Collective place branding - an alternative strategy for territorial development compared to geographical indications?

Geographical Indications (GIs) protecting the origin of specific food products are expanding worldwide and promoted as first order tool for agricultural and local development in developing countries. At the same time, collective place brands are adopted by public and private sectors in Europe as novel strategy to jointly valorise and promote a package of place-specific (food) products and (tourism) services, which supports a distinctive territorial identity or a territorial project.We here present two cases of collective place branding from France and Morocco, with the objective to compare them with GIs and to uncover their potential to contribute to sustainable territorial development.Results indicate that collective place brands can be used as alternative (or complementary) strategy for supporting agricultural and territorial development. Contrary to GIs, these brands represent an integrated approach to territorial development, involve various local actors, are more flexible in use and less subjected to legal and administrative rules. They can create synergy effects and increase the overall visibility of places and their endogenous assets. On the other hand, collective place brands need leadership and cooperation in order to be successful. Moreover, collective place brands require a long-term commitment from the public and private sector for inducing novel forms of territorial governance. Mechthild Donner holds an MBA for International Marketing from Reutlingen University (Germany). She has practical sales and marketing experience from working in an international agrifood company located in the Netherlands. In 2016, she has finalized her PhD at Montpellier SupAgro and Wageningen University within the European Commission Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates program AGTRAIN (www.agtrain.eu). Her focus is on territorial marketing strategies for agrifood products in Europe and Morocco