Explaining the Branding Framework for Tourism Development in Iranian Creative Cities (Case Study: Sanandaj Music Creative City)

Currently, the development of urban creativity is one of the newest and most important paradigm regarding increase of competitiveness and economic development based on urban entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, Sanandaj City has recently been registered as UNESCO’s creative city of music. Thus, important opportunities have been provided for stakeholders to let them represent Sanandaj’s brand in collaboration with each other. Therefore, the main aims of this research are to investigate this process, propose a branding framework, and contribute a creative city of music to the tourism development of Sanandaj. The current study is a quantitative-qualitative research with a practical approach evaluating the creative city and branding indicators in order to facilitate the branding process of the creative city of music. In this research, information has been collected through surveys and documents. The tool for collecting research are library data and a questionnaire that includes 5 general questions and 44 5-choice questions on the Likert scale. The questions are designed in 11 sections, in each section, questions related to each index are included. The sample size of the research was 384 people obtained through the Cochran method, and the questionnaire was distributed among 390 citizens. To ensure validity, the questionnaire was approved by experts. In the following, Cronbach's alpha method was used to check the reliability of the questionnaire. Then, by using binomial tests, Friedman, correlation and exploratory factor analysis, the findings have been analyzed. The findings showed that the socio-cultural indicator is in the best and the quality of service indicator is in the worst condition. Therefore, by maintaining the quality of the culture, it is necessary to develop strategic planning for the city of Sanandaj to improve the quality of services. Based on the findings of the research and considering the value and importance of culture in Sanandaj among the citizens and the fact that the main axis of Sanandaj's creativity is music, these items are recommended as central issues in the branding process of this city: 1) Networking and exchange of experience and knowledge with creative music cities International success 2) Depicting the best social and cultural features of the city and integrating these images with the urban landscape and natural and historical attractions 3) Focusing on the titles of hospitable city and technological city in the field of music in order to create top place brands 4 ) Improving the level of urban services with emphasis on features and attractive places for residents and tourists 5) Using popular social capital (general public as well as influencers and famous people) in social networks in order to promote Sanandaj city brand as much as possible in social networks 6) expansion and development of place brands to urban spaces on a smaller scale and creating a comprehensive network of place images and brands with emphasis on the variety of attractions and different topics 7) creation of lasting and memorable images, symbols and signs Remaining of the characteristics and brands of the place and its advertisements in Rasan Collective, environmental and internet issues.