www.palgrave-journals.com/pb Place Branding Vol. 2, 4, 276–296 © 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1744-0696 $30.00 276 Correspondence: Magdalena Florek , Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, School of Business, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand. Tel: + 64 3 479-5001 e-mail: mflorek@business. otago.ac.nz Adjunct, Chair of Trade and Marketing, The Poznan University of Economics, al.Niepodleglosci 10 60-967 Poznan, Poland. e-mail: m.florek@ae.poznan.pl INTRODUCTION This exploratory study aims at understanding how authorities in New Zealand cities involved in place branding have embraced the internet to support the development of place brands. The focus Papers City Council websites as a means of place brand identity communication Received (in revised form): 16th October, 2006 Magdalena Florek is a doctor of science in marketing, senior lecturer at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand and adjunct at The Poznan University of Economics, Poznan, Poland. Her publications focus on place marketing, place branding and places’ images. She has been awarded with scholarships by the Polish–US Fulbright Commission at Northwestern University, Evanston, USA and by CICOPS at Universita degli Studi di Pavia in Italy. Andrea Insch is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has a PhD in International Business and Asian Studies from Griffith University in Brisbane. Her research interests lie in the areas of place marketing and branding, the development of country of origin images and the marketing of natural resources. Juergen Gnoth is a leading member of the Tourism Research Group at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His interests lie in consumer behaviour, tourism services marketing and place branding. He deals closely with members of the tourism industry, such as hotels, airlines, operators and consultants and is Associate Editor-Research Notes of Annals of Tourism Research. Abstract This study investigates the place branding characteristics of New Zealand’s City Council websites. Focus is given to place brand-building tools delivered through the World Wide Web since it is often the first contact point for stakeholder audiences, especially those located overseas. To investigate their place branding characteristics, a conceptual framework is developed comprised of three tools of place brand identity communications: place brand design, place brand behaviour and place brand communication. The results of the content analysis of New Zealand’s 16 City Council websites shows that brand communication items were represented the most frequently (slightly more than brand behaviour characteristics), while brand design items were the most diverse. Among the surveyed websites, none was especially distinguished in terms of any of the specific features to communicate the city brand. The framework developed in this study and its application to New Zealand’s City Councils offers the first step in developing a tool to monitor and benchmark the tools of place identity and place brand communication in the online environment. Future research should be directed to monitor the place brand identity communication tools of these websites and their integration with other place identity branding tools. Place Branding (2006) 2, 276–296. doi:10.1057/palgrave.pb.6000036 Keywords: Place brand identity, place image, brand communication, websites, New Zealand