Branding, visual identity and competitiveness of cities - analysis and comparison of Split and Osijek cases

U ovom radu naslova „Brendiranje, vizualni identitet i konkurentnost gradova – analiza i usporedba slučajeva Splita i Osijeka“ istražuju se procesi brendiranja i vizualnog identiteta na primjeru tih dvaju gradova. U prvom, odnosno teorijskom dijelu rada prvo se iznose glavni pojmovi i definicije brendiranja i vizualnog identiteta te se navode njihove međusobne razlike i odnosi. U sljedećem dijelu objašnjava se razlika brendiranja tvrtki, organizacija i proizvoda od brendiranja gradova, a sve to kako bismo se približili užoj temi ovog rada, odnosno brendiranju Splita i Osijeka. Ta dva poglavlja posljednji su dio teorijskog dijela i otvaraju hipoteze koje su postavljene na početku istraživanja. Generalna hipoteza je da je splitski brend vidljiviji i pozitivniji od onog osječkog, a analiza odgovora ispitanika to i potvrđuje. Istraživanjem su pokrivene razne teme poput prepoznatljivosti vizualnog identiteta ovih gradova, percepcije o poslovnim prilikama koje nude, prvih asocijacija na njih i kvalitete njihovog brendiranja. U raspravi kojom je rezultirala analiza odgovora ispitanika otkriveni su najveći problemi i jednog i drugog brenda te izgledni razlozi zbog kojih je Split trenutno konkurentniji grad.This paper entitled "Branding, visual identity and competitiveness of cities – analysis and comparison of Split and Osijek cases" explores the processes of branding and visual identity on the example of these two cities. In the first, theoretical part of the paper, the main concepts and definitions of branding and visual identity are first presented, and their differences and relationships are indicated. The next part explains the difference of branding of companies, organizations, and products from the branding of cities, all in order to get closer to the basic topic of this work, that is, the branding of Split and Osijek. These two chapters are the last in the theoretical part and they opened the hypotheses that were set at the beginning of the research. The general hypothesis is that the Split brand is more visible and positive than that of Osijek, and the analysis of the respondent’s responses confirms it. The research covers various topics such as the recognition of the visual identity of these cities, the perception of the business opportunities they offer, the first associations with them and the quality of their branding in general. The discussion that was result of analysis of responses revealed major issues of both brands and proposed the likely reasons why Split is currently a more competitive city