Professional Documents
Culture Documents
minds of residents who dont recognize the positive changes that have occurred around them. This is a real dilemma for places wanting to reach out and influence people in a very crowded and noisy world full of negative or indifferent media coverage. Changing the citys image for the long term requires a well planned and systematic approach that goes beyond a quick fix advertising campaign, no matter how creative the campaign may be.
7. Introduces a more persuasive and efficient way to communicate with customers. 8. Leads to improved partnerships, distribution and publicity. 9. Creates a deterrent to competitors wanting to introduce similar messages, products, and experiences: the first mover advantage. 10. Provides an umbrella to capture the character and personality of the city enabling all marketers to use similar consistent and compelling messages. 11. Generates loyalty through more repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals. 12. Provides a distinctive look and feel for marketing applications. The Benefits for Your Community as a Whole 1. Creates a unifying focus for all public, private, and non-profit sector organizations that rely on the image of the place and its attractiveness. 2. Brings increased respect, recognition, loyalty, and celebrity. 3. Corrects out of date, inaccurate or unbalanced perceptions. 4. Improves stakeholder revenues, profit margins, and increases lodging tax revenues. 5. Increases the attractiveness of local products. 6. Increases the ability to attract, recruit, and retain talented people. 7. Provides the foundation for future product development, new businesses and investment. 8. Enhances civic pride and advocacy. 9. Allows a faster recovery if the place is affected by a crisis, such as a natural disaster or bad publicity. 10. Results in a lower turnover rate of businesses in prime locations. 11. Expands the size of the pie for stakeholders to get a larger share, rather than having to rely on pricing to steal share. 12. Contributes toward a broader economic base. A place that has a healthy and respected brand identity can be a catalyst for leaders, businesses, and citizens being welcomed in the right circles, gaining seats on the right committees, attracting awards and grants, winning bids to host events, and
attracting conferences and meetings. It makes it easier for a place (and its citizens) to be selected in any competitive setting because it is seen to have qualities and benefits that are good to be associated with.
hits the road. To sustain a positive organic or marketing induced image, the place has to live up to its promises in the experiential phase. All cities may not be as handsomely endowed or as distinctive as say, historic St. Augustine FL, Nantucket MA, or Santa Fe NM. Each has a compelling organic image and has nurtured a strong and distinctive identity that has evolved from their colorful origins. For them, it is somewhat easier to fulfill each phase. Over the decades, and in many cases centuries, the influences of history, famous (and infamous) people, events, culture and arts, geography, politics, sports, entertainment and celebrities have all contributed toward building the persona and image of places. On the other hand, our love for a place may stem from something as simple as our childhood memories of visiting Grandma. An image that has evolved over decades or centuries may have little or no relevance in the reality of todays economy or tourism needs. This syndrome most noticeably impacted cities that were referred to as postindustrial or being in the Rustbelt. The renaissance of Pittsburgh, formerly the home of Big Steel, has been amazing. The city has reinvented itself as a center for excellence in technology, culture and sports. This inspirational story has been replicated in other post-industrial centers around the world such as Buffalo NY, Cleveland OH, Birmingham in England, and Newcastle, my hometown in Australia. When a city has a negative image that has evolved over decades, its very difficult, if not impossible, to change it in the short term. This is very common for cities that have long-held industrial images and unlike consumer products, an extended advertising campaign will rarely do the trick. Even with a concerted effort, it may still take 15 to 20 years to fully leave behind their outdated industrial image. This has been the case for cities like Tacoma WA and Milwaukee WI, which after long associations as industrial cities are now being recognized as important cultural centers.
Cities often have a reality problem that city leaders prefer not to recognize.
We were once invited to develop a citys brand strategy, and were told that the mayor had already determined that he wanted the city to be known as a regional center for the arts. This may not necessarily be a problem, as long as the resources are being deployed to ensure that this vision can be a reality and the promise can be delivered. In this case, the mayors mindset did not match the reality of the communitys cultural assets. He did not realize that the brand or image was not what he said it was, but rather what customers said it was. We declined the assignment because the mayor was inflexible and the city did not have the capacity to fulfill the mayors vision. Since then, my observations of this city have validated our assessment because they have still not developed the necessary cultural assets to justify its claim of being a center for the arts.
Strong brands are built on trust. There must be alignment between what the citys brand promises and the reality of the actual experience. If the two are out of sync the brand will not be sustainable unless there are plans and resources to bridge the gap. If the citys performance is of a high standard and its image is bad or non-existent, then it has an inadequate brand or image strategy and may need increased or more accurate communications. For instance, the hundreds of interviews conducted during the brand planning process for Toledo OH. revealed that the city didnt have a negative image it simply had no image at all. Toledos long term brand strategy was then designed to address this situation. Every citys image is formed by customers exposure to the accumulated experiences and knowledge of the place. These impressions or associations may be positive, negative, or neutral. In the case of Las Vegas, the image of it may be a great place where adults are free to do anything they want, whenever they want. This is right in line with the identity that is projected by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and is captured by their tagline What happens here, stays here. If a city has a negative or neutral image, some city leaders and marketers may like to jump to an advertising or publicity-based solution. This tactic may only serve to make their situation worse, as attracting more visitors before the root cause of the problem has been addressed may generate negative word of mouth. Additionally, an advertising based solution is likely to have only a superficial effect in improving the citys image unless it is matched by a concerted effort to deliver outstanding experiences. Kerrie Walters, Executive Director of Grants Pass OR Visitors and Convention Bureau, put it well when she said, Branding a community involves many balancing acts. For example, the brand has to match-up with the communitys self image, yet not be limited by it. It needs to be shaped by its strengths, while stretching them, without becoming contrived and losing its authenticity. What we project to outside audiences must be true to the reality of who and what we are. This has been our challenge in making the Grants Pass brand sustainable.
A city has a real image challenge when people outside of the city do not accurately know the reality of the place. We see evidence of this when city leaders say: People don't know how good our new waterfront redevelopment is. People assume that because we are a small city, we dont have any good restaurants.
Relocation agents don't think of us as being easily accessible, despite the quality of our airport and interstate freeways and so on.
It may give your story more meaning More opportunities to reach new markets More power, interest and message coverage The prospect of greater respect and credibility Collaboration may take the form of a marketing plan or one-off activities such as a joint trade mission, trade show exhibit, a Website, brochure, sales calls, or hosting media visits. All will provide more cost-effective ways to reach and influence markets than if the partners attempted to do it by themselves. When you are considering the level of resources to invest in any partnership, think about: Are your target markets compatible? Are the partnerships strategies compatible with yours, or do they distract from your strategic focus? Are there shared values, goals and a commitment to quality between the organizations? Will it open new markets or difficult to reach niches? What is their history of successful relationships and results? Would it be more profitable to act alone or with a different partner? Will your major competitors be involved in the relationship? Is building this new dimension of your brand better than going alone? Will the resulting financial savings enable you to expand other marketing programs? Will it give you access to improved exposure, technology, expertise, logistics and resources? Does this relationship make sense, or is it happening because of politics and tradition?
Destination Branding for Small Cities Creative Leap Books 2007
Branding is one of todays hottest and most misunderstood destination management and marketing concepts. Destination Branding for Small Cities takes readers on a fascinating journey and shows how to orchestrate a successful brand for tourism and economic development. This must-read primer demystifies branding, shows how to uncover a Destination Promise, and provides real world examples, as well as affordable, proven tools, templates and checklists to help breathe life into a small city brand.
Bill is president of Portland OR based Total Destination Management. He is recognized internationally as an expert and industry pioneer in creating brand strategies for destinations and communities. Bill has 30 years of destination branding and marketing experience in more than 25 countries.
www.destinationbranding.com