What Cities Have the Best Brands?

"The study, entitled 'The City Brand Barometer' and created by London-based Saffron Consultants, ranks 72 of Europe's largest cities based on a comparison of their assets and attractions against the strength of their brands. To support the analysis, Saffron commissioned a YouGov poll of 2,000 consumers to find out what people most want from a city.

Unsurprisingly, Paris and London emerged as the cities with the best assets and the strongest brands to match. Among old Europe's other capitals, Berlin is the striking example of a city with a brand that is significantly stronger than its assets. On the other hand, Rome is more blessed with what people want than the German capital but it is not as effective at communicating this – hence its brand is considerably weaker than Berlin's. Vienna, Austria, was the only city deemed to get precisely the reputation its assets deserve – its brand was judged to be fully consistent with what the city has to offer."