Kramfors och kampen om livskvaliteten - En diskursanalytisk studie av kommunens marknadsföring

Sammanfattning: In the era of urbanization and globalization, many small, rural and post-industrial cities struggle for growth. The competition for citizens and visitors is intense, and one commonly used strategy is to promote the city to a target audience. Place marketing, however, is homogenized to a great extent. Marketing thus seems like a useless approach, yet almost every city does it. By using discourse analysis and institutional theory, this essay aims to explain why the city of Kramfors markets itself. There are several problems arising due to the marketing of places, especially concerning the discrepancy between the city?s image and identity. The study is primarily based on interviews with politicians and public servants in Kramfors. The purpose is twofold: to find out how decisions to use place marketing are motivated, and to explore how ideas and practices about place marketing travel to and from organizations, such as a municipality. Furthermore, the study contains an examination of marketing material from Kramfors and 21 other Swedish municipalities. The promoted images show a far-reaching similarity. Based on the results from the interviews, politicians and public servants seem to feel they have no alternative but to promote their city.