全球城市競爭力項目主席彼得?卡爾?克羅索：成都城市品牌未來可塑性極強

每經記者 官遠星    每經實習記者 黃名揚    每經編輯 宋思艱    

“從奔馳、迪奧，到蘋果、李維斯……大企業幾乎從來不吝嗇，花費相當大的努力和成本去培養自身的品牌價值。” 全球城市競爭力項目主席、經濟學家、美國巴克內爾大學經濟系教授彼得·卡爾·克羅索如此表示。

今日（5月19日）下午，2018中國上市公司品牌價值與創新論壇在成都舉行。

本屆上市公司品牌價值與創新論壇，“智囊團”陣容華麗升級。作為“升級版智囊團”成員之一，克羅索教授在論壇現場發表了題《品牌與城市競爭力的互助共生》的演講，從學術角度分享品牌與城市的共生關系，為企業和城市培育品牌價值提供了新穎視角。

全球城市競爭力項目主席、經濟學家彼得•卡爾•克羅索（Peter Karl Kresl）（每經記者 張建/攝）

準確定位城市品牌及其重要

全球經濟轉型換擋，品質之外，品牌競爭已成為制勝關鍵。而在克羅索教授看來，城市品牌的建立同樣重要，并與該地的企業品牌互生共贏。

事實上，克羅索教授一直致力于研究品牌價值在城市層面的實踐與應用，并長期關注中國城市發展。他曾在聯合國人居署、經合組織等多次發表文章，并與中國學者共同撰寫《全球城市競爭力報告》等。

他認為，塑造城市品牌，就是為了讓一座城市的形象印在消費者、游客、企業，包括市民和城市管理者們的腦海里。“比如，芝加哥被稱作”風城“、巴黎又叫‘光明之城’、羅馬別稱是‘不朽之城’、紐約被稱為‘大蘋果’、舊金山是‘海灣之城’”。

他總結這類城市品牌的打造，都是緊緊抓住自身某個“眾所周知”的特點。“這種城市名片有利于城市品牌的快速傳播，卻無法展現當地企業的品牌特征”。

“如巴黎修建埃菲爾鐵塔，向世界宣布法國成功地建造了這個復雜的工業鋼結構。以此傳遞其工程、冶金、制造業、鋼鐵建筑等現代工業的發達形象。”克羅索教授贊嘆道，以這種方式宣傳自己的巴黎，成功為該城市甚至整個法國的汽車、輪船、火車等制造企業，樹立了同樣積極的品牌形象，確立了相關行業的企業在國際上的較高地位。

由此可見，明確且有產業指向的城市品牌，能夠反向使企業品牌隨之獲益。

然而，他也坦言，要準確傳遞出城市的品牌形象，對城市管理者們來說并不是一件容易的事。“比如英國一直很想打造一個潮流、創新、創意的國家形象，但遺憾的是，他們的宣傳推廣卻總是把自身往騎士、鄉村和輝煌的歷史上靠。”

因此，在他看來，明確城市品牌的定位非常重要。但作為城市的主體構成，市民和企業家更應積極獻言獻策。

“城市品牌塑造是一個嚴肅的命題，對于城市本身與生存在城市中的企業來說都是至關重要的。”克羅索教授建議到，如果在城市品牌塑造的問題上，一味地聘請第三方“專家”，可能造成打造出來的城市品牌與地區本身的歷史、人文特點相違背的后果。“我們應該更聚焦市民，畢竟他們才是最懂這片土地的人，而這個城市最終的發展目標也要依靠他們去實現。”

建議成都應突出高科技品牌特征

“濯錦江邊兩岸花，春風吹浪正淘沙”，成都這座歷史名城早就吸引到了外國友人的目光。

“2006年，我第一次就來過成都。” 在談到成都城市品牌時，克羅索教授肯定了這座錦繡城市多年來努力的成果。“對成都而言，如今城市品牌的崛起，絕非一朝一夕之功，而是長期積累的結果。”

他回憶道，那時他就獲知摩托羅拉在成都有廠區，因特爾也即將在此建成新廠區。另外，這里還有數所科技型高校、100多家小型科技初創企業。同時，勞動力的受教育程度也相對較高。“顯而易見，那時的成都正站在通往成為一個‘科研技術’城市的道路上。這是成都一直以來想要向外界傳遞的城市形象。”

《每日經濟新聞》記者注意到，除了肯定，克羅索教授也誠懇地對成都的城市品牌建設闡述了他的思考。

他首先強調，成都是一座適合旅游和居住的城市，“從大熊貓到金沙遺址，從變臉到川菜美食，從悠閑自得的民眾心態到休閑之都宜居城市……成都不是一座古老、衰退、污染嚴重的工業城市。”他認為，成都應該繼續發揮自己的優勢。

此外，克羅索教授提到，成都有許多技術與工程、石油、信息技術和科技類高校。在他看來，作為高科技和研發城市，在成都不應刻意強調電子裝配等低技術業務，而應突出“高科技”的品牌特征。他類比城市品牌塑造極其成功的硅谷城市群說道，“就像硅谷，從一開始他所象征的就是高科技研發，生產組裝環節就是被排除在外的。”

事實上，很多城市在塑造自身品牌時，都難免“走岔路”。

基于此，他再三強調，一定要讓他人根據城市已取得的成就來作判斷。“”查爾斯·蘭德利是以想像力和創意推動城市改造的國際權威，他認為，如果一個城市想要打造‘創意城市’的形象，那么它絕不能自稱“創意城市”，你可以采取行動，比如說，開展研究、幫助新公司申請專利、舉辦高級研討會和會議等等，這些活動會讓自然地人們認識到，這是一個學習、生活和工作等各方面都有創意的城市。“

“關鍵的是，要順其自然。”克羅索教授總結道。

附演講全文（英文）：

The Correlation of Branding and Urban Competitiveness

When I told my friends that I was going to spend a week in Chengdu at a very interesting conference, invariably the response was "Oh, will you get to see the pandas?" This is what Chengdu is to the average person who lives in the rest of the world, if they know Chengdu at all. Is this adequate for the people who work in Chengdu and who are proud of their city - isn't Chengdu more than pandas, important and cute as they are? Paris is more than croissants; Chicago is more that the stockyards, Tokyo is more than cherry trees - so what of Chengdu.

This gets us to the practice of branding. Companies spend considerable effort to brand themselves - Mercedes Benz, Christian Dior, Levi's jeans, Apple and other firms all have carefully developed and managed brand identities. The brand gives them a certain place in the market and the image of quality or affordability or durability in the mind of the consumer.

But we can see how this can go wrong when a company such as Volkswagen does something that damages the image, such as cheating on diesel emission tests, or when a major bank, such as Wells Fargo or HSBC, is found to have laundered funds from illegal activities or deceived its customers. In these instances the brand now conveys deception or illegality or some other unacceptable activity. A successful brand has to be developed, nurtured and maintained scrupulously.

Most of you are specialists in business enterprises, and you all have some understanding of how important a company's brand is to its long-term vitality. I doubt there is much I could tell you about corporate branding that you do not already know. My special interest is in cities and in their competitiveness in a competitive world, that of the struggle for economic activities, corporate locations, talented and skilled workers, and reputation in a world of aggressive cities all interested in obtaining the same things. Nonetheless there is a strong linkage between the brand of a city and the possible branding of the companies that operate within its boundaries. So how is a city to succeed in this global competitive struggle and how can it work to benefit its local business enterprises?

One example from recent history will illustrate effectively how this can be done. In 1871 France lost the Franco-Prussian War and was humiliated into ceding to Prussia two of its provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, and the city of Strasbourg. France was known as a country that specialized in agriculture that was renowned for its famous wines and cheeses, for oysters and seafood, as well as for art, music and culture in general. Britain was known for ship building, bridge building and steam locomotives, while Prussia was renowned for manufacturing, heavy industry, and war material. What could France do to alter its international image, and perhaps even its self-perception? The solution was to build the Eiffel Tower! French engineer Gustav Eiffel proposed the tower, for the World's Fair in 1889 as a symbol of this alternate image of France. In retrospect we can see the Tower as a graceful and impressive structure, but immediately the Tower was attacked by artists, musicians, sculptors and architects who, of course, saw it as an affront to the image of France they had so carefully developed over centuries. The beauty they had worked to create was insulted by what they saw as the Tower's ugliness.

In reality the Tower served no practical purpose, in that it housed neither offices

nor apartments, nor was it particularly beautiful, as things in France naturally should be. But what the Tower did was declare to the world that France, having successfully constructed this complex structure of industrial steel, was a nation of engineering, of metallurgy, of manufacturing, of steel construction, and, indeed, of modern industry. France, having branded itself in this way, gave legitimacy for its manufacturing firms to brand themselves similarly and to hold their heads high internationally. They too could be a nation of automobiles, of ships and trains, of factories and of advanced manufacturing - and ultimately of the TGV! In 1964, the Tower was actually given historical landmark status. This successful exercise in 'city branding' has given inspiration to hundreds of other cities to undertake branding exercises, exercises that have similar positive impacts on the firms that are identified with that city.

A quite different experience with branding took place in what has become known as Silicon Valley. Here there is no single metropolitan area or city, but rather a set of several cities in the Santa Clara Valley - San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Mountain View. In 1957 after Sputnik, President Eisenhower turned to Fairchild Semiconductor to make transistors for the space program. After this Hewlett-Packard, Stanford University, and many other companies developed. William Shockley, the inventor of the transistor moved to Palo Alto to care for his ailing mother and had an impact on the activity of these firms for many years. No municipal authority came up with the term Silicon Valley; rather it was first used in a local newspaper in 1971. Hence the term was developed to describe what the firms in the area were actually doing - using silicon for manufacture of semiconductors for use in solid-state devices in computers and micro-electronics. This led to very sophisticated research to create new products and, of course, new firms. In a sense this was a bottom-up process, from firms to the city or region than the typical top-down, from the city to the firms. From the beginning there was no reference to anything but high technology research and development - assembly of products was to be done elsewhere.

In the case of the Eiffel Tower, we have a government designing a project that would have an inspirational impact on the nation's industrial firms, whereas in Silicon Valley, business firms and entrepreneurs engaged in activity to which outsiders gave a descriptive term. Similar to this would be the industrial district in Germany, the Ruhr - no advertising agency for city official designed this designator, it just evolved out of the industrial work that was done by the firms located there, and the term came into use locally in the mid-19th century and internationally in the years following the First World War. It is clear that the companies in these regions all benefitted from location in Silicon Valley or the Ruhr, in that it gave them an identity that was very positive, it linked them with other very successful companies, and made it easier to attract desirable skilled workers. The brand of the company was tightly linked with the brand of the region.

An example that runs counter to this is that of the Research Triangle Park, in the state of North Carolina in the US. This is a research center that was the idea of a couple of individuals who saw North Carolina as a somewhat backward state, but that had three universities in close proximity to each other: Duke University, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. They took the idea of a research center situated in the midst of these three research universities to Governor, and after much discussion the idea was approved in 1955. A year later there was a new President of the University of North Carolina who supported strongly the Research Triangle Center idea. It took another decade before the idea was realized when IBM located a large research facility there. It soon grew to become perhaps the most successful research park in the US. It now has over 200 companies and 50,000 workers, all in research. The Center is owned and operated by a private Research Triangle Foundation. Hence, it offers yet another model of how to develop a brand, that of "collective entrepreneurship". In this instance the idea and the actual brand existed before there were any structures or activity in the area and it was realized by individuals in the private, university and government sectors. - a purely top-down approach to branding.

On the other hand, the identity or brand of a region or city that is in decline also extends to the identity or brand of most of its component companies. In declining regions or cities of the US, such as those in the old rust belt the malaise extends to firms that are based there. They all decline together as they cannot establish a linkage with one or more firms in stronger and/or rising region or city. The same may be true for cities in the North-East of China. The best option for these firms is often to relocate to another region and to work to re-brand themselves in a more positive image.

The difficulty those in charge of a city or country have in publicizing their message about the local brand, is clearly shown when Britain was trying to project the image of a country that was cool, creative and innovative, a survey of promotional literature from scores of British towns promoted images of knights in armour, country peasants and the glorious past. Where were the visional leaders and the risk-takers? What were those who design company brands to do? Go with the solid past or with the possible future? Was it all irrelevant to them so that their branding was utterly up to them with no assistance from government, national or local?

City and company branding

The purpose of branding for a city is to create an image of the city in the minds of consumers, tourists, businesses, other cities, and, of course, of its own residents and of the city administration itself. Some of the brands capture some recognized aspect of the city such as Chicago the Windy City, Paris the City of Light, Rome the Eternal City, New York the Big Apple, and San Francisco the City by the Bay. They are a short-hand way of capturing some identifier that conveys meaning to the user, but they need not convey anything that captures the economic activity of the firms located there and that they can build on for their own image or brand. Some are aspirational in that they seek to elevate the character and status of the city: Atlanta the Athens of the South, Boston the Athens of America, Edinburgh the Athens of the North (of Britain) are all examples. Others are humorous: Gallup (New Mexico, US) Drunk Driving Capital of the World or Cape Hatteras (North Carolina, US) Graveyard of the Atlantic, in recognition of the vast number of ships on the bottom of the sea nearby. The imagination seems to be unlimited here.

However, there is a more serious side to city branding and how it relates to the branding done by the cities and the companies that are part of that urban economy. One danger is that inviting outside professionals to manage the place branding exercise may open the city officials to charges that they are ignoring, or distorting parts of the place's character, history or even population. Local residents must be central to the initiative, since the aspirations they seek to realize are best understood by themselves and must be integral to the lives they live and wish to live. Outsiders often adopt with little accommodation to the local situation an existing strategic plan for branding and marketing that they have developed for another situation. As the architect Eero Saarinen stated, "Only little can be accomplished in civic improvement, unless the people of towns and cities themselves, individually and collectively contribute their positive support". These words are often not followed, and it has been estimated that 86 per cent of city branding initiative fail within the first year. One of the leading consultants in this area has stated: "Many consider that branding is purely a function of marketing communications and they do not take into account the behavioral, organizational and community-wide implications that successful place-branding can bring".

What of Chengdu?

The task of Chengdu in its city branding is somewhat complex. When I was here in 2006 I was told, with some pride, that Motorola had a facility here and that Intel was close to completing its new facility. There were several universities including a university of technology, over one hundred small tech start-ups and a highly educated labor force. Clearly, the city was on a positive path to becoming a major research and technology city. This was the image that city wanted to project. I was very pleased to be asked to speak at this conference so I could see how Chengdu has developed, and in the next several days I will have that opportunity. But when one examines the information about some of the tech centers, one finds them advertising high tech activities, retail and parks, but also dormitories - dormitories for whom? For the 87,000 researchers with advanced degrees, many of whom are from "Ivy League universities" - or assembly workers? High tech firms in Silicon Valley and in Seattle do not mention support of dormitories, rather they celebrate the fact that they support fleets of buses that transport highly paid and highly skilled workers from the corporate research facility to desirable living areas in San Francisco or downtown Seattle. The image given is quite positive about the desirability of the company as a place to work and about the high level of the research work that is done in these facilities.

A cautionary note. Charles Landry, has argued that a city that is trying to become a 'creative city' should never refer to itself as a 'creative city' - "let others do that by respecting what you have achieved". Do things, conducting research, helping new firms to file for patents, holding high-level seminars and conferences, and so forth, that will give the image to others that Chengdu is a creative place to study, live and work. Do not force it. St. Louis constructed its Eero Saarinen Gateway Arch, and they then declared St. Louis was the "Gateway to the West" - one New York poet responded that it was perhaps better seen as the "Exit from of the East"! A city cannot always control the use of its brand.

Chengdu will have to be very skilled in shaping the image of the city that the outside world creates for itself. In doing this it might be of value to stress the following:

- Chengdu is not an old, declining, contaminated industrial city,

- Chengdu has many aspects that make it an attractive place for tourism and for living, from the Panda Research Center, to Sichuan cooking, to a city with many urban amenities such as parks and recreation facilities, close to many attractions, and so forth,

- Chengdu is a city of higher education with universities specializing in music and art, in teaching, in sport, and, of course, in technology and engineering, petroleum, science, finance and economics, information technology, and technology,

- As a city of high technology and research, Chengdu should not emphasize electronic assembly and other low skill activities, important as they are for providing employment for lower skilled residents,

- Chengdu is also a well-connected city with direct air linkages with cities in Europe, North America and, of course, throughout Asia, and it is Air China's second hub, after Beijing,

- Chengdu is also attractive due to a lower cost of labor and of living than in China's coastal cities.

Conclusions

I would like to leave you with the following several conclusions about branding:

1)There is a close relationship between a city and its resident companies when it comes to branding. The brand should come out of the activities of the companies.

2)Companies are linked through a common brand with the nature of the competitiveness of the city in which they operate. This way they are most likely to have good relationships with other firms in the city region.

3)There are many successful examples of effective city branding from Paris to Silicon Valley to Seattle to the Research Triangle, and Chengdu could learn from studying some of them. It is most effective when the cities have things in common with Chengdu.

4)Chengdu has great potential to work to establish, in the minds of individuals, companies and cities throughout the world, a brand or an image of the city Chengdu seeks to create. Conferences such as this, but explicitly international in focus and participation are an excellent way to get the rest of the world to become aware of Chengdu and its competitive advantages. This is perhaps the best form of publicity.

Note: This paper relies on work that was done for my book (with Daniele Ietri), Creating Cities/Building Cities, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2017, esp. ch.

全球城市競爭力項目主席、經濟學家彼得•卡爾•克羅索（Peter Karl Kresl）（每經記者 張建/攝）

演講全文（中文譯稿）：

企業品牌與城市競爭力共生多贏 成都品牌塑造未來可期

來參加“2018成都全球創新創業交易會”之前，朋友們紛紛問我：“那你不就可以去看熊貓了嗎？”這大概也是世界上多數人提到成都的第一反應。然而就像巴黎不是只有牛角包、芝加哥不是只有堆場門，東京不是只有櫻花，對這座城市滿懷自豪的成都人來說，成都也絕不單單只有熊貓，雖然他們確實珍貴又可愛。

這就是品牌的概念了。從奔馳、迪奧，到蘋果、李維斯……這些企業總是投入大量的人力物力去塑造和維護自身的品牌形象。品牌則幫助這些企業在消費者心中樹立他們的形象，可能是產品質量，也可能是性價比或者耐用性，更重要的是，讓他們在市場中有了立足之地。

當品牌形象受到傷害時，事情就沒那么好辦了。諸如大眾“柴油門”，富國銀行、匯豐銀行涉嫌洗錢、欺騙顧客被曝光等負面事件發生后，都會讓這些企業的品牌蒙上“欺騙”或是“違法”的陰影。所以要塑造一個知名品牌，從建立，到培育，再到維護，每一個環節都需要我們謹慎對待。

今天在座的不乏成功的企業家，對品牌之于企業長期可持續發展的重要性一定都有自己的見解，對如何打造品牌、保持品牌活力的體會或許比我還要深刻。我主要研究城市競爭力，就是：一個城市如何在這個充滿競爭的時代脫穎而出，在經濟發展、招商引資、人才聚集以及城市美譽度等方面突顯出自身的獨特競爭力，畢竟每個城市都希望在這些方面取得成功。當然，建立城市品牌也離不開在這座城市中發展的企業對自身品牌的打造和推廣。那么，對于城市而言，究竟該如何在全球競爭中搶得先機？又該如何運用自身的競爭力去更好地幫助企業的發展呢？

有一個近代比較知名的城市范例：巴黎。1871年，法國在普法戰爭中戰敗，還割讓了阿爾薩斯-洛林的大部分地區，包括斯特拉斯堡市。當時的法國是個以農業為主國家，最出名的是葡萄酒、奶酪、牡蠣等海鮮，當然還有法國的藝術與音樂。同時期，英國的造船、橋梁、蒸汽機車等技術已經較為先進了，普魯士又以制造業、重工業以及軍火聞名。在這樣的國際環境下，法國急切地想要改變世界對自己的印象，在這樣的背景下，法國如何改變自己的國際形象以及自我認知呢？那就是重新打造一張“名片”埃菲爾鐵塔！

法國建筑師古斯塔夫·埃菲爾提出為1889年巴黎世界博覽會建造鐵塔，一舉改變法國的對外形象。雖然現在我們會覺得埃菲爾鐵塔簡直是優雅的代名詞，但當我們回顧這段往事的時候，其實會了解到當時法國的許多藝術家、音樂家、建筑師都曾反對過建造埃菲爾鐵塔，認為這座丑陋的鐵塔與巴黎辛辛苦苦打造起來的“藝術范兒”太不一致了。而實際上，埃菲爾鐵塔的確沒有什么實用價值，又不能用來住，也不能用來辦公，而且跟法國自帶的“仙氣”一比，好像也的確有點配不上。但不可否認的是，埃菲爾鐵塔的落成向世界傳遞了這樣一個信息，即法國民族可以建造出這樣一座復雜的工業鋼結構塔，說明這個國家的工程、冶煉、制造等現代工業已經可以登上世界舞臺了。以此為契機，法國制造業的公司也開始在國際市場中嶄露頭角，在汽車、火車、輪船等領域發力，并最終誕生了TGV（法國高速鐵路系統）。在1964年，埃菲爾鐵塔也終于被承認為法國巴黎地標。這一典型城市品牌效應給數以百計的城市帶來了“靈感”，他們紛紛開始研究城市品牌塑造這一課題，也希望借此給自己城市的地標型企業帶來積極影響。

另一個“殊途同歸”的例子，就是我們熟知的硅谷。硅谷并不是一個行政意義上的城市，而是由位于圣克拉拉谷中的圣荷西、帕洛阿爾托、森尼維爾、庫珀蒂諾和山景城等城市群組成。在1957年前蘇聯斯普特尼克衛星發射成功后，美國總統艾森豪威爾大力推動仙童半導體公司對晶體管在航空航天領域中的研究。在此之后，惠普、斯坦福大學等機構也在周邊開始建立。晶體管之父威廉·肖克利為了照顧自己年邁多病的母親而搬到帕洛阿爾托（硅谷附近），也促進了硅谷相關企業的發展。“硅谷”這個名字其實不是政府想出來的，而是由當地的一家報紙于1971年首次提出。“硅谷”這個名字也非常形象地描繪出當地企業的主要業務，即利用硅物質來制造半導體以及其他的電子設備硬件。后來，經過不斷演變，新的產品、新的公司、新的產業在這片土地上不斷崛起。硅谷的誕生是自下而上的過程，從個體企業到城市群再到整個地區。值得一提的是，從一開始，硅谷所象征的就是高科技研發，生產組裝環節是被排除在外的。

巴黎埃菲爾鐵塔的案例中，我們能看出政府的努力，通過設計這樣一個地標建筑有效提振了民族企業的信心。而在硅谷的故事中，是由當地的公司與企業家的經營活動給這個地區打響了名號。和硅谷相似的還有德國的工業基地魯爾。魯爾工業區形成于19世紀中葉，并在一戰后聞名世界。沒有特別的廣告宣傳或政府引導，魯爾也是因為當地工業企業而成名。顯而易見的是，不管是硅谷還是魯爾的企業后來都或多或少的受益于自身的區位，因為所在的這個地區就是最好的名片，能夠幫助他們與其他成功的公司相連接，也能夠幫助他們吸引到最優的人才。從這個角度而言，個體公司的品牌與整個地區的品牌是密不可分的。

最后，我想講講位于美國北卡羅來納州的三角研究園。20世紀50年代末期，北卡州的傳統產業發展不佳。北卡羅來納大學經濟學教授奧斯伯特等人大膽提出設想，把北卡羅來納大學、北卡羅來納州立大學和杜克大學三所相鄰的大學連接起來，利用三點支撐一個三角形平面用來做科學研究基地，把三所大學的人才集中起來，充分發揮他們的聰明才智，利用“地利人和”優勢吸引政府、財團、公司、企業來此投資創辦研究開發機構。1955年，經北卡州長的同意，建立三角研究園的方案終于得以通過并得到了北卡大學校長的支持。十年后，IBM在此設立大型研究機構，推動了美國三角研究園的快速發展，使其成為了全美乃至于全球最負盛名的高科技研究和開發中心之一。至今為止，占地約320平方公里的園區內，有超過200家研究機構入駐，雇員數量超過5萬人。建成后的美國三角研究園由三角研究基金會管理，為我們提供了通過“產業集群”模式打造區域品牌的典型案例。在這個案例中，在三角區地區有實體機構落戶、運作之前，有關于三角區的創意甚至是品牌就已經在諸如奧斯伯特教授、北卡大學、州政府層面逐漸形成了，所以這完全是一場“自上而下”的成功策劃。

另一方面，如果一個地區或城市的品牌號召力在衰退，勢必也會給當地企業帶來負面影響。例如，美國的東北部地區，被俗稱為“舊銹帶”。由于無法與處于上升期的企業或城市建立緊密的合作關系，“舊銹帶”整個地區與當地企業的氣場都是萎靡不振的。中國的東北老工業區可能也面臨相似的問題。那對于當地企業而言，也許最好的辦法就是遷址并重塑企業品牌。

要準確傳遞出城市或國家的品牌形象，對管理者們來說并不是一件容易的事。比如英國一直很想打造一個潮流、創新、創意的國家形象，但他們的宣傳推廣卻總是把自身往騎士、鄉村和輝煌的歷史上靠。我們不禁要問：英國那些時尚領袖、冒險家去哪里了？那些擅長打造企業品牌的精英要做什么？他們是不是認為在打造品牌這件事上，該堅守傳統還是嘗試變化只是他們自己的事，而與城市甚至國家完全無關呢？

塑造城市品牌，就是為了讓一座城市的形象印在消費者、游客、企業，包括市民和城市管理者們的腦海里。有些城市品牌的打造是緊緊抓住自身某個“眾所周知”的特點，比如芝加哥叫“風城”、巴黎叫“光明之城”、羅馬的別稱是“不朽之城”、紐約被叫做“大蘋果”、舊金山是“海灣之城”。這種城市名片有利于城市品牌的快速傳播，但無法展現當地企業，因此這些企業的個體品牌形象都更獨立。還有一些城市立志于提升城市品質和地位，像亞特蘭大的“南方的雅典”、波士頓的“美國的雅典”、愛丁堡的“北方的雅典”。也有的城市比較特立獨行，追求幽默效果：新墨西哥州的蓋洛普的“世界醉駕之都”、北卡羅來納州的哈特拉斯角因近海地區沉船太多被戲稱為“大西洋的墳墓”?？偠灾胂罅κ菬o窮的。

然而，城市品牌塑造更多是一個嚴肅的命題，其與城市本身以及本地企業的聯系都是城市經濟發展中的重要環節。如果一味地聘請第三方“專家”，可能造成打造出來的城市品牌與地區本身的歷史、人文特點相違背的后果。我們應該更聚焦居民，畢竟他們才是最懂這片土地的人，而這個城市最終的發展目標也要依靠他們去實現。如果那些“專家”在對城市進行全面、深入的調研之前就開始設計這座城市的品牌，那他們只能借鑒過往的經驗和案例。20世紀著名的芬蘭裔美國建筑師埃羅·沙里寧曾說過：“除非城鎮的居民貢獻自己的力量，否則城市建設將舉步維艱。”可惜的是，這句至理名言踐行者少之又少。有數據顯示，超過86%的城市品牌營銷項目在啟動的頭一年里就擱淺了。一位業內領先人士指出：我們不應該僅僅把城市品牌塑造當成營銷推廣的手段，而更應該看重這背后給市民、社區和機構帶去的影響。

對成都而言，城市品牌的崛起，絕非一朝一夕之功，而是長期積累的結果。2006年，我第一次來成都，當時有人驕傲地告訴我摩托羅拉在成都有廠區，因特爾也即將在此建成新廠區；成都還有數所科技型高校、100多家小型科技初創企業，同時這里的勞動力受教育程度也相對較高。顯而易見，那時的成都正站在通往成為一個“科研技術”城市的道路上。這是成都一直以來想要向外界傳遞的城市形象。今天，我很榮幸受邀在“2018中國上市公司品牌價值與創新論壇”上發言，并借此機會進一步了解成都迄今的發展情況。如果查閱一些科技中心的相關信息，你會發現它們宣傳的除了其高科技業務、零售和園區，還有職工宿舍。職工宿舍為誰建造？是為擁有常青藤聯盟和其他高等院校學位的8萬7千名研發人員？還是為流水線工人？相對而言，硅谷和西雅圖的高科技企業就并不會提及職工宿舍這一方面，他們更側重于宣傳企業為高薪、高技能職工提供班車服務，接送員工往返于研發辦公區和位于舊金山或者西雅圖城區的舒適住宅區。如此畫面更有利于傳遞企業適宜工作、研發水平高的形象。

在此我有一個建議。查爾斯·蘭德利是以想像力和創意推動城市改造的國際權威，他認為，如果一個城市想要打造“創意城市”的形象，那么它絕不能自稱“創意城市”，“要讓他人根據你已取得的成就來作判斷”。成都可以采取行動，比如說，開展研究、幫助新公司申請專利、舉辦高級研討會和會議等等，這些活動會讓人們認識到，成都是一個學習、生活和工作方方面面都有創意的城市。關鍵的是，要順其自然。

由埃羅·沙里寧設計的弧形拱門在圣路易士市建成后，城市宣傳稱拱門為“西向的大門”，象征圣路易士市成為美國開放西部的大門，而一位紐約詩人則認為，圣路易士弧形拱門更像是“從東部退場的出口”?？梢姡鞘衅放菩蜗蟮乃茉鞓O有可能出現“翻車”。

成都要更善于把自己打造成大家印象中的城市，有幾個可以參考的著力點：

-成都不是一座古老、衰退、污染嚴重的工業城市；

-成都適合旅游和居住，從大熊貓到金沙遺址，從變臉到川菜美食，從悠閑自得的民眾心態到休閑之都宜居城市……

-成都有許多音樂、藝術和師范類高校，當然也有許多技術與工程、石油、科學、財經、信息技術和科技類高校；

-作為高科技和研發城市，成都不應刻意強調電子裝配等低技術業務，雖然此類業務對于為低技能的居民創造就業機會很重要；

-成都是一個四通八達的城市，眾多航線將它與歐洲、北美和亞洲其他城市連接起來。它是僅次于北京，中國國航的第二個區域樞紐；

-此外，對比中國沿海城市，成都因其勞動力、生活成本低而頗具吸引力。

最后，我想我今天的發言可以歸納成以下四點：：

第一，城市整體品牌與本地企業品牌是息息相關的，而城市品牌的建立更應該側重于遵循企業的經營發展規律。

第二，通過塑造城市品牌、提高城市競爭力，能夠促進本地企業之間的互動形成良性循環，使彼此之間形成合力，更有利于企業長遠發展。

第三，準確定位城市品牌非常重要，這種定位能讓受眾在腦海中形成固有的品牌聯想，獲取更好的傳播效果。成都可以從我剛才講述的巴黎、硅谷等成功案例中獲取靈感，從而打造出自身獨一無二的城市品牌。

第四，成都的城市品牌未來可塑性非常強，相信在不久的將來成都的城市總體價值和綜合競爭力將得到進一步提升。像今天這樣的國際性論壇勢必能夠幫助成都吸引住全球的目光，讓世界知道成都這座城市的魅力，而這也應該就是最有效的品牌推廣吧。（編譯/李一佳）