Walldorf: Place marketing with strengths, strategy and structure

Client: City of Walldorf

Project period: September – December 2024

The project in brief

The town of Walldorf near Heidelberg is liveable and future-oriented. With funds from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Tourism of Baden-Württemberg ‘simmediate action program for retail/inner city , Walldorf has shown foresight and used the funding to development of a new city marketing concept concept.

We at Stadtmanufaktur took on this task and developed a place marketing strategy including a strengths analysis, repositioning of the city centre, organizational structure and impulses for events that make Walldorf even more attractive for citizens and visitors.

In this way, Walldorf wants to actively shape the city’s present – and show prospects for the city’s future. The city marketing concept is intended to “serve as a guide to emphasize Walldorf’s strengths, exploit its potential and jointly set the course for sustainable and liveable urban development.” (Foreword, Walldorf city marketing concept)

The entire project – from the project kick-off to the presentation to the municipal council – was tightly organized and was completed by us completed within just four months. and completed in just four months.

Task and background

Around 16,000 inhabitants live in the small town of Walldorf in Baden-Württemberg. An internationally active software group (SAP), many other large employers and a broad-based SME sector with a good 26,000 employees ensure Walldorf’s economic strength. Many different nationalities and cultures live well together in Walldorf.

Challenges and goals

The The residential city (= the established center) and the working city (= the SAP campus) are very separate. Walldorf’s city center did not benefit from the large number of commuters.
There was also no clear positioning for Walldorf in terms of retail and the city center. The search was on for: “ a bracket for urban marketing” (brand, communication, projects, measures).
In addition, since the beginning of 2024, the necessary working structures and players for place marketing and city center revitalization.
Further specifications of the project or concept:
- Strengthen retail trade
- Create meeting places and offers for everyone
- Filling Walldorf with life
- Strengthening the identification of new citizens

That was the status quo we started with in the project: With with analyses, individual discussions and entertaining workshops we worked out the strengths, weaknesses and potentials of Walldorf and summarized these in a city marketing concept with recommendations for action summarized.

Erartungen an den Prozess zum Stadtmarketingkonzept in Walldorf

Post-its mit Erwartungen an das Stadtmarketingkonzept von Walldorf

Walldorf als Person: Post-its mit Ideen und Charaktereigenschaften

Every city marketing process is associated with expectations, wishes and ideas – to ensure the greatest possible acceptance and a common understanding, we involve urban society and city stakeholders right from the start

Our way of working

Workshops and participation formats

Place marketing means understanding, mediating, networking and connecting. That’s why we focus on participation formats and stakeholder management in our strategic advice on place branding. After all, local people know their city best – and they are the ones who ultimately carry and shape the city’s future. Involving urban society in all its facets in place marketing and city center profiling processes is a win-win situation:

As strategic consultants, we get to know the many perspectives and dependencies (a prerequisite for implementable and flexible strategies and concepts),
the city administration opens up to citizens and becomes approachable,
urban society feels heard and is activated.

Participation formats within the project:

Kick-off with the project team (including the mayor, business development, public relations, culture, trade association)
Preliminary talks with selected actors in the city
City walks to analyze potential
Two workshops with stakeholders and citizens:
- Workshop 1 – “Strengths and profile”
- Workshop 2 – “Measures”

Our project manager Sophie May sums up the large and committed participation in this community report: “I know many cities. But what came up on the pinboards in Walldorf was very impressive, I’ve never experienced that before.”

Stadtakteur:innen im Gespräch bei einem Workshop zum Stadtmarketingkonzept in Walldorf

Workshop-Ergebnisse an Pinnwänden: Ideen und Impulse zum Stadtmarketingkonzept für Walldorf

Menschen stehen an einer Wand mit Notizen beim Workshop zum Stadtmarketingkonzept in Walldorf

Menschen arbeiten an Pinnwänden bei einem Workshop zum Stadtmarketing in Walldorf

Sophie May und Laura Ebeling zeigen Workshop-Ergebnisse zum Stadtmarketing in Walldorf

Menschen stehen eng vor Pinnwänden mit Workshop-Ergebnissen in Walldorf

High participation, lots of ideas: Workshops with citizens and city stakeholders on the strengths, weaknesses and potential of Walldorf

Concept development and presentation

We supplemented the findings from the workshops, the stakeholder discussions and the regular project meetings in the concept development with our analyses of the situation of the city brand and place marketing in Walldorf.

On this basis, we developed a concept for a future-oriented place marketing in Walldorf – individually adapted to the situation, strengths and mood in the town. The entire project was implemented and completed by us in just 4 months.

After completion, the city marketing concept was presented by theStadtmanufaktur project managersSophie May and Laura Ebeling to the city council of Walldorf .

City marketing concept for Walldorf – contents:

(Inner) city profile – strengths, positioning and recommendations for branding
Organizational model for future place marketing: structure, responsibilities, etc.
Measures to retain customers and purchasing power
Impulses for Events in the city centre

Walldorfs Bürgermeister und Stadtmanufaktur-Projektleitung stellen das Stadtmarketingkonzept im Gemeinderat vor

Laura Ebeling and Sophie May from Stadtmanufaktur (from left) present the city marketing concept to Walldorf’s municipal council. In the middle: Mayor Matthias Renschler

The result: realignment of city marketing – in terms of content, structure and personnel

The place marketing concept defines the new direction of place marketing in Walldorf. It is not only about strategy, brand profile and measures, but also explicitly about operational implementation: What structures are needed? What form of organization does Walldorf’s place marketing need?

From 2025, a new place marketing position was created in theadministration to implement the concept modules in cooperation with city stakeholders.

Photos: City of Walldorf / Stadtmanufaktur

Matthias Renschler, Bürgermeister von Walldorf

The further development of the city is an important issue for us. It’s about creating a clean place marketing and putting a bracket around all the offers we have. The workshops with Stadtmanufaktur were fun and helped us make great progress.

Matthias Renschler, Mayor of Walldorf