From creative industries to the creative place brand: some reflections on city branding in Poland

Contemporary cities function in a competitive environment. In order to succeed, they build their comparative advantages using various instruments. One of them is city branding. Effective branding contributes to the increase of cities’ attractiveness and thus to their competitiveness in various fields. Cities with a clear, credible and attractive vision of development have better development prospects. Creativity is used often as a part of branding strategies. Some cities describe themselves as creative and this is justified by their potential. Some possess creative potential but do not present themselves as creative and use other assets for branding. The article presents results of a study whose goal was to determine whether and to what extent creativity, as a positive attribute of a city, is used in branding of cities—capitals of Polish regions. The results of the study prove that cities with a diverse base of economic development and high creative potential treat the creative sector as one of the assets. Cities undergoing restructuring of the economy treat creativity as a very important element of branding. Creativity is also used by cities whose creative potential is negligible. This proves how high the expectations associated with the image of the “creative city” are and at the same time show the lack of realism in policy making and designing branding strategies.