Defining and managing city brand essence: Case study of Vranje

The paper highlights that in the process of identifying the brand essence, it is not enough to simply carry out quantitative research, but an in-depth study of the city's history and culture is also necessary - language, customs, myths, legends, symbols, values, and lifestyle. Valid responses on specially designed questionnaire for this research were collected in the city of Vranje from 389 participants (195 valid responses by residents and 194 by the visitors) while 16 participants participated in qualitative research (focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews). Determining the city brand essence requires the application of different research methods and techniques to understand the overall city's tradition and culture. A complete success in city branding can only be achieved if the brand essence is clearly defined, i.e. if this "core" generates enough of the brand's internal energy. Proposed solutions should provide an easier "orientation" in finding and managing the brand essence of the city. In this way, it is possible to discover the "heart and soul" of cities and activate their hidden potentials for brand development

Proactive Approach to Contracts as a Source of a Company Competitive Value

The aggravation of international trade relations makes it difficult for a contract to predict every single forthcoming event. However, an adequate response to this phenomenon would not be the contract complexity. The very process of contracting, as well as the role of the contract itself need some modifications. The traditional view on contracting is changing more towards relational approach to contracting. It is necessary to devise ways in which contracts may be used to focus on objectives through mutual understanding. In this regard, proactive contracting becomes the best solution which ensures contracts and contracting process itself to be successful, and also ethically and morally acceptable. Contracting process should start by building trust between future contractual partners, followed by a phase in which the parties negotiate the terms of the contract, and where eventually the contract defines the form of the agreed. Proactive legal approach strives to strengthen the adaptive capacity of a contract, creating a contractual system that is continuously being analyzed and adjusted to changing circumstances and the assessed effects, for example, by making appropriate annexes. This approach provides a basis for negotiating conflict management using the methods of alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation, conciliation, and/or arbitration. Proactive contracting makes an opportunity for managers to reformulate legal concerns into business opportunities. The aim of this paper is to analyze proactive rights, particularly in the field of contracting with preventive and promotional aspects and empirical research that should show the readiness of the Serbian companies to change their accents in contractual negotiations in order to ensure a successful outcome

Defining city brand personality: How can literature help?

City branding has a strategic dimension. When it comes to defining city branding strategy, creating city brand personality, that is, defining a set of human characteristics that are connected to city brand, is particularly important. In this way, a city can increase its recognisability and differentiate itself from the competition on location market. The main aim of this work is to show the experience of defining city brand personality within the project 'Vranje as a brand'. In the first part of the research, we used quantitative techniques (residents and visitors of Vranje were surveyed), while in the second part qualitative techniques were applied (focus group). On this occasion, the results of the research were complemented with the personality elements, that were taken from the literary works of the famous Serbian writer Borisav Stanković, who was born in Vranje and whose literature is connected with this city. That gave an additional element of authenticity to the brand personality. This is an example of how art can shape city personality, or discover the attributes which describe this personality