Visual identities of Polish towns and cities. What they communicate and represent in practiced logos

Abstract

The purpose of the research is the empirical verification of the authors’ hypothesis that the logo or City Visual Identity System (CVIS) is the indicator of marketing and branding orientation of a particular self-government. The first objective of the article is to present an empirical base for city logo examination taking into account the visual signs of Polish towns used in promotional activities. The second objective is to analyse the content of logo. To reach the objectives the authors examined 335 cities’ logo in Poland using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. During the research 211 (63%) of the cities surveyed used the logo in promotional practice. The study confirms the hypothesis that the city’s logo can be used as a preliminary indicator of the local government’s marketing orientation. The content analysis indicates that marketing activities are based primarily on resources (Ger. Substanz) of cities, not on products offered.