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Excerpt of the thesis "City image development model in Hungary on the basis of the example set by the city of Jászberény. Analysis and strategy."
Competition among cities looks back to a long history. They have been and still are fighting for power as well as for economic benefits. A fierce rivalry and influencing the competition process deliberately have been observed especially in developed cities for some decades now. Communal marketing, as a tool of city development, has been shaped and increasingly accepted in Hungary in the last ten years.
Consequently,
a community (like a settlement or a city) can be considered to be a product
'sold' on the market. I would like to note here, however, that 'selling' a
community is not equal to its sellout. A wise community - generally lead by the
local authority - assigns (in a favourable case only temporarily) the limited
right of use of the settlement's new or already existing, but freshly revived
usage or spiritual value(s).
People
have a clear picture about certain cities, and also about the sights and
services offered by them. This picture (the sum total of impressions) has an
influence on the 'propensity to buy', consequently each city must do a lot to
show a pleasant face to the outside world and to embark on deliberate
communication. Hence, creating a proper image is important for each city. Having
said that, it is very clear that an identity programme is not equal with the
design. The latter is only a component of the former. The city's image is
determined by the pictures that remain in people's minds and also by the
impressions created.
In my opinion then, a city image is nothing else than the image created in people's minds about the city. This image may and must be shaped, not only to make it as good and as nice as possible, but also from pragmatic aspects.
When I have started to write this essay, several things were on my mind. Since I am working for a PR agency, I was wondering what distinguished the communication strategy of a city/local authority from that of a different organisation or say from the introduction of a product to the market. I was also trying to find out what tool 'sells' a city better: marketing, marketing communication or PR. Some people advocate one type of tool, and some are in favour of others, but one thing is for sure: those who support the marketing view are in overwhelming majority. In Hungarian and foreign literature, the word 'marketing' pops up much more frequently than PR, and the words 'city marketing/communal marketing' are becoming increasingly fashionable and printed on people's minds. I believe that a successful city image development can be carried out by combining these views.
My
essay serves exactly for this purpose. I have intended to describe in this
thesis Jászberény's
communication endowments, its current (mass) communication and image
development, in addition to coming up with ideas regarding city development.
This work is also a Public Relations (PR) strategy, and as well known, PR is always tied to a certain organisation. In this respect, the essay has been written mostly from the local authority's point of view, because this organisation plays the co-ordinator's role in the integrated communication of the city.
The essay consists of three sections.
1.
Jászberény's communication opportunities
This
section shows that Jászberény, a small, but rich city in the Hungarian region
of Jászság, has excellent communication opportunities such as tourism and
economy, the location and natural endowments of the city,
the wildcards of the historical background, the identity-conscious local
community and teaching/public education. These are the main points to rely on
when shaping the city image, in a way that only the real attractions are
emphasised, because if something is news for us, it may not have a news value
for nation-wide media, tourists and investors/businessmen.
Consequently, the current communication activities of the city can be
characterised on the basis of these attributes to pave the way for the city's
new European quality communication strategy.
2.
An overview of the current communication
In this section, I have reviewed the current communication of the city by means of the classical polito-epistemological trio: mass communication on an international, national and city level.
Concerning
international communication, this is realised through the institute of twin
school/twin city relations, by foreign press policy and sports/tourism
communication.
Tourism,
sports and press policy are outstanding in nation-wide communication, and
on-line communication crops up for the first time.
Communication
on a city level is carried out in three ways: via the local media, by the basic
cultural institutions of the local authority and through other mass
communication media. (The latter comprise community fora, presentations made by
members of the representative bodies in constituencies, consultation hours,
other informative publications and brochures, as well as fora and exchange of
views staged with the participation of local entrepreneurs and enterprises).
3.
Recommendation on developing a co-ordinated communication strategy
This
section includes the proposals broken down by me to international, nation-wide
and city-level communication activities. I am explaining the goal and the
message in every case, followed by identifying the target groups. Next, I am
setting up action plans to which the PR tools are assigned.
Summary
My
conclusion is that the city uses its communication channels in line with its
opportunities, but not comprehensively: there are many people in Jászberény
who deal 'subconsciously' with PR and marketing. I have found one major
deficiency: namely the on-line communication of the city, which does not have
its own domain address (www.jaszbereny.hu)
or an independent web page. Although information on Jászberény is available
from the web page of several local companies and also from other portals, these
pages are not updated satisfactorily, and they are incomplete and sometimes
misleading.
I
have mainly focused on this area also in the recommendation part of the thesis
(of course in addition to my other non-online communication ideas).
Although a very high level of mistrust is evident in relation to the Internet
(the crisis phenomena of dotcom companies, the e-business disaster in Germany
and in the United States, the relatively inferior standard of the Hungarian
online culture – unskilled approaches/a low number of Internet users, etc.)
and yet I think that the city must now primarily concentrate on this
decentralised, computer based, interactive communication network, because out of
all media, Internet develops most dynamically. The appearance and advertising
opportunities offered by the Internet are used by an increasing number of
companies, and the amounts spent on advertising are increasing year by year also
in Hungary.
I do hope that this thesis contributes to enhancing Jászberény's economic and tourism attraction, to keeping the level of satisfaction of residents high and last but not least to developing the city's image.
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History of Jászberény