The chairman of Lloyd Northover examines how rebranding will increasingly affect our lives -- virtually and physically -- and bring us closer together.

'Regenerating' reminds some of us of clearing away tightly knit, if downtrodden, communities in favour of gentrified, retro-styled homes and clinically bland retail malls with wall-to-wall muzak -- a kind of lobotomised nightmare for many.

Then there’s 'branding' -- slick, superficial makeovers. Wasteful, self-indulgent and naff. All in all, they make a pretty potent, but toxic mix.

Why can't we just keep things real?

Well, of course we can. The best places -- the ones we like to live in, want our kids to grow up in, enjoy, and come back to time and again -- are those that never stand still. Change is what cities and towns, especially, are all about. We need to get used to it and to understand the consequences of our actions, particularly as the latest statistics show that over half the world's population now lives in cities.

Currently, many cities are thriving while others becoming more and more dysfunctional, so there are plenty of challenges out there. When you factor in the potential effects of climate change and anxieties about crime, terrorism and social fragmentation, we have to take regeneration seriously.

Cities operate in a competitive world. They compete for funding, investment and for talent. The so-called 'knowledge economy' is based on talented people producing goods, services and thinking that others value and pay for, so attracting and retaining talent is a key driver of any city's success.

Cities are also, in part, defined by their public spaces -- the places where people congregate, meet, play, relax and generally hang out. We know from history that the piazzas, squares and parks that characterise many cities also helped to shape their unique personality. In many ways we already know what works and what doesn't, but we're less good at not repeating the same mistakes over and over again. We also know that what once made a city successful a hundred years ago is not the same as what will make it successful today. For example, digital media now offers us all a new kind of public space -- a virtual one -- which cities can make use of as social networks and online meeting places. At a basic level, regeneration is about recreating success in economic, social and environmental terms and this will inevitably involve virtual networks. A lot is at stake here, and what could be more important for the future of our communities?

It's obvious that we don't always make the right choices in how we decide to regenerate. We often don't engage with people to get the best results, nor do we communicate what it is we are trying to achieve.

Deep down, a 'sense of place' is something we all recognise, but find it hard to capture. And, as places change, that 'sense' is constantly renewed.

This is where 'branding' comes in, although the word itself has unhelpful connotations of fixing something in time and space, rather than being what a brand should be, in a continual state of evolution. For me a brand for a place, such as a city, town or community, should be trying to capture the essence and sense of that place, which makes it easier to communicate, understand and experience, but not to fix it in aspic. That's why branding is so important in the regeneration process. A brand can increase recognition, provide a focus for action, give a direction, release energy and invite dialogue. A brand is not a makeover; it's about authenticity, about revealing a truth.

There are lots of ways of looking at brands but here's a simple way of defining them:

We create and articulate what we refer to in our jargon as visions, values and positionings, propositions and personalities as part of regeneration programmes. These can find expression in a number of ways: a story, a narrative, an image, a memory, an experience, a dialogue, a tone of voice. Even sounds and smells are part of the sensory experience of a place. And finally, there will probably be a logo, or other graphic expression, to help 'shorthand' the idea.

Of course, that is just the start of creating a brand. A brand can, and should, feed into policy for a city's development, for example. It can guide and influence how its infrastructure is planned, how its public spaces are designed, how its visitors are greeted and find their way around. Online, cities can now go beyond standard city websites, designed as information platforms for citizens or visitors. Part of getting communities engaged in their cities and making the brand live is ensuring that there are online 'public spaces', owned by no-one, but used by everyone. The potential for people to make positive connections and build a common vision is clearly something that in itself could encourage more social interaction and, ultimately, cohesion. There's no doubt that a digital public arena can help strengthen the understanding of a city's brand, and that the digital platform will help forge the way we live beside each other in the future.

In this way a brand is tangible, but not fixed. It's part of the place, but not any one place. It's about the here and now, and the long term too. Working alongside policymakers, planners, environmentalists, architects, social anthropologists, investors, developers and citizens, brand consultants can help frame change. All in all, branding has the potential to play a pivotal role in successful regeneration, if we let it.

Jim Northover is chairman, Lloyd Northover.