A DECADES-OLD DREAM: TOWARDS BRANDING THE UN-NAMED CITY OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL IN EGYPT

Abstract

In confronting the intensified globalization in today’s world. Cities, the economic engines and cultural hearts of nations are in quest for creating positive images that allow them to achieve multi-dimensional uprising that will help them get their portions of the world’s tourists, talents, businesses, investment, funds, reputation, respect and attention. Therefore, city branding has become a vital need; as it attempts to give each city its distinctive image and identity. Nowadays, The New Administrative Capital (NAC) is reshaping Egypt’s future thoroughly. Nevertheless, research on its branding is lacking. Building on qualitative research, this paper aims at developing a brand for the NAC based on examining how specific target group perceive its image, and how to benefit from their perception in the branding of the NAC. The results highlight the importance of mega urban projects in creating the city image, the key role of social media in delivering that image, and suggests a positioning statements and a message that can be employed in the communication materials through which the brand identity would be communicated. This study contributes to the rapidly growing domain of city branding by exploring the perception of architects, urban planners in the context of branding new cities. And since similar studies do not exist in literature, this study fills an important research gap.