ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING

Creating competitive places that get noticed by talent, companies, and investors.

We partner with cities and regions — and the communities within them — to clarify their competitive edge, attract high-value talent, and craft a roadmap for the long-term investment that true prosperity is made of.

Strategy and intelligence for economic development.

More than ever, cities and regions are competing for their futures. There are no accidental winners. The places that understand their competitive position are the ones that invest where it matters, lead with a clear position, and earn the attention of the businesses, talent, and capital they need. For decades, Resonance has been the partner to help them do just that.

Our team is recognised as a leader in investment attraction strategy and city competitiveness advisory. For more than two decades, we’ve helped places understand their Place Power™, our proprietary city competitiveness metric that leverages urban, economic, and perception research across 30 countries and 1000+ cities.

Equipped with this intelligent advantage, we clarify perception gaps, identify a place’s defining strengths, and build the investment narrative, brand positioning, and strategy to realize their boldest futures.

Our Economic
Development Capabilities

01

Economic Development Strategy

Resonance translates competitive intelligence into actionable roadmaps for economic growth, defining development priorities and aligning the stakeholders that matter. The result: one path forward, grounded in rigorous urban data.

City competitiveness benchmarking
Economic development strategy
Innovation district strategy
Stakeholder alignment and governance

02

Investment Attraction Strategy & Marketing

We equip economic development organizations with the smarts and forward-thinking positioning to compete for investment, attract high-value businesses, and market themselves to the corporations that can define a city or region’s trajectory.

Investor perception analysis
Foreign developer investment strategy
Investment brand strategy and marketing narrative
Site selector and investor communications strategy

03

Talent Attraction Strategy & Marketing

The strength of a place is increasingly defined by the talent it attracts. We help cities and regions position and market themselves as a compelling place to live and work, so they can capture the attention of the skilled workforce their economy needs.

Talent attraction strategy and workforce positioning
Livability and quality-of-life brand strategy
Target demographic and migration pattern analysis
Employer partnership and talent ecosystem advisory

04

Communications Strategy

Close perception gaps and stay on the radar of site selectors, investors, and corporate real estate teams. Our communication plans keep your city’s investment narrative alive in the channels that matter most, from trade media to sector-specific publications to a new generation of AI assistants.

Investment Attraction Retainer
FDI Media Relations Retainer
Site Selector Intelligence Brief
Generative engine optimization (GEO)

FAQS

Key questions and answers.

01

What is an economic development consultancy?

An economic development consultancy is a team that helps cities, regions, and governments plan and implement strategies to grow their local economy.

The consultancy’s job is to understand the state of a place and articulate its unique story in a way that gets visitors interested in visiting, people interested in moving there, and companies interested in investing in its future.

02

What is city competitiveness, and how is it measured?

City competitiveness refers to a city’s ability to attract investment, talent, businesses, and visitors relative to peer cities globally. There are a range of ways to measure a city’s competitiveness, but you can think of it like the pull a place has on talent, tourists, and companies.

At Resonance, we have our own proprietary measure of city competitiveness, called a Place Power™ Score. This methodology, developed in partnership with Ipsos, evaluates 500+ cities across 40+ measures of Livability, Lovability, and Prosperity. Unlike many other city benchmarks, it looks at hard data along with qualitative perception data. Place Power™ is the engine behind Best Cities, our renowned city-ranking platform.

03

What is an investment attraction strategy?

An investment attraction strategy is a long-term plan to attract foreign investment, corporate relocations, and business expansion in a city, region, or place.

Effective investment attraction strategy requires understanding how investors currently perceive a location, identifying competitive advantages, developing a compelling investment narrative, and targeting the right industries and investor audiences.

04

What is GEO and how does it help investment attraction?

A new era of AI-powered search is transforming how cities and regions get noticed. Today’s investors are relying on LLMs and AI-powered platforms to connect them with the cities and regions where they will invest.

Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is the practice of improving and monitoring how a place is represented in these AI-generated answers, so they show up when investors, site selectors, and corporate real estate teams go searching.

Effective GEO tactics don’t just enrich the content of a place’s online touchpoints — they drive long-term engagement that can translate to critical new investment opportunities. Resonance offers dedicated GEO retainers for investment attraction clients.