Solidified Branding Function: How the Urban Brand Affects a Small Town’s Development? Case Study of Wangqingtuo, Tianjin, China

Chinese small towns are usually developed with single core industry, and the urban brand is the identity of a town that formed with the development of its industry. However, when the core industry representing its urban brand is facing a changing situation or market, will the brand be a motivation or an obstruction of the development of a town? The paper combined top-down and bottom-up research method to study the function of the urban brand in Wangqingtuo town in Tianjin, China. We studied over 400 samples (including government staff and town citizens) to make questionnaire investigation about the town’s branding. And we found that the solidified urban brand is a complicated emotional symbol for both government and citizens. The town has demand of exploring and developing new dominant industry, and it has the expectation to keep branding and upgrade its current core industry.