The effects of geographical signs on city branding: The model of Sakarya

The issue of geographical signs and branding has great importance for countries and cities nowadays. Cities go all out to be different because of changing and challenging conditions of competition. Despite having significant potential, Turkey remains behind on these issues than their competitors. The aim of the study is to create an example for other cities with the research results of Sakarya province by bringing together geographical signs and city branding under the same roof, which are two important issues for cities. The study consists of three chapters: In the first chapter, the geographical signs and in the second chapter, brand and city branding have been reviewed. In this study, the effects of geographical signs on city branding are discussed. For this reason, firstly, the concepts of geographical sign, brand and city branding were discussed; In the last and third chapter, a research was done in Sakarya province on the effects of geographical signs on city branding. In the research part of the study, a questionnaire which is a quantitative research method was used and applied to people who lived in Istanbul and went to Sakarya at least once. The results obtained from these studies were measured with SPSS 20.0 program and the results were interpreted. As a result, it was concluded that the participants agree the positive effects on the city branding of geographical signs. However, it has been observed that more young people than elder ones, more bachelors than married ones and more associate, undergraduate or postgraduate students than primary school students have more positive attitudes to the city branding of geographical signs.