Future Studies about Branding in The Formation of a Creative City with The Approach of Data Theories, a Case Study of Karaj City

Introduction: Famous cities are always trying to establish their position by relating themselves to new ideas. One of these ideas is “the creative city”. By joining the network of creative cities, cities are seeking to increase their economic power and in order to achieve this economic growth, they have begun to formulate policies and strategies, which one of them is “city branding”. The main mission of city branding is to help the growth of the cities; it is the economic of the city. If a place wants to be perceived in minds with higher qualities than other competitors and wants a function that is appropriate to its goals, it needs to create distinction through a unique image.
Methodology: Data collection in this research was done using expert interview method and qualitative data analysis with the help of MAXQDA software. Through constant comparison and repeated analysis, patterns, concepts and relationships in the data were identified. The current research is a descriptive-analytical study and a survey type, which is done through two forms of documentary-library studies. In this way, theoretical studies have been used to clarify the literature of the research topic and compile the theoretical foundations as well as the records of the research. These datas mentioned above have been all written referring to libraries and books. The method used in the current research, based on which the theory is formed from the concepts obtained from the data, is a foundational data theory,
Findings and Discussion: This strategy is based on three elements: concepts, categories, theorems. Because this theory is grounded in data, it provides a better explanation than a theory that is adapted from existing opinions; it is more appropriate to the situation. Generally, in the foundational data theory method, documents and data are examined in three ways. Some researchers study the data phrase by phrase and line by line and extract the concepts contained in them. Some also focus on the paragraphs and take the message contained in each paragraph and clause, and in some cases the entire text or document is considered with a general view and the concepts hidden in it are discovered and recorded. A combination of these methods has been used. In this way, the initial interviews were reviewed line by line, and after identifying the initial codes, conceptual labels were considered for them. This work continued until the twelfth interview, and after that, due to the repetition of many codes, the paragraphs were the focus of the analysis, and the new points raised in a paragraph were recorded as a code.
Conclusion: The results of data analysis and conceptualization of expressions are listed in Table 2. In this table, an attempt has been made to avoid duplicate codes, and codes that are similar or very close have also been avoided. In addition, during the open coding process, maximum effort was made to use the concepts raised by the interviewees themselves, and in cases where this was not possible, the researcher used the technical concepts of the field literature. In the foundational data theory method, in order to achieve abstract concepts that can be a good description of the central phenomenon, the primary data and codes are repeatedly evaluated and compared continuously, and efforts are made to organize the primary codes that are semantically more similar in the form of single concepts, and then the concepts obtained based on the conceptual structure in the form of categories. Based on the coding done, 52 open codes were extracted and deduced. As explained in the previous lines, after detailed analysis and continuous comparisons based on semantic similarities, the data obtained from the interviews were upgraded to more abstract levels and finally placed in general classes. In this section, based on what the participants in the research have expressed, each of these classes will be described and adapted to the subject literature at the same time. Finally, by planning and implementing appropriate solutions, Karaj City can be transformed into a creative and sustainable city.