The Civic Brand: The Power & Responsibility of Place

The Civic Brand: The Power & Responsibility of Place is a bold and practical book that challenges conventional thinking about city-building, tourism, economic development, and community engagement. Author Ryan Short introduces a new framework for shaping more resilient, equitable, and loveable places that is rooted in identity, values, and a triple bottom line.

Drawing from years of experience working with cities, counties, and regions across the country, Ryan Short shows how fragmented efforts, siloed departments, and surface-level branding have left communities struggling to grow with intention or preserve what makes them special. The Civic Brand reveals how place branding, when done right, isn't just logos or slogans, but about uniting people, guiding policy, and building shared civic pride. Blending strategic insight with vivid, often entertaining stories from the field, this book brings to life the challenges and triumphs of real places navigating growth, decline, and identity.

Inside, you'll discover:

• Why many communities face a crisis of identity and how reclaiming that identity can be a turning point
• How a true place brand aligns tourism, economic development, planning, and engagement
• The tools to shift from reactive marketing to proactive visioning and long-term stewardship
• Why branding isn't just a communications strategy, but a governance strategy
• How cities of all sizes can build trust, reduce division, and foster authentic participation

Whether facing overtourism or decline, rapid growth or disinvestment, division or disengagement, this book offers a bold path forward. It's a call to city leaders, planners, business owners, developers, and residents alike to recognize their role in shaping place and to do so with purpose.

The Civic Brand is more than a book, it's a movement to reimagine how we care for the places we call home.