Place Branding and Public Diplomacy

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-019-00157-z

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation

to community identity
Eko Nursanty1

Revised: 24 February 2019

© Springer Nature Limited 2019

Abstract
This paper is aimed to find a new framework for the theoretical structure of place branding concerning the role of the local
community within it, based on the study from some places in two Indonesian cities. By the empirical study on those cases,
the intention is to find the role of each element and its relationships between them, in the context of brand-management
model to develop the competitive advantage of the city. The analytical process will be focused on the crucial role of the local
community as the main player in city identity formation. The local community is the main user of the urban space who can
make decisions over space, according to their inherited perception and belief, individually and communally. This qualita-
tive research employed interviews and direct immersion with the urban community, to examine the anatomy of the place
evolution in the two types of Indonesian cities: the heritage city of Surakarta and the cosmopolitan city of Semarang. The
theoretical invention of the city authenticity’s DNA and its elements that have been formulated on a heritage city from the
previous study is used as the basis for verification of the other cities. The research findings have proven that the uniqueness
of the urban places is very much influenced by the decisions made by the local communities based on their interaction with
their living environment. On the next stage, the interaction between the community and their place would be contributed to
the sustainability of the city identity, which will become the main factor of the advancement of city branding and the increase
of the competitive advantage of the city.

Keywords  Place branding · Place identity · Competitive advantage · Place transformation · Community identity · Place
branding anatomy

Introduction
Nowadays, the anatomy of place branding is considered a
vital knowledge because a place as space is no longer func-
tioned as merely a room for certain activities to take place
but rather, it becomes part of a complete picture of the iden-
tity of a city. It contains everything such as the ability and
role of urban heritage spaces, in addition to the efforts made
by the community, to maintain the uniqueness of such spaces
following the values passed down from generation to gen-
eration. This is adding to the ways new spaces that are part
of the needs of modern cities can be harmonized with the
* Eko Nursanty
santy@untagsmg.ac.id
1
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering,
University of 17 Agustus 1945 (UNTAG), Semarang,
Indonesia
lives of people living there to make them familiar with their
authentic experience of forms and spaces.
According to Lash and Urry (1994), in the period between
1970 and 1980s, there was a change in which places changed
into a new form to be an economic space. The transforma-
tion of such spaces was evident, where a place that was pre-
viously considered as a source of production had turned into
a place that could be consumed (Lichrou et al. 2017). In the
process of forming a place’s new image, cities often use
heritage as their marketing tool (Goulding 2000). In the next
stage, efforts were made by using cultural experiences to
develop specific themes for an environment (Simpson 2009).
Architectural mobilization transforms physical objects into
places that carry their myths, ideologies, and narratives. This
contributes positively to the marketing of a place, which has
improved in professional and well-organized manners, mak-
ing it a vital branding industry (Gotham 2002).
It is currently that the brand of a place becomes multi-
dimensional and has a certain structure and character using

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 E. Nursanty
intangible things that appear in daily life. These intangible
things interact in people’s lives and turn into an identity
one can recognize in the form of users’ perception of the
place or city itself (De Chernatony and Dall’Olmo 1998).
A place’s brand can be defined as a form of identity rep-
resentation of itself. It is built on the experience which
both the local community and tourists may be able to get
and to lead to their satisfaction and loyalty (Govers and
Go 2009). The relationship between an experience one
gets when visiting a place and the identity that is devel-
oped afterward will then constitute the overall picture of
this process, which later turns into place branding. Place
branding that is based on the identity of a place will even-
tually be interpreted as a form of communication that is far
better for the place’s stakeholders (Kavaratzis and Hatch
2013).
Cities can learn from the process taking place in the
heritage city of Surakarta that has been in existence since
four centuries ago, about the improvement of their future
competitiveness. Another city of Semarang was chosen as
a comparison in this research because of its uniqueness.
Semarang history, which origin dated back to the 6th cen-
tury CE, has been evolving especially since the 15th century
to present. It is situated at the center of the northern coast
of Java island and therefore makes it a very strategic place
as a trade hub, and many global and local economic powers
competed to have control over the city, from Hindu Javanese
Fig. 1  The theory of heritage
urban space authenticity pro-
posed by Nursanty (2018)
kings to foreigners (Dutch, British, Japanese) until Indone-
sian independence.
The analysis for this research is based on a theory of Her-
itage Urban Space Authenticity, developed by the author in
her previous research. The structure of the theory is shown
in Fig. 1 below. The section on the right side of the diagram
(indicated by the red dashed line) of the diagram of a herit-
age city’s space authenticity describes various hierarchies
for places situated in the city heritage areas. These places
have a value of authenticity which both local people and
visitors are very familiar with. The section on the left side of
the diagram (indicated by the blue dashed line) illustrates the
hierarchies of the values that have been upheld by the com-
munity for generations, i.e., the values as basis of individual
action, as part of the community action, and, eventually as
community leaders, and as part of the universal humanity.
These hierarchical values create various places with different
characteristics (Nursanty 2018).
The elements of the theory of heritage urban space
authenticity are classified into two major groups: the authen-
ticity possessed by space users or the people living therein,
and the authenticity of heritage places that is resulted from
decisions made by space users in an attempt to create a
place to do their activities. Hence, the places that emerge
as a result of spatial decisions that have occurred for gen-
erations possess uniqueness. The uniqueness that has been
tested and preserved from generation to generation gives the
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity
city power to compete with other cities or is called a city’s
competitiveness.
Theoretical background
A new theoretical proposition of “Anatomy of Place Brand-
ing” in the field of city competitive advantage research area
is constructed step-by-step from the pre-existed theories on
physical and non-physical aspects of the city, as outlined in
the following diagram (Fig. 2).
The diagram in Fig. 2 above describes the five supporting
theories: (i) Image of the City (ii) Sense of Place, and (iii)
Place DNA. I clustered these first three theories into one of
the main theories which is the Place-Making Theory, as the
basis for developing the preposition for the city’s physical
aspect. The other two supporting theories, (iv) City Brand-
ing and (v) Creative City, were used for developing the prep-
osition for developing the competitive advantage of the city.
The first theory is The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch,
which stated that every city has certain numbers of mental
images of perceivable elements that belong to the people
who experience the city, namely Paths, Edges, Districts,
Nodes, and Landmarks (Lynch 1960). He has not considered
the cultural factor as an important aspect of the perception
of the observers.
The second theory, The Sense of Place by Hashemnezhad
et.al., tacked the relationships between humans and their
imagination on the environment. This concept originated
from the human’s subjective experiences in the forms of
Supporting Main
New theory
theories theories
Image of the City
Sense of Place
Place Making
theory
Place DNA
Anatomy of place
branding
City Branding
Theory
City Competitive
Advantage Theory
Creative City
Fig. 2  Diagram of theory formation by Nursanty, 2019
memory, tradition, history, culture, and community that were
influenced by landscape and environment as the external
factors (Hashemnezhad et al. 2013). This theory answers the
gap in Lynch’s theory above. However, the second theory
has not considered uniqueness as a competitive strength.
The third theory is the Place DNA, the term that has been
mentioned by several researchers, to describe as attribute for
the city’s physical space transformation, such as planned or
unplanned, natural or artificial, etc. in relation to change
and development of time, culture, and area (Major 2018).
Moreover, the urban DNA concept is also being described
as the capability of a set of urban parameters that provided
the city’s spaces with patterns and forms. Among various
parameters, there are five important factors called SLEUTH
(Slope, Land Use, Exclusion, Urban, Transport, and Hill-
shade) (Votsis and Haavisto 2019). Both Urban DNA
researchers above had not touched the human factor as the
reason for the formation of the spatial patterns.
The three theories above were the sources for the con-
struction of the Place-Making theory. Place-Making is an
approach from the other side of the planning process, design,
and management of public space. The community has played
an important role in the place-making process. Routinely
carried out collaborative activities will stick to the place-
making process (Kong 1996). Place-making is assumed to
be able to improve the quality of the living environment in
a city. Furthermore, place-making is also presumed to be
able to inspire the community to recollect their common
memories and to restore the role of the public space as the
center for every communal life. The improvement of the liv-
ing environment quality can be done through the relationship
between the community and their commonly used public
spaces (Freire 2011). By putting the community-based par-
ticipation as the center, an effective place-making process
will be able to optimize, to inspire, and to grow the local
community’s potentials, and enabling the creation of quality
public space that can contribute into community’s health,
happiness, and wellness.
Branding in urbanism and architecture is defined as the
effort to develop a city and its architectural elements, began
as a managerial approach then developed into entrepreneur-
ship. The change in entrepreneurship-based urban develop-
ment can be identified from the key element, which is the
relationship between the government and the private sec-
tor (Sadler 1993). Generally, the cities with entrepreneur-
ial characteristic will actively participate in the economic
development and growth. Areas that underwent the branding
process were often involved in the manipulation of land-
scape and urban spaces to win the global competition. These
efforts were done with the support of new communication
platforms, where they started to develop opportunities in the
areas of culture, recreation, education, and entertainment to
attract investors (Hashim 2012).
 E. Nursanty
City branding is a concept that was introduced by some
marketing figures, one of them is Simon Anholt who stated
that in order to win inter-countries and inter-cities competi-
tion on the current globalization age, that the struggle to win
the attention is not just related to the brand name of com-
mercial goods and services, but also to geopolitical entities
as well (Anholt 2005). Nowadays cities around the world
are competing to get income from various business sectors,
tourism, and often from taxation. This competition is also
happening between different areas of the city. The supporters
of urban branding theory suggested that a highly competitive
environment is important for spatial transformation. This
is not only related to their composition or size, but also to
the sharpening of their differences and expression of their
competitiveness. These hidden values are often called Place
Branding.
The main research question raised in this paper is about
how the community as the main factor of place-making can
create place uniqueness that may become the competitive
power, to differentiate itself from the other cities around it.
The formulation of the Anatomy of Place Branding theory is
proposed as the improvement to the theory of Place-Making
and Competitive Advantage, by formulating the structure of
human identity and its relations to space. The result of this
study will be useful in the efforts to increase the city’s com-
petitive ability based on spatial uniqueness that is formed
from the interaction among the city’s urban catalysts.
Research methodology
In this research on the Anatomy of Place Branding, the first
step was selecting the cases with different characteristics,
the first one is a city that still maintains its authenticity,
and the first one is a hybrid city since its beginning. An
authentic character is centered on a historical-cultural point
of reference that has been passed from one to the other
generations. Whilst the hybrid character is formed by cos-
mopolitan mixed of cultures from past to present. The first
step is choosing two cities based on the criteria mentioned
above: Surakarta (Solo) and Semarang, both are located in
Central Java, Indonesia. Surakarta was established in the
18th century as the legacy of the greatest Islamic kingdom
of Mataram in Java. This position has made Surakarta as a
cultural and art “qibla” of Java, that became the reason for
the formulation of “Solo the Spirit of Java” brand. Semarang
is a cosmopolitan city that appeared in the 15th century and
has been developing into a modern provincial capital city
with a mix of cultures form its original past to present.
The case selection process was conducted at the begin-
ning of the author’s doctoral research in 2013. Efforts to pro-
mote “city branding” to increase the city’s competitiveness
through city’s taglines such as “Enjoy Jakarta”, “Sparkling
Surabaya”, “Semarang the Charm of Asia”, etc. began to
emerge in the same year. City governments focused on
the physical developments to materialize those brandings
efforts, complemented by bottom-up efforts by the urban
communities. Big events were organized to attract tourists
with the hope that the city’s competitive advantage could be
achieved through the rising income of the urban communi-
ties through those activities.
By collecting, consolidating, and analyzing the calendar
of events from various cities in Indonesia, the author identi-
fied the emergence of two types of strength in these efforts
to promote the city’s uniqueness. The first one is that the
majority relies on the physical strength and the transforma-
tion towards modern city to match the tourists’ expectations,
and the second one—which is the minority—were using
their own inherited uniqueness with confidence that they
will be able to preserve their heritage and at the same time
to embrace the inevitable changes.
After 6 months of data gathering through websites, gov-
ernment agencies, networks such as the Indonesian Network
of Creative Cities, Indonesian Heritage Cities Network,
etc., the author decided to choose Surakarta for her doc-
toral research. During that time Surakarta had just launched
“Solo the Spirit of Java” as the tagline for city branding,
in their renewed efforts to show their confidence in their
authentic identity that has been inherited through the long
history of the city. Overall the author has carried out 5 years
of research from 2013 to 2018 to find answers to the ques-
tions on the roles of human and culture in the formation of
city branding and in the promotion of the city’s competitive
advantage in heritage cities like Surakarta.
The second step is the empirical data collection pro-
cess through an immersive interview on-site. The choice
of respondents is structured, started from the figures who
were directly involved in the government’s programs and
became the catalysts in the formation of the city’s identity.
Since 2006 Surakarta has officially registered as a mem-
ber of OWHC (Organization of World Heritage Cities) and
hosted the OWHC Asia–Pacific conference in 2008. OWHC
is the organization for World Heritage City’s Mayors. The
second research stage was carried out in 2014 by accessing
the documents of cooperation to promote the city’s unique
history as the inheritance of the biggest Javanese Kingdom,
as the city branding, by materializing the tagline “Solo the
Spirit of Java” into space and place that rooted in the liveli-
hood of Javanese people. The efforts were also including the
revitalization of the local economy by giving more atten-
tion to Batik, Blangkon (Javanese traditional headgear),
Wayang, and other artisans who live in Surakarta. Based
on the cooperation documents of the City Government of
Surakarta, especially from the Relations Office, the author
found out some key persons who were directly involved in
those activities, including the jury members for the city’s
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity
tagline competition, and other catalysts for various creative
activities to grow the local economy.
The next step was interviewing the resource persons
who were mentioned by those catalysts. Interviews were
conducted by the author direct involvement in a top-down
formal program and bottom-up non-formal community ini-
tiatives. In general the respondents who were interviewed
consisted of government officials who implemented the
government’s policy on the development of Surakarta’s city
branding, personnel from Surakarta palace who were openly
carrying their responsibility to keep the cultural traditions
through rituals, and the volunteers consisted of history
enthusiasts, traveling buffs, photography lovers, hoteliers,
local crafts businesses and craftsmen in Surakarta, etc.
Interviews were conducted on-site through direct partici-
pation in the events when the author resided in Surakarta.
The author was also involved in the meetings, including
routine monthly community meetings, six-monthly routine
meetings of Surakarta government officials, and annual
events by the palace related to important dates on Javanese
traditional calendar. The entire research covered the period
of one year and ended in 2015.
The third step was to collect additional data from offi-
cial documents, newspaper articles, social media platforms,
and previous study reports. Several keywords that had been
found in the second step interview were further elaborated
by historical data, other primary data such as maps, photos,
additional interviews, and secondary data such as newspaper
articles, traveler’s blog, and group discussion sessions of
urban volunteers.
The data amounted to 30 activities annually were col-
lected within the period of 2013–2014. It can be classified
into three parts: (1) Data collected based on the official
calendar of events of the city collated by the city govern-
ment of Surakarta every beginning of the year, spread across
12 months in a year; (2) Data collected based on the national
and international events related to Surakarta, such as Solo
International Performance Arts, Solo Mask International
Performance, etc.; and (3) Data collected based on the rou-
tine activities initiated by volunteers that were announced
through social media, designed and carried out based on
the actual issues of the day. The total time for stage two and
stage three research was around 2 years from 2014 to 2015,
covered around 60 activities, started from existed documen-
tations and followed up by the author joining the activities
within the research period.
The fourth step was conducting chronological qualita-
tive analysis to identify the catalysts (persons), their roles,
their place of activity, followed by inventing the keywords
from the community’s perspective according to their
similar preferences, such as the Urban Explorers com-
munity’s keyword:”sharing the curiosity about the city”,
etc. The intention of this step was to find the meaning of
chronological events along the development process of the
city and its communities through the qualitative and deduc-
tive process.
The author conducted the fourth stage of the research in
one year from mid-2015 to mid-2016. Form several com-
munity activities that the author was directly involved, 6
catalysts were chosen based on their influence, from the gov-
ernment, communities, and other stakeholders. They are: (1)
“Solo Polah” (in Javanese, means “Solo Moves”), a cata-
lyst initiated by the community in Surakarta who wanted to
use the momentum during the hosting of the first Indonesia
Creative City Network Seminar in 2015, to develop a new
consciousness that the softness and politeness of Javanese
culture should be able to adapt itself into the new era of crea-
tivity, active, and openness; (2) “Facebook Ginda”, a new
virtual space for informal communication platform by the
community with the members of the city’s House of Repre-
sentative; (3) “Pakem Solo”, acommunity group that utiliz-
ing underused spaces above traditional markets that have
been renovated but not wanted by the original merchants.
This catalyst reused the spaces for educational purposes
by organizing knowledge-sharing events from technology,
business, and contemporary arts; (4) “Mataya Art and Her-
itage”, a catalyst who returned the role of the traditional
market as a public gathering place for Javanese traditional
community. Traditional market is not only for trading but
also a place to enjoy familiar interaction between buyers
and sellers, even as public popular performing arts space
like in the past; (5) “#kotasolo” or “Hashtag Kota Solo”,
a catalyst who tried to mark the urban facades and spaces,
introduced their new identities, and to virtual space through
social media platforms; and (6) “Republik Aeng–Aeng”, a
catalyst who change the usage of space through mass media.
This catalyst has received 31 certificates of recognition from
the Indonesian Museum of Records for the efforts to signify
conditions in society through spaces with special meaning.
For example, they organized the National Independence Day
with children who lived along the riverbank on the shallow
parts of the river that had been cleaned before as a gift to
the nation.
The fifth step was synthesizing the results from the ana-
lytical process by classifying the previously found keywords
into two main categories: one is related to “Human”, and
the other one is related to “Space”. The Human category is
structured based on their roles as an individual, as part of
the community, and as a group leader. The categorization of
Space is parallel to those human roles.
The research in Surakarta was carried out in the period
of 5 years from 2013 to 2018, resulted in the finding of
the structure of competitive advantage in a heritage city,
classified into three urban space special identities: (i) kam-
pongs (urban villages) that retain its historic identity in
terms of physical form and community lifestyle (ii) historic
 E. Nursanty
kampongs that have been transformed physically into mod-
ern forms with some remains from its historical fabric, and
(iii) new urban spaces that have been created to fulfill the
contemporary needs but at certain occasions, the community
used these spaces for their heritage-related activities. The
traditional rituals that used to be performed in the historic
quarters were also performed in the contemporary urban
spaces. The author spent around 7 months to categorize and
to analyze all data comprehensively. The specific findings
from the analysis done over the role of the 6 catalysts in
developing the city strength and uniqueness would be then
reiterated back into the places and spaces to find the physical
transformation, changes in meaning, and appreciation of the
catalysts’ places of activity.
The research process used data triangulation of several
types of data that have been mentioned above: (1) Data on
documented events in the city in the Surakarta’s city brand-
ing promotion efforts; (2) Data on the activities of the cata-
lysts and their networks in influencing the city’s creative
events; and (3) Data on the place and urban spaces with their
meaning and strength. The data were structured chronologi-
cally to find the hierarchy of authenticity and the chronologi-
cal order in terms of appearance. Relationships within the
same chronological timeline were drawn, such as data on
events, type of activities, and places that underwent physical
transformation or change in meaning.
The findings from Surakarta were then applied in Sema-
rang cases from 2018 to 2019, to test the transferability of
the theory. Similarly, the three special identities or urban
spaces typology could also be found in parts of the heritage
urban areas of Semarang, obviously because of Semarang
has been developed since the 15th century and older than
Surakarta. Additionally different type of new urban space
that with new activities was found in Semarang, which can-
not be found in Surakarta.
Fig. 3  The heritage urban space authenticity hierarchy of the heritage city Surakarta. Proposed by Nursanty (2018)
The subsequent sub-chapter will further elaborate on the
analysis and synthesis process of the relationship between
place transformation and the community identity.
Relating place transformation to community
identity
Tourism development in urban areas often has different
economical, physical, and environmental impacts on soci-
ety, especially those who live therein (Aminian et al. 2017).
Various variables contributing to such a condition, such as
a city’s infrastructure and amenities, local culture, and so
on will play a significant role in attracting tourists, which
eventually become important variables in city branding
(Mohammadifar and Rousta 2018). Surakarta, a city with
a heritage area in the middle of it as the core of its develop-
ment is compared with Semarang, a city that despite having
4 heritage areas as its core, is still not well-recognized and
developed optimally even though it had managed to prove its
competitiveness during its earlier era than Surakarta.
Research in Surakarta has revealed that the development
of cities with new functions can be carried out sustaina-
bly through several stages that form a hierarchy of spatial
changes. within the core of the whole urban area that exists
until today (Nursanty 2018). Surakarta (Solo) was estab-
lished in 1745 as part of the Islamic Kingdom of Mataram,
the largest kingdom in Java
As illustrated in Fig. 3 above, at the original area of the
City of Surakarta covered is in the heritage Zone A. Then,
gradually, the city expanded into Zone B to meet the needs
for new urban spaces in line with the needs of its moderniza-
tion. Zone C is the area of current development expansion.
Zone C is similar to Zone B in terms of combination of
needs for space, but it still maintain the value of authenticity
as in Zone A. Zone A as a heritage zone that serves as the
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity

core of the authenticity of a heritage city with a hierarchical

structure that expresses the role and strength of this area
in the past (Sub-zone A1; Sub-zone A2; Sub-zone A3 and
Sub-zone A4). Each of these sub-zones has its respective
roles and strength that show their unique identity as part of
the larger city brand (Nursanty et al. 2016). The three main
zones formed the city’s competitiveness. The composition
of these three zones is the basis for the city’s unique identity
in terms of the spaces and their values, which can be called
the city’s DNA.
The relationships among different places and the inter-
play with their unique characteristics are illustrated in Fig. 4
above. In the heritage city of Surakarta, there are two main
cultural centers with distinct unique characteristics: feudal
and entrepreneurial. Both communities exercise their influ-
ence in the same part of the city. The feudal group is closely Fig. 5  Four heritage areas of the historic core of Semarang
related to the places of the religious community group. The
places in this section are characterized by the ability to unite
various characters into a center for religious activities. The Arabs, the Chinese ethnic group, and the indigenous people
entrepreneurial group influences the group of traders and in Area B (now known as Kampung Melayu). The Dutch’s
the religious group as well. The relationship between these VOC arrived and established a military fort on the edge of
second groups results in intensive efforts to expand both in Area D (now known as Sleko) in the 17th century and in
terms of the space and networks they have. the following historical period, which was in the 18th cen-
The second case is the historic cosmopolitan city of tury, the Dutch destroyed settlements in Areas C1 and A and
Semarang, situated on the northern coast of Central Java. established a larger European city in Area D, by relocating
The historic core of this city constitutes four heritage urban the Chinese community to Area C2 and reorganizing Area
spaces as illustrated in Fig. 5 below. The history of the city A, The formation and transformation process is summarized
began from the 15th century CE when the impetus of urban in the following diagram.
settlements was planted by the followers of Admiral Zheng Based on the analysis of the development of heritage
He of the Ming Dynasty near the settlement of Kyai Ageng zones in both Surakarta and Semarang above, we can see
Pandanaran from Demak, the first Islamic Kingdom in Java. the differences in the dynamics of urban growth in relation
The original starting point of Semarang was situated sev- to the process of “inhabitation” of a “place”, i.e., from more
eral kilometers behind the present coastline on the slopes static and deeply rooted (in Surakarta) to more dynamic,
of the Bergota hills and on the old estuary of Garang River. shallowly rooted, and relatively new (in Semarang).
For several hundred years the coastline continued to move The analytical comparison of the research sites in the two
northwards because of the rapid sedimentation process, and cities resulted in four types of patterns, showing the develop-
approximately in the 16th–17th centuries Javanese commu- ment of a place branding anatomical structure, consisting
nity settlements began to emerge in Area A (now known as of: (i) neighborhood’s values adopted by heritage villages;
Kauman) as well as the Chinese community settlements in (ii) settlement’s values based on their potential to serve the
Area C1, and the multi-ethnic community comprising of main city center; (iii) heritage values of the community and

Fig. 4  “Socio-cultural orienta-
tion of places“of Surakarta
 E. Nursanty
applicable in new public spaces to provide harmony between
the new place and the values inherited; and (iv) new places
with new functions in the city but has a unique ability to
blend with the life of the local community naturally.
These four different pattern types are explained in the fol-
lowing chapters.The finding of the four patterns in Semarang
above is carried out through comparative analysis with the
previous research in Surakarta. The first three patterns were
also found in Surakarta.
Exponential pattern
The influence of intangible internal aspects on city brand-
ing can have a positive and very significant effect on the
overall city. Satisfaction of the people therein will affect city
branding that can be seen in general from the outside to
be compared with other similar places (Ashworth 2009).
By exploiting its natural resources, people in a place who
have no economic privileges at the beginning will be able to
improve their prosperity and identity exponentially through
natural entrepreneurial attitudes. This can be seen from the
case of Kampung Laweyan in Solo.
Kampung Laweyan is an area located in Zone A (see
Fig. 3), a village that was developed by exploiting its nat-
ural resource potential since 1546 CE. At the beginning
of its inception, the community of Laweyan was strongly
influenced by Javanese Hinduism. Its prominent figure, Ki
Agung Beluk, converted to Islam after meeting Ki Ageng
Henis. Its natural potential cotton trees and rivers were its
natural potential that was existed in the 15th century CE
(Shodiq 2017). The river played a vital role as a means of
transportation and provided economic accessibility for trad-
ing activities carried out by people. Since its inception, the
Fig. 6  Kampung Laweyan heritage neighborhood in Surakarta (Solo)
people of Kampung Laweyan have been involved with the art
of Batik making and at the same time, it became the center
for Islamic mission as well. Islamic mission was carried out
by Kyai Ageng Henis, a religious and political leader with
progressive ideas. Besides religious teaching, he also taught
activities in promoting economic prosperity for the people
(Binarsih 2013). Both natural resources (cotton and river)
have turned this place into a center for batik production
by its people, which lasts until now. Industrial and trading
activities in Laweyan continue to grow since the Kabangan
River has been used as a transportation route from and to
the center of the Kingdom of Pajang, the predecessor of
Surakarta. In 1745, Pajang was destroyed and the capital
was moved to Surakarta. During the process of relocating
the capital, Ki Ageng Henis granted access to the king of
Surakarta to pass through Kampung Laweyan. After Kasu-
nanan in Surakarta has been established, Kampung Laweyan
remains at the periphery and maintaining a distance from the
power center in Surakarta.
Figure 6 below describes findings based on the lives of
those running batik business and batik makers from the
past to the present. Decisions made to establish places have
always been based on the values from their ancestors, passed
down from the Royal Dynasty of Pajang, followed by the
destruction of the Kingdom of Pajang and then inherited by
the Kingdom of Surakarta, and continued after the independ-
ence of Indonesia and became part of the Central Java prov-
ince under the administration of the city of Surakarta (Solo).
In general, batik vendors always consider the place where
they live as an economic space that is part of their invest-
ment. Attempts are made to make their business succeed
by optimizing their networking skills as part of human
resources and supporting by the power of networking. In the
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity
past, local people understood Kampung Laweyan as part of
their business investment, where they could exploit natural
resources optimally, such cotton forest as a resource for the
raw material for making cloth, as shown in Fig. 7.
Another place deemed vital is the river that serves as a
location to dispose of coloring materials used in the process
of dying batik cloth. In the past the people of Laweyan is
a marginalized group, they were not nobles, or farmers, or
artisans. They are a minority group with trading instincts to
produce manufactured goods to meet the consumption needs
of the upper class, both rich nobles and Dutch government
officials at that time. As they managed to meet the com-
munity’s consumptive needs, the people of Laweyan were
also able to enjoy the luxurious life as the upper class in
those days, even though they were not nobles or officials.
They were able to buy anything through their network. Kam-
pung Laweyan as a batik supplier was well-known as an area
inhabited by rich traders. Trading batik was an attempt to
meet the needs of luxurious clothing at that time. They built
houses with architectural details that combined styles of the
Javanese aristocracy and Dutch European officials.
Fig. 7  The main area of Kampung Laweyan near the river and cotton trees
Fig. 8  Diagram illustrating the
morphology of Laweyan that
is significantly influenced by
transportation routes
Figure 8 above illustrates the morphological diagram of
Kampung Laweyan based on its natural resource potential.
Rivers were vital transportation means in 1546 and that was
the reason why the market as the center for people’s activi-
ties in Laweyan was situated at the convulsion of the two
existing rivers (A). In 1745, the Pajang Palace was moved
from Kartasura to Surakarta by land route. In Fig. 6 it is
shown as the main route, and this also served as the second
transportation route after the earlier transportation route
by the river. In 1870, a railway was laid out in Surakarta
as shown in Fig. 7 above as the third transportation route
linking Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Kampung Laweyan has
changed from A to A1 and its expansion was influenced by
the second and third transportation routes.
Nowadays Kampung Laweyan brands are the same and
equal to the two groups above, as evident from the architec-
tural details and marriage with their distant relatives. This is
consistent with Goodwin’s revelation (1993) that a place is
a very complex form that includes the integration of several
individuals and some communities. On the other hand, the
resulting place brand constitutes several social constructs
 E. Nursanty
that are expected to be able to express the essence of the
place. In the future, Kampung Laweyan will keep using their
distinctive characteristics that are generally accepted at pre-
sent, namely the prominent role of the Laweyan women. In
this area, women are not only important because of their
ability as batik makers, but also as batik merchants who are
directly get involved in the selection of materials, pricing,
and recruitment of partners as part of investment strategies
to expand their business. Moreover, Laweyan, which pos-
sesses beautiful ancient Javanese vernacular architecture, has
been able to combine European architectural style in the
blended local architectural details, expressing their power
and excellence of its people for generations in developing
themselves independently and professionally.
Transformational pattern
One of the urban heritage space DNA constitutes a process
of instilling top-down ideology through education and reli-
gion that influencing changes in the aspirations of the local
community from closed-materialistic to open-spiritualistic.
This phenomenon is interesting because of the tendency of
local people to maintain their spiritual authenticity and eco-
nomic privileges while being open-minded about innova-
tions in socio-economic interests at the same time.
Kampung Kauman in Surakarta is another place in Zone
A on the diagram illustrated in Fig. 3 above. Kampung Kau-
man was established at the same time as the establishment
of Surakarta Palace, to which the Kingdom of Kartasura was
relocated in 1745. Despite their well-known image as the
kampong of Batik vendors, originally Kampung Kauman
was the home base of Islamic scholars who were regarded
as educated people at that time. Most of them were able
to study abroad in Arab countries, and then they returned
Fig. 9  Kampung Kauman historic urban core of Surakarta (Solo)
to Surakarta as a religious leader, lived near a mosque to
teach religious teachings. As educated people with scholar-
ship awards from the King, the men of Kampung Kauman
were generally playing a role as partners of the Royals and
their views were taken seriously by the King. They helped
the King in the enforcement of religious laws and educating
people. Their wives were quite educated as well and taught
by Royal females of Surakarta. They made batik with clas-
sical motifs with high royal philosophical values and sold it
to the King. They did it especially to meet the clothing needs
of the kingdom and the royal nobles.
Most of the residential buildings in Kauman are generally
used for commercial purposes such as shops, boutiques, cof-
fee shops, bookstores, florists, restaurants, offices, and so on.
Besides religious activities, Kauman also performs cultural
rituals regularly such as sekaten, hadrah, grebeg, and so
on which are centered on the Grand Mosque of Surakarta,
which has become the center of their living space since its
inception.
Figure 9 above illustrates the existence of Kampung Kau-
man’s brand. People of this place had broad knowledge of
religious teachings and differed significantly from batik
vendors in Kampung Laweyan. The people of Kampung
Kauman, even though they were wealthy because of their
ability to produce high-value goods rather than becoming
ordinary farmers like most people at that time, they did not
build their houses and neighborhood where they lived into
a luxurious area like what happened in Kampung Laweyan.
Rather, they used their house as investments in the afterlife
once they passed away. Those having a lot of assets and
were able to buy large land would generally donate their
land to be used as places of worship by the community. This
area of approximately
​​ 2.23 square kilometers has 10 Islamic
places of worship consisting of 2 mosques and 8 langgars (a
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity

prayer hall). The two mosques were built by the kingdom to
improve the quality of public education and the eight lang-
ars were the endowment of Kauman batik vendors as their
afterlife (Musyawaroh et al. 2018). The number and distribu-
tion of mosques and langgar can be seen in Fig. 10 below.
The morphological development concerning its surround-
ing environment with persisting uniqueness is described in
Fig. 11 below.
This phenomenon is consistent with Piece and Martin
(2015) who stated that a place is defined as a heteroge-
neous form of various elements that constantly experi-
ence the process of uniting and forming a manifestation
of the relationship between space and time. In this case,
Kampung Kauman represents the relationship between
space in the real world and that in the afterlife which is
always recurring in the human phases of life that every-
one will experience according to the teachings of Islam.
Its history shows that the people of Kampung Kauman
are always maintaining harmonious relationships between
themselves and their environment, and keeping a bal-
anced relationships between batik company owners and
their employees, and kept their architectural details simple
without trying to make them stand out, without giving any
impression suggesting that their close ties with the places
near their place of living and working (Fig. 12).

Fig. 10  Distribution of Islamic
places of worship in Kampung
Kauman, Surakarta

Fig. 11  Diagram illustrating the

morphology of Kampung Kau-
man that underwent accultura-
tion process with the surround-
ing environment
 E. Nursanty
Fig. 12  Contemporary public spaces in Surakarta
Occasional Pattern
A strong brand in a place plays several important roles,
including the ability to attract tourists and investors, the
ability to attract people with special talents, the ability to
respect each other, and the ability to sell interesting local
products and crafts. Positive social effects can be generated
by creating a diverse identity. Among things that can provide
a significant effect on the strong city branding is the ability
to create harmony in the environment and increase social
solidarity in the community (Hankinson 2004). Occasional
occupation that occurs due to temporary stimulation is the
public spaces that are created to accommodate the needs
of modern city life, such as major highways, meeting hall,
sports centers, etc., used by the community at certain times
to carry out activities that they inherited. Inheritance activi-
ties that were once carried out in their respective places are
carried out jointly in new public places in the middle of
the city together by the young generation who are always
connected.
Following the development of the needs of modern
cities, Surakarta also needs new types of spaces for its
people. New spaces that are commonly used are generally
the public space far away from their heritage core area, in
the area within zone C and connected with the meaning
described by the link D, as shown in Fig. 3 above. New
public spaces are created by people in various forms, such
as (i) new public spaces to accommodate many commu-
nity activities, such as sports buildings, modern tourism
objects, etc.; (ii). Public space for dominant functions on
working days and is used for public space functions on
weekend days and other holidays, for example, the main
road that changes function into a sports venue, music
stage, etc. on Sundays and holidays; and (iii). buildings
with new functions that have not been optimally used are
used as public spaces together in part-time when buildings
are not used, for example, traditional markets that are only
used during the day, are used as public spaces at night.
Figure 13 above illustrates the emergence of new public
spaces as depicted in the form of red dots, in the city of
Surakarta. It is always adjusted occasionally as what they
have been doing for generations in their heritage areas.
New public spaces that continuously are being used to
mix new activities with heritage activities have been able
to keep the intangible meaning of heritage even though
the location is not in a heritage place anymore. The city
is a very complex form of relations created by some com-
munities through several modifications for certain reasons.
By this, the city can make efforts to create places that can
sustain itself (Sepe 2012).
This agrees with the previous research that stated the
problems in the city along with their attractiveness, urban
environment, infrastructure, architectural attractiveness,
and people’s perceptions were very influential on their
mental description of the city in question. Furthermore,
this mental description will influence the sense of pride
of the people (Mohammadifar and Rousta 2018). In other
cases, the community does not only use the new public
space as a space for new needs, but new public spaces are
also being used to accommodate traditional ritual activi-
ties that have been done for generations and inherited from
their previous generations. As an example, a tradition to
distribute bone-marrow porridge to the neighbors within
a community as a way to share happiness at certain times
that have been carried out for generations in the villages
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity
Fig. 13  Morphological diagram
of contemporary public spaces
(red dots) that refers to the
heritage area
is now being carried out massively on a city scale in the
new public spaces in the city of Surakarta.
Viral pattern
The emergence of a deep sense of silence and longing in
one place has been mention in some works of literature.
It is closely related to the surrounding environment, physi-
cal form of the city and social interaction in it (Fried-
mann 2002). Whereas in the areas located on the outskirts
of the city far away from the center the concept of “city”
has become blurred in the mind. In this sense, something
appears as often regarded as a contemporary life force that
touches human feelings and leaves a sense of being in a
place (Schroedinger 1992).
The “germination” process (this term borrowed from
biology, such as bacteria or viruses) is a new activity center
that appears in a residential area that can transform the area
into a new form organically, to fulfill the place needs to be
the center of a new activity. The original space is integrated
to meet the needs of new space that suddenly appear in the
middle of the area and ensuring the smooth blending and
running of new activities the viral process of germination is
described in the following Fig. 14.
Kampong Karang Tempel is located within the city of
Semarang. It was originally an urban kampung located out-
side of the four heritage city zones as mentioned in Fig. 5. In
1981, a new university campus began the establishment of
buildings for teaching and some supporting facilities within
this residential area. Some of the existing lecture facili-
ties are quite large in comparison to the existing housing
environment inside. Kampung neighborhood roads are the
main access for campus circulation. Kampung circulation
paths in the neighborhood blended with the campus circula-
tion system, facilitating campus expansion, such as parking
functions and other additional functions. The surrounding
settlements were then developing additional functions to
ultimately support the campus activities, for example eating
places, boarding houses, photocopy shops, and so on. The
sense of place is built from certain interactions and mutual
articulation in social experiences that are embedded in emo-
tional attachments. (Campelo et al. 2009).
Figure 15 is the morphological diagram of an injection
of a new function (a campus) in the middle of a residential
kampung in Semarang as a “spreader”. Germination can be
seen in the form of changes in residential houses to boarding
houses for students. Food stalls became a gathering place for
students and small shops turned into a place for photocopy-
ing and sales of stationery. The streets became the parking
lot for both campus guests and students.
Currently, Kampong Karang Tempel is commonly
known as one of the campuses of a large university in
Semarang. The community there considers the campus as
part of the growth and educational needs of their children.
Kampung roads that are being used as parking space is
not seen as a problem because it is accepted by in the
community who is enjoying the changes. A successful
environment is a place that is valued by its inhabitants
even though when the settlement looks physically bad, or
its infrastructure is inadequate and not well maintained.
Physical forms and appearance can be easily rebuilt and
updated. However, an environment can be appreciated for
 E. Nursanty
Fig. 14  Transformed Urban Kampong Karang Tempel Semarang
Fig. 15  Morphological diagram
of the germination process in
Kp. Karang Tempel Semarang
very different reasons, such as in the interaction of one
another when the community affirms one another’s identity
and remembers events that they experience as mutually
accepted rhythms, and places that are considered special
and important by them. This routine and repetitive rhythm
results in things that are mutually considered as impor-
tant (John 2010), where the process that occurs generally
is open and sustainable, able to bring together the local
cultural and natural dimensions (Campelo et al. 2014).
It is clearly stated that the place is referred to as “place”
and not space if we have given it a value that contains an
identity (Hague and Jenkins 2004). The identity in ques-
tion includes a series of changes in morphology, changes
in nature, history, and culture that accompany it. Accord-
ing to Lynch (1960), the identity of a place illustrates the
harmony between the community and the activities that
take place in the city. This connects the existence of recip-
rocal relationships between communities that are unique in
producing and produced by unique environments.
The anatomy of place branding: relating place transformation to community identity
Conclusions
City branding discourse in the future depends very much
on the understanding of the elements it has inherited from
generation to generation, both in the form of tangible and
intangible inheritance that can be recognized as uniqueness
that often arises from the local community, as illustrated
in Fig. 16 below. Inheritance that appears in tangible form
on a place is a process of the continuation of the culture
and ideology of the community. The growth that occurs is
a concomitant journey between the development of space
and the development of community values ​​in interpreting
the place where they live and giving awards to those places.
The structure of DNA will appear in a variety of unique
patterns which are compositions of physical, cultural, and
ideological forms.
By comparing two types of cities with different strengths
of heritage areas, the anatomy of place branding in the future
can appear in the form of (i) Exponential-Natural Entrepre-
neurship, that is: the ability of the community to manage
natural resources and turn them into the main capital to pro-
duce goods—products according to the potential of nature
will produce their uniqueness in a place; (ii). Transplanted—
transformational, that is: a society that grows to serve other
people who are higher than itself. This community is a group
that can maintain harmony between the various levels of
society and become a balanced place for various other types
of different places around it; (iii). Occasional-Temporary,
that is: is the ability of the community to provide the values​​
of their inheritance in new spaces of a modern city to be a
place where the authenticity of its heritage is maintained
through intangible values ​​in it sometimes; and (iv). Germi-
nation-viral, that is the ability of a new building function
to transform its surroundings into a part that supports itself
continuously. Those 4 (four) types that make up the anatomy
of place branding above are part of the strength of the com-
munity of city users in the future, where their satisfaction
Fig. 16  Relationship between
the city’s DNA and branding
forming elements
will be the main indicator of a city brand that can satisfy
tourists, investors, and others.
Thus, the role of the community is very important in the
anatomical change of existing place branding, because the
community is the perpetrator of the continuity of culture
and ideology in a place. The community will transmit and
develop the city’s DNA to become a sustainable place brand-
ing force.
The dynamics that occur in place branding are strongly
influenced by the aspirations of the community in each
period. Young people and creative communities will be very
influential in creating creative spaces to solve city problems.
As can be seen in Fig. 16 above, the highest value that makes
a place very valuable is the existence of ideology which is
still recognized in a place. Among a group of young peo-
ple who understand history, a place that has changed com-
pletely its physical form is not able to eliminate the longing
for ideological values ​​embedded in their minds. This is in
line with previous research by the author which revealed
the conditions in which human involvement in a place will
connect physical things that are material with meaning.
The experience of involvement in the interaction process
requires presence (inside) and action (being together), which
is always influenced by physical, historical, social, and cul-
tural aspects together, contributing to creating a sense of
belonging together.
By understanding the anatomy of place branding in a city,
it is expected that city managers and the community will not
make mistakes in their development in the future. Develop-
ment following the development needs of a modern city is
feasible by paying attention to the anatomical process based
on typical and unique place branding elements in each place.
The elements of branding that are carried forward by the
community will give confidence to anyone that the city is
worthy and happy for the people in it, so that it is worthy to
be respected by other tourists and visitors, and is believed
to provide benefits to its community.
 E. Nursanty
1 2
Fig. 17  Improvement stages of the anatomy of place branding theory
It is expected that the result of this research can become
a model for the formulation of city branding by city govern-
ments in their efforts to excel in developing the competitive
advantage of their city. City branding is not about physical
development, beautification, or providing additional infra-
structure to satisfy the city’s population only. City brand-
ing—according to this research findings—is an effort to
make humans as the center and the subject of the brand to
nurture the uniqueness of the city sustainably. Culture shall
not be an element to beautify the city but shall be regarded as
the main component in strengthening the city’s uniqueness.
Referring back to chapter 2 especially to Fig. 2 (Diagram
of Theory Formation), the conclusion from this particular
research that is represented by the diagram in Fig. 16 above,
may be proposed as a new addition to the city branding the-
ory, especially in the structural formation process of the city
branding through findings of the “DNA”, or the essential
influencer factors for the unique identity of a city, that can
be described in Fig. 17 below.
Figure  17 is the diagrammatic representation of the
anatomy of Place Branding, showing the process of under-
standing the transformation of a place based on its identity
and community’s uniqueness who lived in it. Specifically,
the improvement on the anatomical structure can be further
explained as follows: (1) Starting from the Place-Making
theory on the tangible aspects of the potential of place, and
the City Competitive Advantage Theory on the intangible
aspects, the author moved on the next stage; (2) On two
cities with different potentials, namely Surakarta (Solo) as
a cultural heritage city and Semarang as a cosmopolitan
city, the author found similarities on the value transforma-
tion stages of the place branding. Originally place branding
could be understood through the physical representation, and
when the physical forms were destroyed, the cultural aspects
could still be recognized. Even if a new form with new value
3
appeared on that place, the community could still recognize
the original idea from the original form; and (3) Even though
transformation is happening chronologically from the origi-
nal form to the future growth, the community is still able
to apply the original identity by ideas that often reappear
through various formats with recognizable “similarities” of
its physical, cultural, and ideological aspects.
This study has some limitations. It cannot be carried out
in a newly built places or towns with new heterogeneous
population when they do not have enough time to interact
and to adjust to each other to unify the ideas and mean-
ings and to translate it into decision making on resources
and spaces for their common goods. One of the managerial
implications of the findings from this research is the pos-
sibility to fully open and to connect the new places with the
pre-existed public spaces around it, so the new and the origi-
nal communities can blend. This strategy can speed up the
meaning and identity formation process on the new places,
by reconnecting them to the authentic meanings and identi-
ties that have been in the possession of the local community,
passed from generation to generation.
The possible future research as the continuation of this
findings is a research on the role of the community in pro-
moting the city’s competitive advantage, especially on the
creative cities with young millennial generations, to generate
a new conceptual structure of place branding for the digital
era. The author wishes to continue the research to find the
new “DNA” of “virtual places” that still carry recognizable
characteristics from its authentic places.
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jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Eko Nursanty  is a Passionate Educator who combines as global
explorer with her academic research teaching. She immerses herself
into places and interact with the local communities to understand the
“DNA” of the place. Her research methodology is also a place-making
exercise, combined with blended learning pedagogy. Expanding aca-
demic relationship from local to regional and global level is her pro-
fessional mission, as a way to develop her personal, institutional, and
communities’ competitive advantage. Valuing interpersonal relation-
ship to unlock and to develop others’ potential through empowerment,
conviction, and persuasion.