BRANDING REGIONAL IDENTITY AS A DRIVER FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Within the globalizing world, regions and their identities are subjected to greatpressure. At present, places are engaged in a process of “territorial competition” inan integrated world economy. The identity of the region can be used as a startingpoint to brand a region and differentiate it from others. In the regional brandingprocess, the region as a whole becomes a product or brand and offers a “basket” ofregional products and services. This paper discusses the possibility of regionalidentity as a mobilizing force for rural development, by studying best practiceexamples of regional branding. Using the grounded theory approach, we conductedinterviews in three case regions: West Cork (Ireland), Groene Woud (theNetherlands) and Pajottenland (Belgium). The study of these cases led to theformulation of critical success factors on the organization of regional branding.