<p>City marketing is a topic that attracts many researchers from various scholars. Some of them include management, urban planning, geography, communication science, and urban development. this is very interesting because the sliced theory of city marketing is very specific to each field of science. It is undeniable, the definition of city marketing is also growing from year to year. The term city marketing has similarities with destination marketing, regional marketing, and developing into city branding because cities in the world are increasingly competitive in developing marketing strategies, one of which is through branding strategies. This paper reviews in-depth about the changes and developments in the definition of city marketing from year to year to see the focus of discussion and the objectives of the city marketing strategy.</p><p>Result: the definition changes occur every year but the main focus of city marketing remains on the citizen, visitors, and investors. This is related to the function of a city as a place that is worth living, worth visiting and worth investing in. Besides, the understanding that a city can be marketed like a product is highly inappropriate over time because the city has stakeholders and functions that are more complex than marketing in general.</p>