Haft and Sord Factors in Place Branding: between functionalism and representationalism

This conceptual paper contends that the contemporary place branding perspective implies to understand place attraction (and place brands themselves) in terms of haftand sordfactors, by updating the ―old‖ distinction between hard and soft factors which characterized the traditional discourses of place marketing. Moreover, it seeks to refine the Brand Box Model (De Chernatony & McWilliam, 1990) as it has been applied to places by Caldwell and Freire (2004), by paying attention to the distinction between the internal and external orientation of place branding.