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We return to "Grande Jornal"
Lisbon leads the first City Brand Ranking by Bloom Consulting
The project measures the effectiveness of the 308 Portuguese Municipalities
Based on three categories: Investment, Tourism and Talent
In the Top 25, the second position goes to Porto, while in the last place (Top 25) is occupied by Castelo Branco
It is the capital that leads the Portugal City Brand Ranking ©
Lisbon has the first place within 25 cities in the three categories:
Business, To Visit and To Live.
The second place goes to the north and it is held by the city of Porto
It becomes clear that these cities are the welcome banner of Portugal
Both to investors and tourists
The Bloom Consulting ranking measures for the first time
The efficiency of the 308 Portuguese Municipalites, analysing 3 dimentions:
Trade, Tourism and Talent
In the top there are still the cities of Braga, Oeiras and Coimbra
The first two have similar results in what concerns the category of business
But Braga is leading in the categories related to visiting and living
The "Centro" region marked its presence in this Top 25, Coimbra holds the fifth position
Closely followed by Aveiro and Leiria. These three Municipalities
Were attributed good positions in the categories of business and to live
But the same score is not registered in the category "To visit".
Looking into the top 10 list on this ranking we can see that the places
Are occupied by the most industrialized municipalities
Specially in the north and the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon
In fact, in the first 10 positions we find only one city from Algarve: Faro
The other three municipalities are bellow.
In the Bloom Consulting ranking it is still important to highlight
the fact that the Azores is not represented in the top places.
Madeira and Alentejo have one city each
While the last place (top 25) is filled by Castelo Branco.
And to look into the detailed results of this study
We have invited to this "Grande Jornal", Filipe Roquette, the Director of Bloom Consulting in Portugal.
Allow me to ask you: when the Municipalities look into this study
What can they do with this information?
This study has as main goal to position the performance of the Municipal brands,
This means, in a first stage, to bring some attention on this matter
So Municipalities realize that their brand is a great asset
And that they must work on how to position themselves within the country.
How do Portuguese people perceive each city?
Not only the Portuguese. We include national and international perceptions,
If we look into the calculations behind the ranking, we can understand that.
The first element of the ranking is calculated.
Through statistical data from Portuguese institutes.
That are compared with a second variable which is demand.
The international demand, or what the internet users
Look for in the three before mentioned categories: Business, Tourism and Talent.
Both nationals and foreigners,
We can identify which are the most searched Municipalities
And in what specific áreas, so then we cross it with a third variable:
What do the Municipalities offer through their websites and social media profiles?
If they communicate effectively or not
If they can reach their goals or if they have a lot of traffic or time spent on the website,
If they have a lot of followers in social media or not.
All this variables shows us how strong the brand is.
Which means, that from the performance it is possible to attribute a position
And looking at the 25 municipalities in the Top 25
We can see that there aren't many surprises in what concerns
the common sense about this municipalities, this is the representation
of what we already think about the country, where the strength is by the coastline
and that the municipalities in the interior and the islands show this disadvantage in their brand
That may be right, but on the other hand we have Braga in third place
And Funchal in second place in Tourism, which is a very strong position.
It is normal that Lisbon and Porto appear in the top, especially Lisbon due to being the capital of the country
it has the widest recognition internationally in terms of Portuguese municipalities
And the brand's strength follows that protagonism.
It is quite interesting to start evaluating internally
All of this positions and understand why they are in this position
We created an original tool called Digital Demand@ that provides us with an enormous amount of information
On what people are really looking for and what municipalities offer
And it is quite interesting to start realizing what municipalities offer.
There are cases when these positions are casual, and other times, they are strategies.
It's interesting to make this distinction.
So, to understand how the Municipalities want to position that brand, and with what they want to associate it with?
This is the first time this exercise is being done in Portugal,
Allow me to ask you if there is an international experience and how were the results?
Do these results evolve from year to year?
And do the municipalities incorporate this information and try to maintain or improve their brand?
Bloom Consulting has been working in this area for 10 years, being a world leader.
For the last three years we have been launching the Country Brand Ranking© for Trade and Tourism
It has a wide recognition. It is launched and edited in more than 50 countries world-wide
And there, in fact, a great recognition and the countries want to improve
The countries want to promote and they care about their brands
Country Brands are a huge asset and this ranking shows that
Countries fight for the best positions, and either improve their perceptions or get worse
Also depending on the international reality and what happens within the country.
Yes, there are many ups and downs in the ranking and there is a will to improve
Our goal is also that the Municipalities see this (the ranking) in the same way and try to position themselves,
Both outside and within the country, that they find their assets and target markets.
But we can distinguish, within the Portuguese municipalities, which one of the 3 categories needs more effort.
In most cases, yes. In some municipalities no, due to the fact that they have no perceptions
If we look into the numbers, there are practically no searches about them
Because they're not in the physical or even mental map.
They're out of the grid and they must create one perception about themselves.
They need to find their assets, their target market, position themselves both to grow and to be recognized
Being in last place in the ranking does not mean that it is a bad municipality, or poorly managed
It just means there are no perceptions
That there is no recognition?
It also does not mean that perceptions are negative, there aren't any.
Now, it is necessary to create strategies to be able to fulfill these goals and to grow and be recognized as a brand
And we will be here next year to see how this ranking evolved
And if the municipalities did their homework
Filipe Roquette, thank you very much for coming