Exploring how US cities use budget documents as marketing and public relations tools

Cities globally are focusing on place branding to set one locale apart from another. Normal touch points, such as websites, fliers, magazines, brochures, press releases and more are used often. One document not typically thought of as marketing or public relations piece that could extend the place brand is the municipal budget. The document, not the process necessarily, offers an opportunity to extend the place brand. In this study, 20 US cities were examined to understand variation among cities when presenting budgets. Findings revealed that, although cities are using the documents to a certain promotional extent, there still remains room for innovation in the area of budget book presentation. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.