A City Branding Framework in Planning: The Case Study of Pringsewu Lampung, Indonesia

The city branding shows the relation of the goals of managing the city’s image that needs to be planned. The city branding is not about slogans, logos and promotional campaign, but it will be taken in practical program framework of the local development planning. The purpose of this paper is to identify an empirical city branding framework in Pringsewu, a historical area in Lampung Province, Indonesia. Then this paper will devise the strategies to increase a practical city branding. In order to determine branding tools information, a qualitative approach is used by in-depth interviews with twelve respondent was undertaken from professionals, government and citizens. Based on SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis of the qualitative data, the empirical programs of place branding in Pringsewu include slogan, logo and landmark. The research shows that it is not contained in local development policy and regional planning, there is a weakness from practical city branding. As the result, we suggest that a bottom-up approach based on local community should be taken to developing a place brand strategies. The three elements in branding strategies accepted for Pringsewu: 1) involved place branding in local development policy and regional planning, 2) building and revitalization for place branding infrastructure, 3) developing local community empowerment. A practical city branding could help a place to attract tourism, visitors, traders and investors then increase economic growth. Place marketing enables a strategic approach to public planning in collaboration with the private sector. The city branding can represent the community entity, geographical wideness, local development planning and potential resources. City branding provides a good starting point that would be the right strategies framework and practical approach for local development planning.