Author: Kang Dea-hoon
Global Marketing and Strategy to Create a World City
"What kind of competitive advantage should we have over 600 global cities that account for nearly 70% of the world's total product? Can't autonomous management be possible without central subsidies with a vibrant civic economy and investment attraction? Free trading is the result of concerns about what is a vital urban strategy that can survive even in the face of the blocking world blocks and the increasing uncertainty of the global economy".
“Smoking like an Arab, I was lost in my own thoughts in a cafe in Alexandria. Among the countless cities that have existed since ancient times, the city that conceived, developed and delivered civilization, the city that protected trade from war, the city of science that led reason in the face of the Inquisition, the city of peace that reflected on invasions, and the city of culture and art that blossomed the flower of humanities. , What do the revolutionary cities that overthrew the old system have in common?"
-Among the words that start and end-
Excerpt
“Beijing did not place declining industries in the city center. I created the concept and planted the art. Like the Daehwa Industrial Complex in Daejeon, the lifespan of the factory area could have been extended by making some improvements, but it was creatively transformed by creating a new spatial concept. The power of art lies in seeing even poverty and deprivation as material for creation. Hip-hop was born in the factory basements of Detroit, a decaying automobile factory city. Alternative music is also avant-garde music that originated in industrial complexes. Detroit is being revived from an industrial complex to a cultural complex and, with momentum, to a venture complex. Beijing's 798 Art District has become another future where tradition and modernity coexist. Beijing is not only a political city where the National People's Congress is held. “It is a laboratory of the Chinese dream, filled with funky style workers, artists from overseas, the people of Beijing, and tourists".
"If we design the concept of creating a hub city properly, the substructure strategy will undoubtedly be very strong. Yeongjongdo Airport City in Incheon Free Economic Zone, in order to turn the hotel itself into an entertainment hotel city, entertainment, and cultural complex, it attracts many global brand hotels into this area. Intercity, Ramada, Skypark, and Onoma Hotel, which are luxury hotels recently built in Daejeon, are one type of hotel that is without yards. These hotels do not have space for culture and leisure activities. When I was on my business trip, I realized the importance of a hotel. A hotel is not just a place to sleep. The hotel itself is an attraction that induces tourism".
“Minato Mirai 21, which started in 1982, took a full 18 years from concept design to consultation with stakeholders. After the agreement, construction proceeded at a rapid speed, and urban regeneration was completed in just four years from 1991 to 1994. The implementing entities are the government, Yokohama City, and Pacifico Yokohama Corp, a private third-sector company. Looking at Japan's decision-making process for urban development, the private sector, government, and officials create an 'executive committee' and start studying. When you go to Benkyokai, also as known as a study group, the enthusiasm for seeking knowledge is immense. Everyone, from young practitioners to gray-haired local officials and civil servants, studies intensively like graduate students. This is different from the Korean practice of providing ‘services’ without learning anything when doing a development project. Through deliberation, this committee established the concept of ‘Creative City YOKOHAMA’, which aims to revitalize Yokohama from the perspective of culture, arts, and tourism".
Book Review
Most Koreans live in cities. The city is a proper place for people to work and live. Due to advancements in transportation and information and communication technologies, the boundaries between countries are blurring compared to the past, and we now pay more attention to ‘cities’ than ‘countries’. Global national solidarity shifts into city solidarity, and competition between countries changes into competition between cities. How many competitive cities a country has is a measure of national competitiveness.
The competitiveness of a city inevitably has a direct impact on the quality of life of citizens living within that city. To individuals, a city appears as a more concrete entity than a country. In an era of transition facing various crises, cities, the core unit that must lead positive changes in our lives, are an important subject that we must now look at again.
“How does a City become a Brand?” does not simply introduce strong competitive cities through excellent strategies but the most significant thing is comparing cases of major cities in Korea that have similar sizes or implement similar policies, making this book's content lively and vibrant.
The author of the book Kang Dea-hoon, who has observed cities around the world for the past several decades, attempted a full-scale exploration and sharply analyzed how the strategies established by cities around the world affect the lives of citizens.
In addition to fieldwork that travels across the city, he uses his own city exploration method, which is called city real-world planning, to understand the city three-dimensionally. Real city statistics are a method of verifying city statistics, which can be easily obtained through bibliographies and the Internet, by actually living at the level of middle-class people in the area.
‘How does a City become a Brand?’ is a travelogue about urban strategy. While reading the book, we can follow the steps of the author Kang Dea-hoon as he travels across various cities around the world, including Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and experience the scenes in real life. It is like the ‘voyage log’ of a merchant from the sea city of Venice, or Marco Polo’s ‘journey to the east’ as he visits unknown kingdoms along the Silk Road. However, what sets this book apart from those travel stories is that it is designing a city for the future, making it more outstanding
The author gained ideas on how to design a prosperous city strategy, regional cooperation, and peaceful order by being a part of the Presidential Committee on International Strategies at the national level and the participation of various government agencies. Megacities, free economic zones (INEZ), and international city development, which are mainly covered in this book, are important strategic units for both the northern economy, the Yellow Sea Rim, and ASEAN. However, insights into urban survival are gained by fighting, falling, and rising on the front lines of global cities and economic fronts as export warriors.
It is a must-read book for citizens living in the city, including students and housewives, as well as readers who want to read "City" as a space, want to understand global urban trends, and readers who directly or indirectly lead or participate in the urban policy-making process. "How does a City become a Brand?” is a book that can provide meaningful inspiration.
Author Introduction:
Kang Dea-hoon
CEO of Walkinto Korea
A marketing expert with over 25 years of experience, provides global strategies for companies, associations, and governments. He has worked in manufacturing, trade, and consulting, supporting 70,000 member companies and operating global programs in overseas cities.
