Re branding Amman: a ‘lived’ city's values, image and identity

participation in the GAM ’ s initiatives – which 

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© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1751-8040 
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 
Vol. 9, 1, 49–65
59
(Re)branding Amman 
to this day has to yet be institutionalized. This 
signifi ed an important turning point in the 
rhetoric of the 2009 rebranding for Amman, 
in which the internal audience became the 
primary target for the new brand right at the 
outset. The mayor ’ s stance, and the lessons 
from previous branding campaigns motivated 
Syntax to adopt a citizen-centered approach 
in their 2009 re-branding exercise and they 
conducted their own in-depth interviews with 
intellectuals, publishers and business owners as 
well as their own focus groups in which they 
sought a representation of the Amman ’ s varying 
socio-economic strata. When we interviewed 
the Syntax team for the purposes of this article, 
they relayed how they videotaped these sessions 
and included them in a research record that 
was reviewed by then Mayor Omar Maani.
6
At the time, Mr Maani was quite affected by 
what people had to say about life in Amman,