The doctoral dissertation explores the process of strategic management in culture, with a particular emphasis on the city of Osijek and the city of Rijeka. The main goal was to analyze the role and importance of strategic activities in branding a city's cultural identity. In order to realize the goal thus defined, the theoretical framework of the dissertation starts from the determinants of culture, primarily through the elaboration of the importance of cultural policy. In order to analyze the concept of the cultural identity of a city, the dissertation provides insight into the concept of identity of each city and the factors of its construction. Particular importance is attached to the connection of identity with culture and heritage. The concept of branding is also described, i.e., the process of building a city's branding as one of the preconditions for successful management of strategic activities in culture. Review of the relevant literature, scientific methods of induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, historical method, and methods of classification, comparison, and description were applied. The empirical part of the research was based on situational analysis and a case study, during which survey and interviewing methods were used. A survey questionnaire was conducted among the local population and tourists in Osijek and Rijeka. In-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of public authorities in the field of culture in the city of Osijek and the city of Rijeka and with executives of cultural institutions. The benchmarking process of Osijek with Rijeka as the official European Capital of Culture, based on theoretical and empirical research results, finally created a model of effective strategic management of activities in branding the cultural identity of a city. The results of this research confirmed the basic and the first two auxiliary hypotheses, while the auxiliary hypothesis H.1.3. was partially confirmed. The author, therefore, concludes that a city's cultural identity is based on the public preferences and heritage of that city. That branding a city is necessary for its positioning in the field of culture, and that strategic activities are determinants of cultural policy at the city level. Also, cultural projects' goals should be more closely linked to a city's cultural development goals, and managing strategic activities in the field of culture could be increased by intensifying communication among all relevant stakeholders and more significant external rather than budgetary funding.