Liverpool Rebranding

Liverpool is a city in the north west of England and has a population of around 470000. It became a city in 1880 and is historically part of Lancashire.

Overtime Liverpool has had many identities. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was a huge port with massive ships using the River Mersey to transport cargo and other goods. Around 1960 it became a leader in popular culture.

Liverpool needed to rebrand because the city became old and run down but had little money to spend. This is because in the 1980’s Liverpool experienced economic and social deprivation.So Liverpool was in a spiral of decline because it was no longer an attractive place to live and work, people turned to vandalism and crime and some even left the area. With people leaving the area and it being an unsafe place to walk the streets, investors didn’t want to invest which meant the city couldn’t move forward.

Liverpool is seen to be a city of culture because it has a rich history in popular music, most notably ‘The Beatles’. It also has a rich history in performing arts with an annual summer Shakespeare event. More evidence of it’s performing arts pedigree is the number of theatres, Empire, Everyman, Playhouse, Neptune, Royal Court and Unity Theatres are all very famous theatres. Liverpool also has two premier league football teams with Liverpool and Everton competing at the highest level. All of this shows that Liverpool has so much culture to offer and this is why it was awarded in 2008 by being named European capital of culture.

Now Liverpools residents and visitors are seeing the benefits of rebranding. Residents wanted the rebranding to capture and keep the cities culture and ‘Liverpool vision’ helped achieve this. One of their biggest achievements is the Liverpool one shopping centre, it has over 160 stores, 600 new residential buildings and many more offices and restaurants. The cost of the project was over 1 billion pounds. The whole of the waterfront has now been regenerated for a second time and the Albert Dock has reinvented itself as a host for many cultural events. Shoppers now spend more money in liverpool than any other English city apart from London, Birmingham and Manchester. This has boosted the city's economy massively and it now rivals it’s competitors. Evidence of this would be that in 2008 the city’s economy was boosted by over 800 million and 7500 more people were attracted to cultural events throughout the year. Liverpools residents now experience these benefits on a day to day basis and the newly branded streets have made it a much safer place to walk, making the quality of life much better.

Overall I personally believe the rebranding of Liverpool has been a huge success as it has got the city out of a spiral of decline and it is now a world famous city. Liverpools residents now can be proud of their city as it has rebranded itself as a world class 21st century city.