EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - The Hague - International City of Peace and Justice

The Hague - International City of Peace and Justice - NL

Introduction

The Hague is currently implementing a city branding strategy. In the opinion of the city government and consulted experts the image that diverse national and international target groups have of The Hague does no longer correspond with the actual situation. With its ongoing campaign the city seeks to positively change this image in order to attract more economic activity and inhabitants to the city.

Problem

The city of The Hague seeks to meet several objectives with its city branding strategy:

attracting more private investors to the city;
attracting specific user groups to the city, such as new inhabitants and tourists;
maintaining the current level of purchasing power amongst The Hague residents;
adjusting and improving the image of The Hague amongst inhabitants, in the Netherlands and abroad.

Description

The city branding strategy adopts a three-pronged approach. Firstly, it will position The Hague as the ‘international city of peace and justice’. To achieve this position, the city branding strategy proposes:

The institution of a Peace Museum: ‘every European child must have visited The Hague once to experience how much suffering is caused by armed conflict, and how meaningful it is when conflicts are resolved without the use of violence´.
Two annual editions of the ‘The Hague Festival’, both centred around a theme in the field of peace and justice, will be organised.
In its 'city dressing' and the design of the public space, peace and justice will play its part as well. Streets will be renamed, statues of iconic people will be erected.
The city will encourage the organisation of conferences and seminars on peace and justice.
An educational programme on peace and justice to be taught at schools and colleges in the The Hague region.

Secondly, the city will position The Hague as an ‘attractive city’:

The city will improve the number of cultural activities accessible to both Dutch residents and expats.
A new state-of-the-art conference venue will be developed within the The Hague city limits.
Better signage will make the city more accessible to visitors.
Businesses in the city will be encouraged to offer both Dutch and English service in bars, restaurants, hotels and taxis. The city will try to achieve the same for its own services, mostly in public transport.
The lighting and design of the public space in certain high profile locations within the city will be improved.
The Hague is in need of a new ‘icon’. This can be a high profile building, but also an iconic work of art, or another attraction. This new icon will give potential visitors an extra impetus to visit the city and then will postively change their image of The Hague.

The third line of action concerns the management of the city logo and the city promotion campaign:

In its city branding strategy, The Hague has chosen to develop a logo without text – there is no slogan to accompany the logo. The City of The Hague will manage the usage of the logo.
In promoting The Hague, the city branding strategy will focus on Public Relations instead of the stereotypical advertising campaign. Grassroots tactics will build awareness of the brand ‘The Hague’ and drive word of mouth. Story telling, human icons and the physical assets of the city will take the centre stage in the The Hague promotion campaign.
The first phase of the promotion campaign will centre on the residents of The Hague. The city acknowledges the fact that the most important ambassadors of the city brand are the city’s inhabitants.
Mid-2007 the promotion campaign will be extended to include national and international target groups as well.

Approach

In the city branding strategy, two main target groups are identified and specified in sub-groups.

The first group is composed of:

The Hague residents
companies and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in The Hague
visitors to The Hague
students in The Hague

The second group comprises:

residents and companies in the The Hague region (Haaglanden)
residents and companies in the Netherlands
people visiting the region and/or the Netherlands
foreign companies

The second group is the main target of the city branding strategy. Within this second group, thefocus will be on international organisations and expats.

Organisation and process management
The following parties are involved in the city branding strategy of The Hague:

The city branding strategy will be managed on a day to day basis by the City Marketing Manager (CMM). The CMM is not a civil servant. The CMMs main task is to offer advice to the city branding stakeholders, including the city government. The CMM oversees a small staff of two project managers, one representing the city government and one representing the business community.
Advisory Council City Marketing. This council is made up by ten to fifteen stakeholders from the business community. The members give advice on the city branding strategy and bring in their personal network in order to smoothly implement the city branding strategy. The council is chaired by the aldermen responsible for city marketing.
Within the city government, the city branding strategy is firmly grounded through the Process Group City Marketing. In this Process Group all relevant actors from within the city government are represented. The Process Group is for a large part responsible for the execution of the city branding strategy. The city government's project manager resorting under the CMM chairs the Process Group.

Results

In November 2007, the logo for The Hague was presented and the promotion campaign kicked off. The rest of the city marketing strategy is to be implemented in the 2007-2010 period.

To see whether the The Hague city branding strategy will prove to be successful, we evaluate if the strategy has incorporated the ‘Guiding Principles for Branding a Cities’ that was composed by the leading American NGO CEOs for Cities (for the full document, see the link below).

The city branding strategy of The Hague follows a clearly defined objective and plan (principle 1);
The desired brand of The Hague as the international city of peace and justice is credible (principle 2);
The city brand strategy is specific and clearly prioritised (principle 3);
The city brand strategy does not fully make use of the city’s talent, for example, local students could be more involved in executing the brand strategy. The strategy could be more resourceful in this respect (principle 4);
The Hague explicitly chooses to use grassroots tactics in its promotion campaign (principle 5);
The city branding strategy aims to communicate its brand not only by word of mouth but in a highly visual manner as well (principle 6);
The The Hague brand positioning is strongly place driven (principle 7), it will be hard for other cities to emulate The Hague’s position as international city for peace and justice;
The city branding strategy acknowledges the fact that successful city branding is a long term, ongoing process (principle 8), and asks for year long, open ended commitment from the city government and the business community;
The message that the city branding strategy proposes to communicate is consistent (principle 9);
Considerable attention is devoted to ensuring all relevant stakeholders are involved and committed (principle 10).

For the largest part, the city branding strategy of The Hague seems to follow the most important principles of city branding. This is, of course, not a guarantee for success per se. At first sight it remains unclear how the responsibilities between the different organising parts are arranged. Good cooperation between all stakeholders involved is a must.

The execution of the strategy rests for a large part with the Process Group. The level of commitment to the city branding strategy by this group, and their relation with the advisory council might be crucial for the success of the city branding strategy.

Resources used

For 2007, the city government has budgeted 3.45 million euros for the start and implementation of the city branding strategy. For 2007, a contribution of 10 per cent from the business community is expected. This amount is not yet included in the budget. For the 2008-2010 period, more financial commitment by the business community is anticipated.

Contact info

City of The Hague
Mr Matthijs Gordijn, tel. +31 70 353 4391

Project start date

01/11/2006

Links

Visit the City of The Hague website Visit the CEOs for Cities website Read more on the City Marketing Strategy of The Hague (in Dutch)Download ‘Branding your City – a guidebook for city leaders’ by CEOs for Cities on the EUKN website

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Urban economy

Keywords

Competitiveness