, but it requires a more sophisticated country-brand governance.
I reiterate the importance of coherence between the identity of the country and the territory, its value proposition, and the experience of contact of visitors or of all political, economic, social, or cultural actors in the world for the construction of a positive, differentiated, and unique perception. The promotion of Catalunya is not a marketing strategy, but an integral and strategic approach to define and project the identity of a territory, align key actors, and build a competitive, sustainable, and equitable future. Those who have the responsibility of projecting Catalunya to the world must set aside the self-referentialism of recent years and not fear the power of the Barcelona brand. The most intelligent and efficient thing is to collaborate and build a common purpose, narrative, and an intelligent and efficient joint strategy because we will all benefit.