Selling the Business Location: Place Marketing in the context of the Rhine-Main Region

In the past decade, place marketing, country marketing and city marketing have enjoyed an increase in recognition, especially as countries and locations have been spending more money to encourage firms to locate their offices, and plant locations in the place marketer‘s area. This is reflected in a growing number of associations, literature, media coverage and educational courses offered. The aim of the present study is to evaluate current literature in order to understand the importance of place marketing in general, and marketing of the Rhine Main Region, as Germany‘s most cosmopolitan region, in particular. For an international context, Hong Kong and Los Angeles are used as exemplary competitors. For Los Angeles is one of the United States most powerful cities and Hong Kong represents the gateway to China. However, the focus of the investigation is on a B2B perspective in the marketing of the Rhine Main Region. In literature and in practice, place marketing strategies vary from very simple to very sophisticated. After the creation of a theoretical framework, in which the author examines place marketing from the perspective of the marketer, and that of the business customer, the author puts the whole set into practice with help of the Rhine Main Region, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. In the final conclusion, she assesses the place marketing activities of the aforementioned competitors, and tries to rank them according to their current performance.