Krakow to have new marketing strategy
After years of promoting Krakow as a city of wild parties, authorities have decided to switch the focus to cultural events and high-tech advancement.
The new marketing strategy aims at attracting more refined and sophisticated visitors.
The creators of the new promotional strategy – Eskadra PR group and the Promotion Department of Krakow City Council – based their approach on experiences of other Polish and European cities, especially Barcelona but also Prague, Vienna, Wroclaw and Warsaw.
Guidelines for the new strategy have been discussed with representatives of cultural institutions, catering businesses, tourism organizations and local media.
The new strategy will promote festivals and cultural events. According to Mateusz Zmyslony of the Eskadra PR group, Krakow needs one, widely recognizable event, which it now lacks.
Also, he says, Krakow should encourage bold projects and young, talented, independent (underground) artists.
Izabela Helbin of the Promotion Bureau says her organization will sponsor fewer projects, but the chosen ones will get much more money.
“We can’t split the funds and support every project because they will never turn into anything spectacular,” Helbin said. “It is necessary that we choose several events and focus on them.”
The authors of the new marketing strategy hope that promoting Krakow as a city of advanced technologies will help attract clients from upper-income brackets and catch the attention of business people to boost conferences and encourage investments, especially in information technology and outsourcing sectors.
“Krakow is not exactly what we call an economic tiger,” Zmyslony said. “It would be good to show it as a city with economic potential.”
A new promotional slogan for Krakow will be chosen to be advertised worldwide. Some of the possibilities are “Krakow. Genius Loci,” “Krakow. The City,” “Krakow. Form and Content” and “Krakow. Big Idea.”
“The main idea is to attract intelligent people,” Zmyslony said. “Even if they won’t understand ?genius loci? immediately, they’ll quickly look it up in a dictionary.”
Helbin tried to dispel any doubts about the feasibility of the plan by noting that the city has boosted the marketing budget by 30 percent next year. “Everything can be done,” Helbin said.