Place Branding

When I read the article entitled "Strong Brands Make A Strong Nation" appeared on The Sun last Wednesday, it reminded me on what I have discussed with my fellow planner friend last Monday over his plan to move back to Malaysia. He has been working in oversea for a planning consultancy firm for the last 15 years. He mentioned about focusing on strategic and master planning as well as place making in Malaysia. We spoke about place making also known as city branding. We agreed that due to globalisation and competitiveness amongst cities for investment and human capital, for a city to go above from others, it needs to be recognised for its' special feature and identity. A city with good image and branding can attract more attention and thus, capital investment and in flow of talents. For instance, Paris as a fashion design city has attracted a lot of talented people. Image is not a jargon and can be created over night through political will. It is a character building by leveraging on existing advantages and values it has either naturally or built.

For example, New York City is known as Big Apple simply not because it has a lot of apple trees. City State of Singapore known for its cleanliness and greenery is a collective effort with years of nurturing. Melbourne as a liveable city is the efforts of getting all stakeholders to work together. Boston known as an educational hub is the gathering of many top universities and colleges. The list can go on and every city manager is searching for their best branding. At the end of the day, it is about economy.

In fact PJ has a lot of uniqueness and features to promote. I am happy to see the opening of Old Town White Coffee Cafe in the Section 1 of PJ, also known as Old Town as this might further promote the place, but sad to say that the so called Old Town is actually referring to the Old Town of Ipoh. We missed an opportunity to promote PJ. Perhaps it is time seriously for soul searching rather than a gimmick talk only. For doing so, greater engagement with stakeholders is important, I mean the original and long enough residents of PJ and not only confine ourselves to the newcomers.