Purpose

Listening to the customers has long been a key phrase and success element in product branding. This paper aims to highlight the importance of listening to residents during the branding of a place. The study explores ways of listening to residents to ensure they are heard and also discusses the challenges and benefits related to place branding flowing from having residents participate in decision-making processes.

Design/methodology/approach

Listening to residents and offering opportunities to participate requires place branders to fully attend to, comprehend and respond to residents’ comments, requests, ideas and feedback. This study reports on how two Nordic cities – Turku and Helsinki – listen to their residents. The data used comprise face-to-face interviews, telephone and e-mail conversations and documentary material.

Findings

Residents should not be considered as one homogeneous target; participation options and channels should be adapted to the demographics and geographic issues of the different regions and resident groups.

Research limitations/implications

The role of residents and the importance of listening are crucial features in the emerging concept of inclusive place branding (Kavaratzis et al., 2017); its future conceptual development could benefit from the case examples at hand.

Practical implications

City authorities should listen to residents and provide them with opportunities to actively contribute to decision-making. Other cities could learn from the examples introduced in the paper.

Originality/value

This paper documents two Nordic examples of cities putting into practice a policy of listening to the residents, a previously neglected research area.

中文翻译：

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居民的声音——通过倾听居民的声音来发展地方品牌

目的

长期以来，倾听客户的意见一直是产品品牌塑造的关键短语和成功要素。本文旨在强调在地方品牌塑造过程中倾听居民意见的重要性。该研究探索了倾听居民意见以确保他们被听到的方法，并讨论了与因居民参与决策过程而产生的地方品牌相关的挑战和好处。

设计/方法/方法

倾听居民的意见并提供参与机会需要地方品牌商充分关注、理解和回应居民的评论、要求、想法和反馈。这项研究报告了两个北欧城市——图尔库和赫尔辛基——如何听取居民的意见。所使用的数据包括面对面访谈、电话和电子邮件对话以及文件资料。

发现

不应将居民视为同质目标；参与选择和渠道应适应不同区域和居民群体的人口统计和地理问题。

研究限制/影响

居民的作用和倾听的重要性是新兴的包容性地方品牌概念的关键特征（Kavaratzis等，2017）；其未来的概念发展可以从手头的案例中受益。

实际影响

市政当局应听取居民的意见，并为他们提供积极参与决策的机会。其他城市可以从论文中介绍的例子中学习。

原创性/价值

本文记录了两个北欧城市实施听取居民意见的政策的例子，这是一个以前被忽视的研究领域。