doi:10.1016/j.cities.2004.08.005 Cities, Vol. 21, No. 6, p. 471–479, 2004 Q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0264-2751/$ - see front matter www.elsevier.com/locate/cities Media strategies for improving an unfavorable city image Eli Avraham* Department of Communication, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel Today, as cities attempt to acquire a favorable image among investors, immigrants and tourists, the leaders of many cities believe that the unfavorable images and stereotypes associated with their names are obstacles that forestall a brighter future. The object of this article is to present a review summariz- ing media strategies, that local decision-makers can employ to deal with city image-related crises, and to reverse a city’s negative image. The article first deals with the marketing of cities, images and ste- reotypes, with image management and with techniques geared to successfully deliver campaign mes- sages. It then presents 10 strategies to improve a city’s negative image: encouraging visits to the city; hosting spotlight events; turning negative characteristics into positive characteristics; changing the city’s name, logo or slogan; cultivating the residents’ local pride; solving the problem that led to the formation of the negative image; delivering counter-stereotypical messages; ignoring the stereotype; acknowledging the negative image; and geographic association or separation in the campaign. Q 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Place marketing; Urban image; Negative image; Urban crisis Background In the past two decades, and in particular in the lastdecade,therehasbeenasignificantincreaseinthe attempts made by place leaders, urban planners and decision-makers around the world to promote a posi- tive and attractive image for their cities. These people believe that their cities’ public images have far-reach- ing implications for significant decisions made by sev- eral target audiences: the residents of other cities (where to emigrate to, visit or work); investors or the management of companies, industrial factories or plants, and entrepreneurs (where to move a factory to, where to establish a business, where to find busi- ness opportunities); the city residents themselves (whether to stay or to leave, whether to recommend the city to others, real-estate value, local pride); and national decision-makers (whether to allocate budgets and resources, whether to establish industrial areas). Due to the growing competition between cities and increasing globalization—leading to more emi- gration, investments and jobs out of town—many cit- ies around the world constantly ‘‘re-package’’ themselves and their resources in an attempt to present an attractive image. This is done in order to successfully compete for international status that could assist in attracting tourists, conferences, sporting events, entrepreneurs, investors, indus- tries, company headquarters and global capital (Ashworth and Voogd, 1990; Avraham, 2002, 2003a; Gold and Ward, 1994; Dunn et al., 1995; Kotler et al., 1993, 1999, 2002; Bradley et al., 2002; Short and Kim, 1998; Young and Lever, 1997; Paddison, 1993; Morgan and Pritchard, 2002; Gold, 1994; Nielsen, 2001). Along with the growing awareness of the impor- tance of a city’s positive image, many place leaders believe that their city’s negative image is an obstacle that prevents it from becoming more attractive and in fact forestalls a brighter future. The frustration of these place leaders is immense, since they believe that the negative image is false, and that the actual situation in their city is much better than public perceptions of it. The object of this article is to present a literature review that summarizes the media strategies that local decision-makers can employ in order to deal with city image-related crises and to reverse a city’s negative image. While many articles have analyzed in depth specific cases in which one or two cities have undergone favorable image transformations (Tilson and Stacks, 1997; Short and Kim, 1998; Dunn et al., 1995; Hooper, 2002; Baral et al., 2004; Frisby, 2002), virtually no articles summarize the * Fax: +972-4-8249120.; e-mail: eavraham@com.haifa.ac.il 471