Branding Strategy Insider

What Experts Are Best For Community Branding?

We welcome and answer marketing questions of all types here on BSI. Today's question comes from Lisa, an economic development executive near Toronto, Canada. She asks:

“I work in economic development for a small municipality that is challenged with negative brand perceptions from an association with radioactive waste. As I prepare a Request For Proposal (RFP), can you tell me who is the best partner to help us change these brand perceptions and help better the future of our city?”

Thanks for your question Lisa. First let me share, the best partner in place branding, city branding or community branding projects as they are known, is actually two partners. A brand consultant or brand consultancy that focuses on strategy, and an advertising agency or creative partner that focuses on implementing the brand strategy creatively. Each possesses a different skillset and specializes in one of the two critical areas of expertise you will need. Look at each in this way:

Advertising Agencies traditionally focus on the execution of creative strategies. That is, they will determine the best marketing vehicle to reach your target audience and will use compelling creative to make a connection and entice a reaction. The best ones are strategic in nature and see tactics as a second step.

A Brand Consultancy traditionally lives by this philosophy: Instead of trying to communicate a brands' features and benefits, they recommend studying the minds of the target audience first and then try to "position" the brand in the mind, taking advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of the brand and competing brands. This process ensures that your brand has selected the most powerful benefits to own and that it has developed the proof points and reasons to believe for those benefits. Brand consultancies also aid companies (in this case municipalities) in any strategy-related brand decisions from brand equity measurement to brand extension.

The Challenges And Rewards Of Destination Marketing

It’s not easy for small cities to attract positive attention, but it is easy to forget that the rest of the world is not as interested in our hometown as those of us who live there. Small cities generally have rare opportunities to capture our attention or to impress the outside world.

Each year, thousands of small places across the USA come to the forefront in the national media for a few seconds in news reports or other events, and then disappear from our radar again. We usually don’t spend much time thinking about cities other than those that are regularly covered in the media, or those where we live, have visited, do business in, or where friends and relatives live. When we do hear of them, it is often for the wrong reasons such as bad weather, disasters, crime, accidents, or maybe in a more positive vein, for sporting events, famous people, or travelogues. Additionally, the media often unknowingly reinforces negative stereotypes or conveys inaccurate and outdated information about places.

Cities wanting to maintain or elevate the standard of living of their residents must counter unproductive stereotypes about themselves. This is more of a challenge for those that have not actively projected a contemporary image of themselves or have not had a flow of visitors to see the reality of what the place is really like.  Outdated and inaccurate images frequently prove slow and difficult to eradicate, even in the minds of residents who don’t recognize the positive changes that have occurred around them.

10 Considerations For Crafting Place Branding RFPs

We have received and responded to hundreds of Request For Proposals over the years. Many of those RFP’s have come from municipalities and that are interested in branding and destination marketing. It has been my observation that municipalities in general are less certain about what they are seeking and how to ask for it.

Here is a guide for municipalities that are seeking branding help.

1. DIFFERENT TYPES OF MARKETING SERVICES FIRMS: Know that there are significant differences between marketing research firms, brand consultancies, brand identity firms and ad agencies. Each has a different focus and each has different skill sets. There have been more than a few Place Branding RFPs in which we were competing against all of those firms at once. This made us much less certain about what the municipality was seeking and how they would know whether they got what they needed.

• Marketing research firms specialize in helping their clients gain customer, competitor and marketplace insight. At a minimum, brand consultancies help their clients position their brands and craft brand strategy. They may possess brand research and brand identity capabilities as well. Brand identity firms focus on creating brand identity (names, logos, taglines, etc.). They may also have brand strategy capabilities. Ad agencies tend to focus on developing integrated marketing campaigns, though some may specialize in digital media, direct marketing, print ads, media and other specific marketing vehicles. Many ad agencies have some brand strategy capabilities but usually not nearly to the degree that brand consultancies do. The best question to ask to understand an organization’s capabilities is “What percentage of your staff is focused on each of the following: marketing research, brand strategy formulation, brand plan development, copy writing, creative development, media planning/buying and account management?”

2. PRIORITIZE TARGET AUDIENCES: Determine the order of priority of your target audiences, including the rationale for that priority. Target audiences to consider are current and potential residents, current and potential businesses, tourists/visitors and meeting, convention and event planners.

3. COMMUNICATE YOUR BUDGET: Let the companies bidding on the branding project know what your budget is. We have bid on some projects only to find out that the municipalities only had a fraction of the resources required to accomplish what they had hoped to accomplish. We would have approached the proposals much differently if we had known the budgets up front.

Place Branding: A Two Day Master Workshop

The Blake Project delivers brand education workshops around the world. We also work with municipalities in helping them release the full potential of their brands. With these experiences we are pleased to offer an in depth two day workshop on Place Branding with an optional third day consulting intensive.

This workshop is delivered at your organization or venue of choice.

Key stakeholders in the branding decision making process – mayor’s offices, visitors & convention bureaus, economic development councils, business improvement districts, business leaders and others will find this engaging and instrumental in their brand building process.

Day 1

1. I.         Branding introduction
   1. What is branding?
   2. Why is it important?
   3. How does it apply to places?
2. II.         The five drivers of customer brand insistence
   1. Awareness
   2. Relevant differentiation
   3. Value
   4. Accessibility
   5. Emotional connection
   6. How these drivers relate to place brands -- examples

Positioning A Place Brand

As anyone involved with branding municipalities knows, there are three primary audiences for municipalities – residents, businesses and tourists. (There are other audiences as well, but for the sake of simplicity, I will focus on these audiences.)

Residents are most concerned with good job opportunities, low crime, good medical care, affordable housing, scenic beauty, attractive neighborhoods, friendly people, good school systems, etc. Businesses are interested in prevailing wages, labor force quality, housing and quality of life, labor market rigidities, proximity to suppliers and final markets, energy and resource costs, real estate costs, innovation capacity, etc. And tourists are interested in reasonable travel distance and costs, a variety of interesting things to see and do, aesthetically pleasing environment, restaurants, shopping, etc. Throw in meeting and event planners, and the list includes air transportation access, distance and costs, hotel rooms and ground transportation costs, space requirements, contiguous venues, safety of the area, tours and other activities, etc.

Given the variety of needs and considerations by different municipality audiences, the question I most often am asked by stakeholders interested in municipality branding is, “Can one brand position work for a municipality or do we need a separate brand position for each audience?” The answer is “yes.” Yes, one overarching brand position can work but it must be designed to work with more specific brand messages for each audience.

Countries Are Not Brands

The World Cup approaches and, once again, the English nation hopes against hope that it can win the tournament and finally end 44 years of hurt. Meanwhile, in South Africa the dreams are just as bold but aimed in a very different direction. FIFA’s World Cup presents its hosts with, what they believe to be, their biggest ever opportunity to build a stronger country brand.

That’s a shame because, despite its growing popularity and firm establishment within marketing, the business of “country branding” or “nation branding” is nonsense. Countries are not brands. They are countries. Brand strategy should be reserved for brands. I may have a hammer, but it doesn’t mean that every problem is shaped like a nail. Real expertise in a field is to know the limitations of that field and behave accordingly.

I can appreciate the attractions of country branding. Selling a brand strategy to a public servant in Finland or Ghana must be a lot easier than pitching to a trained marketer from the likes of Unilever or Ford. And I can also appreciate that even the gigantic budgets of P&G or HSBC are dwarfed by a nation’s coffers. I can imagine, too, that measuring the impact of a country branding strategy is far less taxing than the typical corporate branding work, where sales figures and brand equity scores always influence the assessment of impact. But the core problem endures: conceptualising a country as if it were a brand is stupid.

The Marketing And Branding Of Nations

Just as a product with brand vitality will better compete and succeed, so too will a nation with a strong brand. Perceptions about an entire nation will be vast.  In evaluating stakeholders' perceptions of a country, marketers should look for and evaluate the following characteristics when surveying stakeholders impacting the perceptions of a country:

Strongly Branded Nations generally:

    * Deliver the benefits and promises that stakeholders desire and hold credible
    * Stay relevant—functional attributes coupled with “intangibles” (described below)
    * Provide value for the resources required to invest / visit in that country
    * Have a salient market position in the minds of stakeholders
    * Make very clear promises that are kept over time
    * Have unique brand equity involving strong thoughts and feelings
    * Are dependable and deliver consistently against expectations
    * Have loyal stakeholders
    * Have favorite perceptions about the country that match the nation’s communications
    * Have an ability to be identified under different conditions
    * Are less vulnerable to competitive neighboring markets
    * Command Larger Margins; Price Premiums; Less vulnerability to price sensitivity
    * Engage in better trade cooperation
    * Leverage vast opportunities from capital and labor endowments

Rebuilding Brand America

Just as businesses rely on their brand recognition and public perception to help improve commercial success, a country’s reputation and global image is a reflection of the strength of its “brand.” 

In recent years, while other countries brands have drastically improved, America’s brand has declined. A recent study shows America’s brand index as ranking 7th among all other major, developed nations. In order to improve its global brand recognition, what America needs is an objective audit of “brand America” and new focus on reestablishing the authenticity of the American Promise.

Following the widely accepted principles of what makes a brand strong, brand America must adhere to the same foundational pillars: being relevant and meaningful to a strategic target audience; being competitive and as attractive a solution to meeting the need as alternative options; and being authentic while delivering the expectation set.

A Brand Must be Relevant
The relevancy of brand America is without question. The promise of brand America speaks loudly to the human desire for exerting some control over personal destiny. 

Since its inception, the brand America promise has been the opportunity for the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Brand America has come to represent a location where anybody has the chance to self-manage his or her destiny, and in the process be rewarded for both hard work and the courage to take smart risks. There are countless examples of entrepreneurs achieving remarkable success based on ingenuity, passion and effort.

“Rags to riches” is the cliché most commonly used to describe the success of Americans, and has served to inspire people around the world to change their destiny. It promises life in America will provide the opportunity needed to achieve their full personal potential.

The Case For Place Branding

In my current role, I am often asked why I believe place branding is a right strategy for accelerating the economic growth of a location.

Global competition for capital investment in increasing, driven in part by companies deciding to increase their capability and capacity to service emerging markets in Asia. This puts pressure on the amount of practically available capital for investing in developed markets. Additionally, advances in telecommunications are making it possible for companies to service developed markets from virtually any location that can provide a high-speed internet connection. Limited dollars and increased choice are the classic conditions that demand effective place branding to attract capital investment and drive accelerated economic growth.

Place branding is a strategy being used by an increasing number of locations around the world to effectively compete for an increased share of foreign direct investment dollars and capital expansion of resident companies. However, too often place branding initiatives are little more than sales campaigns with limited sustainable impact.

Branding Small Municipalities: Visitor Attraction

What does it take to get visitors to stop in your town? Better yet, what does it take to get them to make your town a destination?

As with all other brands, your town must deliver each of the following to become a strong brand:

•    Awareness
•    Relevant differentiation
•    Value
•    Convenience
•    Emotional connection

Let’s start with relevant differentiation. That is the most important driver of strong brands. Why should someone stop in your town or, better yet, plan a trip to your town? What makes your town unique or more compelling than others?

To determine relevant differentiation, you must first identify your municipality’s assets. Is it near a lake, a mountain or a cave? Does it have a large waterfall? Is there a whitewater river nearby? Is the weather particularly nice at certain times of year (or year-round)? Does it have a well-known golf course? Does it have a unique museum? Does it have an interesting history? Did a famous person grow up or live there? Does it have unusual architecture? Does it have a rich cultural life? Is it the home of an annual fair? Does it have an annual art, music or film festival? Does it have an annual sporting event? Does it have interesting ethnic neighborhoods?

Next you must determine what types of people are most likely to be attracted by your municipality’s assets.