Review on the process of identifying a city brand slogan and power brand assets: The case of Daejeon, Korea

Abstract

This study, as part of the 7030 project, which celebrates in 2019 the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Daejeon as a city and the 30th anniversary of its promotion to a Metropolitan City, places its first purpose on analysing the internal and external marketing-related environments of the city and accordingly, identifying core values (keywords) for the city marketing and finally, suggesting an alternative brand slogan comprising the keywords. A second purpose is, for the purpose of achieving the slogan, to define power brands through the exploration, classification, and assessment of the existing brand assets. Firstly, this study identifies 18 keywords based on the internal and external environmental analysis and, based on two criteria, whether the value is shared by citizens and how it differentiates Daejeon from other cities. The study suggests a revised slogan: "a city of innovation and capacity, pursuing a life of composure and dignity". Subsequently, to actualize this slogan, this study detects a total of 423 city brand assets and classifies them into eight categories, based on which it conducts an AHP analysis and computes the relative weights of the categories, while it conducts the IPA to evaluate the levels of the recognition and importance of each asset. The AHP weight evaluation, as well as the IPA, is conducted by a citizen planning board of about 50 people. The results of such a group evaluation differs by the background of the rater, and acknowledging the tendency, this study suggests how to interpret and utilize the evaluation results. Finally, it computes the final power brand asset score, which is a function of the AHP weight and IPA point. Such a power brand selection process is then used to develop guidelines and principles for the marketing of each category of brand assets.