Abstract
International audience In 2008, Marseille became the "European Capital of Culture" for the year 2013. Facing three other competitors, Marseille's decision-makers adopted a specific strategy which underlined the weaknesses of its socio-cultural amenities. The second French city in terms of inhabitants then combined with 97 other towns within a new cultural territory: Marseille-Provence 2013. All along its candidacy as well as after officially getting the title, decision-makers used several tools which belong to territorial marketing (label, ads, logo, catchwords…). These urban technics were used to change the rather bad image of Marseille and accelerate its territorial transformations. With this communication, we aim to analyse what are the economic, social, cultural and territorial purposes behind the use of marketing in Marseille, but also to show that the expected results are sometimes limited and that urban marketing strategies tend to reinforce inequalities between already heterogeneous neighbourhoods.