City Branding : A Brand Concept Map Analysis of a university town

Because of the links to brand equity, it is crucial for marketing managers to be aware of the brand perception and its strategic and tactical implications. This article reports an empirical application of brand concept map (BCM) to city branding, and especially to the determination of how a large university town is perceived by students. After having generated the list of attributes using Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET), we build 6 categories of important criteria when choosing a university town: economy, physical environment, activities and facilities, brand and reputation, people, and finally accessibility. The study the provides evidence that, among these attributes, Liège is particularly famous for the nightlife, the young population and the historical heritage. The effect of the students’’s country of origin appears to play a major role on the city perception. This research also gets insights into Liège’s weaknesses in terms of brand image. Managerial and research applications are provided.