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When I starting writing this piece, I sent out feelers to the main
information-disseminating headquarters: PR firms. The response was
encouraging: within 15 minutes I had at least 37 examples of branded
cities, states, regions, and countries. Then I starting reading,
checking out the so-called “branded” websites, and making phone calls.
Clearly there are well-branded cities and places. Bravo for
those gallant efforts. These destinations have crisp stories, distinct
attributes, and consistent messaging, and deliver the brand promise at
all touch points. They affix a vivid brain tattoo on the minds of their
markets.
On the other side of the map are many lost destinations and
leaders who don’t quite get it. They think the brand is a jazzy logo or
a catchy tagline. They think a costly ad campaign is the big ticket,
and most of all they are oblivious to the destructive power of
un-united forces within their destination.
A city or destination brand is the sum of what the market
thinks when they hear the brand name. It’s how they feel when they
arrive at the destination’s website or experience other communication,
and it’s what they expect when they select one place over another.
An effective destination brand resonates through all touch
spots, including but not limited to the physical environment, entry and
exit points, signage, marketing, residents’ attitudes, transportation
venues (airports, freeways), events, web presence, visitor services,
and leadership.
Unlike product or company branding initiatives, branding a
destination has an extra layer of challenge. Here are some of the most
prevailing brand development dysfunctions and how you can work through
them.
Creative Class Deficiency: Maybe deficiency
is a harsh term; my point is, though, many cities lack creative potency
or organized creative movements and/or allow fear to halt their
creative progress. This spills over into their branding.
Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, sums up the impact of creative thinking and the creative class on economies.
“The creative class now comprises more than thirty percent of
the entire workforce. The choices these people make already had a huge
economic impact, and in the future they will determine how the
workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and
even which cities will thrive or wither,” states Florida in his book.
Competing Complexities: Most destinations have multiple
sub-brands or voices. A typical city can have the business chamber, the
visitors and convention council, economic development councils, and the
government all reaching out with both similar and different agendas.
“Hartford, Connecticut, needed to change their image, build a
fresh brand, and increase business and visitorship. Under the
leadership of former Governor Roland, in 2000, 13 community
organizations formed the Hartford Image Project (HIP), a non-profit
marketing consortium,” says Michael Kintner, HIP project director. “The result was ‘New England’s Rising Star,’ a cohesive brand
story and visual system. The united group contributes funds along with
corporate donors and we stay committed to communicating and living one
brand message. The initiative has been a great success. Annually we
assess our efforts, brand recall is strong, and business is up,”
reports Kintner.
Committees Can Kill Even the Greatest Idea: A by-product of
brands “for the people” is the committee that compromises and kills
potential brand homeruns. This why you never see statues of committees
in parks; you see brave leaders.
Adam Hanft, author of Dictionary of the Future,
noted, “There is no question that multiple levels of government, etc.,
militate against a successful branding campaign. When the strategy and
advertising become dumbed down so that it satisfies bureaucrats, and
ends up as self-serving pabulum, it’s destined to die.”
The way around this is for a leadership to take control and
say, “Listen, while some issues demand creating a consensus, this is
one area where a consensus will fail.” What might be helpful is to show
resistors the kind of advertising that works in today's culture and how
a city that wants to brand itself as cool must rise to that level.
At the same time as firm leadership is required, it makes sense
to create a small subgroup of these special interests and involve them
in the process so that their opinions can be heard, and they can feel
vested.
So Many Good Things, Nothing Stands Out: To gain something,
others must be sacrificed. The great brands in every industry have a
strong singular message. The same thing applies to destinations. If you
try to brand with everything that you have, your brand will mean
nothing—unless of course your position is “A great city full of flea
markets.”
One more thought from Adam Hanft, “Align your city's strengths with
what the market demands, and be pretty brutal about zeroing in on one
communication strategy, and then stick with it.”
History Is Hard to Change: Many well-deserving destinations are
burdened by some mind-chiseled brand or event from their past.
Certainly not the easiest of roads, however, these situations can be
turned around.
How do you brand a city best known for its tons of nuclear
waste? Or a town that smells bad? Lynn Parker, principal of Parker
LePla and author of Brand Driven and Integrated Branding
explains, “These seemingly intractable branding challenges have been
fought to positive effect by Richland and Tacoma, both in Washington
state. In the first case, we approached it with ‘if you can't fix it,
flaunt it’ method. In our research we discovered Richland has more PhDs
per capita than almost anywhere in the world. So we played up the
atomic history through a Grade B alien movie campaign, ‘Come to where
there are signs of intelligent life,’ focusing on the well-educated
workforce. We sent branded spaceships to 100 companies looking to
relocate out of California and ended up with 100 percent recall of the
direct [mailer]. We also achieved the center column of the front page
of the Wall Street Journal.”
In Tacoma's case, the famous "aroma of Tacoma" was history since the
paper mill left town, but only locals knew it. A campaign was designed
around the Arts District, which comprised a brand-new Tacoma Art
Museum, the architecturally interesting Museum of Glass and the
Washington State Museum of History and Industry. Adding new, brandable
assets expanded the story and strengthened the city’s brand.
Destination branding is vital to compete and win. Take these
steps and your brand can become a valuable, revenue-producing asset to
your community.
1) Make necessary physical and mental changes to attract and keep “The Creative Class” in your community.
2) Embrace a big, distinct idea; unite all subvoices to sing the same song; and stick with it.
3) Educate all forces and the community that the brand is not
just the logo or tagline. It’s the sum of everything the destination
does.
[20-Dec-2004]
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