Cities in the branding process: Examining Aydın province with structural equality model

Branding basically involves the creation of a coherent identity that elicits a set of emotions, values and meanings for a product or service and on this basis leads to identification with the brand on the customer's side. With the global competition, brand practice and branding have gained attention and application not only for products and services but also by people, cities, regions and nations. Many cities are adopting the concept of brand more than the commercial space to create a strong public profile against tourists, foreign investors, new residents, students or other cities and apply it to improve the urban development, renewal and quality of life of cities. In this study, a conceptual framework has been tried to be established in the application of branding to cities, as in products and services, by establishing a connection between the concepts of brand and city. First of all, the brand, the development of the brand, the importance of the brand, the concepts associated with the brand, the city, the city brand, the importance of the city brand, the city brand elements, the process of creating a city brand, the international brand cities and the brand potential of Aydın were tried to be determined. In Aydın's branding, brand city elements, brand; The idea that his personality, commitment and trust will be effective forms the basis of the research. For this purpose, first of all, Aydın's brand elements were determined as it was thought to be beneficial in the branding process. Then, the concepts related to brand personality, loyalty and trust were scaled to be included in the model analysis and the information about the scales was explained in detail. Before the model analysis, a general briefing was given about the Structural Equation Model in order to understand and interpret the results. Finally, the relationships between brand personality, brand loyalty and brand trust scales were revealed and evaluated with structural equation model analysis within the framework of the sample. As a result of the study, it can be said that brand practices constitute the right way to reach the goals in city branding. In the cities branding process, the idea that a brand city can be created by using the methods, techniques and knowledge of brand applications is gaining intensities.