Small City Branding Around the World

Study Shows Branding Gives an Edge to Colleges. What About Places?

There are some who still regard the branding of places with suspicion. While there are plenty of poor place branding efforts out there, when done well, a branded approach can offer many rewards for places of all sizes and budgets. Over the past decade the practice of branding has also been introduced to colleges and universities worldwide. In some cases, these were also greeted with suspicion.

Business Standard reports, “Branding has become an important tool for colleges or business schools to stay ahead of the curve by communicating their differentiation”. This was revealed in a study by global workforce management organization, Kelly Services (India), who found 57% of respondents believe that the brand reputation of colleges and universities are highly influential in job placement.

"It's widely seen that professionals from certain branded institutes have an edge in gaining entry to many marquee companies”, Kelly Services Kamal Karanth said.

The survey also revealed that approximately 72% of high level CEOs in India graduated from the branded colleges either in India or abroad. Interestingly, the remuneration offered to graduates of branded colleges was 10-20% more than those from non-branded colleges.

At times, destinations and educational institutions share similar challenges when it comes to adopting a unified, branded approach across their many stakeholders. While this is only one survey, it does indicate how branding can accentuate the competitive advantages of an institution. I expect that places with genuine brand strategies will continue to show positive results similar to those in the university branding survey. 

Is Glasgow Heading in The Right Direction for Its City Brand?

Over the years I have admired the way in which Glasgow, Scotland overcame its reputation for urban and industrial decay to be recognized as European City of Culture in 1990. In recent decades Glasgow has also been at the forefront in developing several brand strategies to define and project its identity. Glasgow City Council is once again “set to launch a new brand” and the media reports have me scratching my head. Firstly, I must say that journalists frequently don’t understand city branding and often try to boil it down to a catchy slogan, hence the reports may not reflect the true picture.

What I am puzzled by is: 

- Why does Glasgow feel the need to turn out a new brand strategy every few years, and not simply fine-tune the current brand? I sense that it’s because they can’t get past the slogan or tagline. Once the brand identity is revealed, that should be fairly timeless, then adjusted for changes in the city over time. 

- The article states, “the incumbent Glasgow: Scotland with Style launched in 2004 has served the city well.” Then why keep completely changing it? Or is it the tagline they want to change and not the brand strategy underpinning it? Or was the brand and tagline really off the mark in the first place? 

- Why embark on an extensive public consultation process before appointing a specialist firm to direct the brand planning and creative processes? That firm might have proprietary tools to generate even better research outcomes, buy-in and community input. 

- Again, if the Scotland with Style branding has been so successful, why potentially dilute and weaken it by extending it to “medical science, technology and engineering”? It may create a sense of kumbaya within the city but may not resonate as strongly with tourism audiences as does the current destination branding. Again, why start from a blank piece of paper? 

An over-emphasis on the power of a slogan or tagline. Attributing the city’s success in “luring business to the tune of £975 bill.” to the tagline and stating it helped “helped bring the UEFA Cup Final in 2007” distracts from the underlying strategies and actions of partners that underpin the brand. And Glasgow’s brand isn’t its slogan or tagline. This thinking builds false expectations among stakeholders as to the role of branding and the capacity of taglines to directly generate business.

I hope that I am responding to inaccurate media reports and not a fixation on getting a new tagline, which may in turn be replaced with the next city administration. A city brand should run much deeper and tap into the timeless character and essence of the place.

Mankato MN Brand Rallies Community Support

                              Last week I blogged about how Plymouth, England was at a pivotal point in its brand development where it had to get everyone on the same page. Plymouth seemed to be trying to rally key stakeholder support after the strategy was released to the public. In contrast, last week I received a copy of the brand video produced by Visit Mankato (MN) to support the release of their brand strategy. I was fortunate to work with Visit Mankato and many of its community and business leaders in defining their brand strategy and planning for its city-wide adoption.

Among other things, I was most impressed to see that the presenters are members of the Brand Advisory Committee, community leaders and other residents who had been on an eight month journey in the brand planning process. Integral to that process was encouraging community outreach, engagement, education and adoption of the brand.

We have learnt that communities that are most successful with their brand development are those that don’t wait until the end to generate support. Adoption and investment in the brand should be nurtured from the earliest stages. It is gratifying to see how some in Mankato, throughout the process, have transitioned from being healthy skeptics to avid brand champions.  The cross-city partnerships that are forming to support the brand are already strengthening how Mankato presents itself in media communications, but is also resulting in enhancements to its trails and cultural programs, further underpinning the viability of the brand. Well done Mankato!   

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By the way, when will a newspaper get the message that a city’s brand strategy is much more than the logo? Despite the wide ranging elements to the strategy the headline to the article cannot get past the logo. I guess no matter how hard you work across a community, there’s always a few who are slow to get the full picture!

Fifteen Common Place Branding Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Adopting a city brand offers tremendous rewards if done correctly. However, sometimes these well-meaning efforts introduce levels of complexity and pitfalls which could easily have been avoided if leaders had understood the nuances of brand planning for cities.

Many city branding projects get off to a great start with a lot of publicity and energy, only to soon run out of steam. Their momentum starts to lag, fresh ideas are not as frequent, designs start to miss their mark, and suddenly the brand has faded, it is confused, and becomes very fuzzy to customers and stakeholders. Here are some of the fifteen common pitfalls that can contribute to these situations are:

1. Insufficient Understanding Of Branding 
2. Lack of Stakeholder Buy-in
3. Failure to Grasp the Scope of Branding
4. Focusing On Short-Term Results
5. Forgetting The Customer’s View 
6. Disagreeing What is Being Branded
7. Insufficient or Irrelevant Research
8. The Weak Positioning Trap
9. Not Following the Strategy
10. The Lure of “Bright Shiny Objects”
11. Forgetting to Deliver What You Promise
12. Unhelpful Mindsets 
13. Brand Fatigue 
14. Going It Alone as a DIY Project
15. Not Engaging Specialist Skills

More information .......

Australia Honors Paul Hogan for ‘Shrimp on the Barbie’

I’m pleased to see that later this month Australia will honor Paul Hogan for his role as a spokesperson for the Australian Tourist Commission (now Tourism Australia), and specifically, the iconic “Come and Say G’Day” campaign. Yes, that’s right. The term, “"I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you” was simply the final line of the first television commercial created by Australian ad agency, MOJO. It wasn’t a tagline and wasn’t even the theme of the campaign. Yet it is now a term known to generations around the world because it is a catchphrase that has been used in many movies, comedy routines and parodies. Simply Googling the term generates about 180,000 results.

While based in New York I was fortunate to be one of the executive team overseeing this campaign that catapulted Australia to “most desired nation” status. In fact, I was the only person to have been involved throughout the full seven years of the campaign – except, of course for Hogan. This provides me with a unique perspective of what is regarded as one of the most successful and memorable campaigns ever launched in the USA by a foreign country. For many Americans it is still "top of mind" when you mention Australia, and some can readily recall some of the key lines almost thirty years after the first ad ran.

We knew that we had something special even before the first ad appeared, but were totally surprised by its immediate impact, the cult following that it generated, and its longevity. Yet to this day, the campaign remains very misunderstood and sometimes disparaged in Australia.

We all saw Hogan as the ideal spokesperson because at the time ‘Hoges’ epitomized the Australian brand persona in presenting friendliness, the Australian accent, a cheeky sense of humor, and a sunny invitation at a time when Americans were concerned by terrorism abroad (sound familiar?) and the need to feel welcome when they traveled. Hogan said that he always played himself - the former lifeguard, union organizer and Sydney Harbour Bridge worker - who stumbled onto television when his work mates dared him to enter a talent show (today’s version of “Australia’s Got Talent’).

In Australia, the campaign was controversial because many felt that Hogan did not represent the "average Australian" or the "cultural" side of the country. Many saw him as somewhat of a redneck, relating him to the everyday working class characters he portrayed in his television programs, and not Paul Hogan the highly skilled communicator and actor. Two years after the launch of these ads, Crocodile Dundee was released and it is still the highest grossing Australian movie of all time.

At the time (and even today), most Australians failed to see Australia (and Hogan) through the eyes of their overseas customers. Significant debate took place regarding the term "shrimp" as many in Australia wanted it to be called a "prawn," the name Australians called that size crustacean. The USA-based team insisted on "shrimp:" and the results certainly justified that decision. Today when developing destination brands, we tend to be influenced by the opinions and values of local stakeholders –an approach that we strongly advocate. However, in this case, if it had been left to the stakeholders, one of the best-ever travel marketing campaigns would never have been launched.

There were great ad creatives and many unheralded individuals and organizations who contributed to the ultimate success of the campaign. But in those early days it was Hogan’s ability to break through the media clutter and connect with Americans on an emotional level that made the difference. In Australia, the campaign transformed the Australian tourism industry. It clearly demonstrated the economic value and benefits of international tourism and the ROI to be gained when tourism marketing moved to the forefront of the federal government's agenda.

Well done, mate!

Here is an article I wrote with Peggy Bendel summarizing the campaign. Although written seven years ago, it still presents an accurate overview of the campaign.

How Should You Assess a Destination Tagline?

Rarely a week goes by when we don’t see another round of city and destination slogans and taglines announced. Some are pretty good, many are plain lame, insipid and self-congratulatory, and some are just downright infuriating.

A tagline is a word or short phrase that captures the spirit of the brand promise and its essence. It can be a tease, a short descriptor, a call to action or an explanation, and succinctly stated in no more than five words.  Too many destination taglines are simply examples of marketing speak or clichés that do nothing to advance the identity of the place. Many end up with a tagline that is so
esoteric that it needs extensive (and expensive) marketing communications to convey its meaning. Few small cities have the marketing budgets to communicate the meaning and relevance of their taglines through advertising.

All tagline options should be tested before they are approved by gauging the reactions of target audiences through research. However, prior to undertaking that research the following filters may be helpful as you initially assess the various options:

• It captures and dramatizes the brand promise
• It’s ownable and not the same or similar to other places
• It hints at a reward, benefit or experience that customers value and can expect
• It’s short, usually less than five words
• It works with, and enhances, the logo
• It’s credible, sustainable and matches the reality of the place
• It’s easy to remember
• It does not have negative connotations

In a nutshell, a tagline (and logo) should act as a trigger or cue to aid recall of the positive associations that the place is known for. Too frequently, the power and role of a tagline is
over-emphasized, i.e. no one will respond positively to a tagline and then decide to visit a place if they haven’t also been exposed to other compelling stimuli about the place. Let’s hope that in 2013 we see a lot less of the insipid and self-congratulatory efforts and more well-researched and meaningful taglines.

Top Seven Place Branding Posts of 2012

During 2012, I covered a lot of territory within the practice of place and destination branding, many included places around the world.  Blogs covering many locations in the USA, as well as  Morocco, India, East Africa, and Canada, and even Homer Simpson generated considerable interest. 

But it was the more hands-on information involving “how to’s” that recorded the most attention.  Interestingly, many of the most popular related to section in my book, “Destination Branding for Small Cities”.

1. February: Collaboration is Essential to Boost Competitiveness of Some Cities outlined why small cities must decide whether to go it alone, or collaborate with regional partners to present a more relevant value proposition.
2. March: What’s The Difference Between Brand Image and Brand Identity? tackled the confusion between “image” and “identity” and why the difference is important.
3. July: Does Every City Need a Brand? suggested that every city needs a plan to manage its identity and that it takes much more than a catchy nickname or tagline.
4. August: Destination Branding is Difficult and Calls for a Different Approach (Two Parts) made the point that of all the various entities that can be branded, place or destination branding is the most challenging.
5. September: What’s the Difference Between an Advertising Agency and a Brand Consultancy? provided nine excellent points outlining the difference between an ad agency and a brand consultancy. Clarifying the important differences assist brand owners to make informed decisions about who should define their brand.
6. November: What’s Brand Equity and Its Relevance to Destinations? addressed the importance of places adding to their value by generating positive awareness, respect and loyalty through the ways they present themselves.
7. December: “Are Emotional Benefits Always in Your Destination and Place Branding?” highlighted how emotional benefits are the most overlooked, yet most powerful, part of the place branding toolkit.

I hope that you enjoyed my posts during 2012. Are there subjects related to place branding that you would like me to tackle in upcoming blogs?

Have a Happy New Year and a very successful 2013. 

Don’t Let a Bad Copywriter Ruin Your Brand

It is not uncommon for the power of words to be overlooked in favor of the colorful lure of the logo, collateral designs and advertising creatives, yet words are among the most potent and affordable tools at your disposal when it comes to projecting your brand identity.

By consistently using creatively and carefully chosen words, phrases and stories that best support the identity, you can cost-effectively build the brand.  My friend, Marcus Osborne at FusionBrand in Malaysia recently reminded me of the importance of words in branding and how skilled copywriters are often undervalued. 

In his blog post, Marcus eviscerated the copy in a print ad for a Mitsubishi ASX. The copy could well have been about a city or destination. The same mistake is frequently made:  failure to ask the simple question, “What’s in it for me?” from the customer’s perspective. The ad fails to resonate and the brand doesn’t gain traction.  

Brand Bermuda: There’s Gotta Be More!

 

I am becoming increasingly intrigued by tourism offices that announce with great fanfare that they are launching a new brand campaign as if they are releasing a new washing powder that will clean better and brighter than the old version. I noticed in Travel Weekly that Bermuda has launched a new “brand campaign” with a new logo featuring the "Bermuda: So Much More" tagline. The campaign is the result of months of research that is supposed to reflect the direction of the recently introduced National Tourism Master Plan. Looking at the print and television advertising I found that much of it not differentiating Bermuda and not giving meaning to, “so much more”.

I then saw the comments by Kirk Hardcastle, an advertising executive from Kansas writing in The Royal Gazette Online, where he was making the same observations as mine in regard to the advertising. Then Bermuda Sun guest columnist, Elaine Murray considered the advertising, and also gave a scathing critique of the shortfalls of the island’s visitor experiences.

Ms. Murray observes, “Bermuda can be so much more than the Bermuda of bygone days. Tweaking a beloved song or depicting tourists in print ads and commercials dancing in the streets of St. George’s isn’t going to miraculously ingest oxygen in a stale product unless the real stakeholders get off their collective you-know-what and get moving again.”

It would seem that Bermuda still has work to do in implementing its Tourism Master Plan and developing a brand strategy where the nation is truly differentiated from other options, and there is alignment between brand communications and the quality of experiences delivered to visitors to match the promise being made to them. And this takes much more than a tagline, “So much more”, which could also be used by each of their Caribbean competitors – and for that matter just about every destination in the world.

What is the Difference Between an Advertising Agency and a Brand Consultancy?

I have recently seen a flurry of RFPs for “Branding and Web Design”, “Branding and Public Relations” and “Branding and Advertising”. These RFPs came quickly to mind when I read this week’s blog from my friend, Marcus Osborne at FusionBrand in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Marcus says, “As the consumer landscape changes and consumer habits and the purchase decision-making process evolves, it is imperative that brand owners understand where, when and how to spend their valuable and increasingly limited resources. Historically advertising agencies defined and controlled a brand’s message and through which channels it was broadcast. They would then blitz consumers with intrusive advertising and messages. In the past, branding and advertising used to be elements of marketing. Today, marketing and advertising are now part of branding and it is the brand consultant you should look to if you want to build a brand.”

Marcus then provides nine excellent points outlining the difference between an advertising agency and a brand consultancy to assist brand owners in making informed decisions on who should build their brand.

The first important consideration is to recognize that the brand strategy and implementation are not the same thing. The project should be divided into two stages: (1) the formulation of the brand strategy, requiring strong research, analytical and strategic skills, and in the case of city and downtown branding, a detailed knowledge of tourism, economic development, product development and placemaking, and (2) the strategy implementation, possibly requiring advertising, web design, public relations, and publishing expertise. While some firms will claim to do both, it pays to gain a clear understanding of the depth of their experience. Recruit specialists appropriate to each phase.

We are starting to see an emerging awareness among many cities and destinations, and even their communications agencies, of an increasing appreciation for the specialist expertise needed to address the complexities and demands of brand strategy development. We have experienced this when some advertising agencies have wisely recognized that they were not place brand strategists and hired us to develop the brand strategy component for their clients.

Marcus Osborne makes some excellent points here.

Can Austin TX Really Provide the Brand Answers for Orlando FL?

The Orlando Business Journal highlights the branding challenges of Orlando FL which is known worldwide for its strong image shaped by outstanding theme parks like Disney World, Universal Studios, Wet ‘n Wild, and SeaWorld. However, for decades city leaders have grappled with the dilemma of how to work with such a strong tourism image when it comes to being taken seriously as a place for business. 

The Journal reports that the city is looking toward Austin TX for inspiration because Austin has done a great job of balancing the many facets of its identity to attract leading corporations and skilled workers.

In most cases, tourism is the most visible marketing effort on behalf of a city or region. The quality and scope of this effort usually has a strong influence in shaping the city’s image. They reason being that once someone has a positive experience in the community as a visitor, they are much more open to the idea of relocating their business or family to the area.

Orlando is fortunate to have such a powerful tourism brand. It has an amazing foundation on which to work because it is one of the most desirable destinations in the country and is seen as an attractive place to live. I am puzzled as to why they have found it so difficult to brand themselves as a business destination as well. Orlando has experienced a boom since the opening of Disney World in what was swamp land in the 1970’s. This is an amazing achievement. In regard to their business brand, it may be they should have asked themselves the question a long time ago, “What would Walt (Disney) do?” I think that they might find that Austin possibly asked this same question a long time ago – and then actually did something about it! Afterall, Austin had the “handicap” to overcome of being tagged with “Keep Austin Weird.”

Is Prince Harry the Perfect Brand Ambassador for Las Vegas?

Prince Harry’s vacation snaps in Las Vegas have now gone viral causing me to ask, “What were his minders doing?” But I digress. Fortunately the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority was on the job and took a full-page ad in USA Today on Friday, standing by Prince Harry - sort of. The ad reminded us of the Vegas "code" (a.k.a., brand message), "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." It asks Vegas visitors to shun those who exploited the Prince by depriving them of the legendary delights of Vegas.

The LA Times reports that Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, came in on cue and said, "Las Vegas is a place to celebrate adult freedom, freedom that even celebrities and royals can enjoy."

Don’t you wish your city or downtown had a customer who could generate millions of dollars of worldwide publicity for you – and importantly, be bang on the brand message as well?

Destination Branding is Difficult and Calls for a Different Approach (Part Two)

This is the second part of the blog I posted Monday. When discussing the differences in branding places and consumer products with friends in advertising agencies, they frequently maintain that there is no difference between the two. To some extent they are correct. However there are differences that have a profound influence on the process. These relate to the complexities of ownership, consultation, decision-making, and product development.

A city has many faces and identities. For instance, it may be known as a destination for medical services, culture, education or shopping as well as being home for residents, each with different levels of political, financial and community support.

While a corporate brand may need approval by a marketing team or Board, a city or downtown brand usually requires endorsement by several public organizations in which the players may never see completely eye-to-eye. Another problem for many city brands is that important leaders frequently do not have strong marketing or branding credentials, nor do they have a customer-focused perspective. Yet they can exert considerable influence over the process and end result. A place brand must overcome enmity and rise above politics. Support from political leaders is vital and their understanding must be nurtured because they may not readily recognize the direct relationship between decisions they make on a daily basis and the reputation and attractiveness of the city.

These community-based brands must withstand a level of public debate that consumer brands rarely endure. A city brand must stand the test of time, public debate, political scrutiny, media
questions, and the analysis of marketing partners and residents. The best way to insulate the brand from this scrutiny is to generate buy-in and involvement through an open consultative process.

Place branding usually requires an approach that is more conciliatory and inclusive than that found with most consumer products. For instance, being very specific with the positioning may unintentionally alienate some locals and cause controversy. Conversely, diluting the brand to the point where it pleases everyone results in losing its strongest competitive edge and ends up being seen as weak and irrelevant.

Additionally, unlike a consumer product such as a soft drink, cities are not discrete or independent entities. A city is much more complex and cannot be reformulated or terminated if it is not popular or is under-performing. Even the prospect of changing the name of the city can prove difficult.

Project leaders who are aware of the differences between the branding of places and consumer goods are in a much better position to adapt to these challenges when they become evident. Their
presence should not represent a barrier, but a need for further fine-tuning – and a lot of patience!

This is an extract from Destination Branding for Small Cities – Second Edition.

Does Marketing Just Involve Yelling Louder?

One of the frequent challenges that I share with my colleagues in making communities more competitive is ensuring that everyone understands the words that are being using. When clients and prospective clients don’t understand what various concepts mean, then it can be difficult for them to select and manage consultants, and to manage the project because of differing meanings and expectations. For instance, if they consider that a brand = a logo + tagline, then their brand strategy will fall way short of its optimal structure. Another, more simple word that is  misunderstood is “marketing”.

Seth Godwin, in his blog yesterday, hit this one out of the park. He concisely demonstrates the scope of marketing with his ‘circles of marketing’ diagram.   Godwin says, “Most amateurs and citizens believe that marketing is the outer circle. Marketing = advertising, it seems. The job of marketing in this circle is to take what the factory/system/boss gives you and hype it, promote it and yell about it. This is what so many charities, politicians, insurance companies, financial advisors, computer makers and well, just about everyone does.” Personally, I would add downtowns, cities, regions, states and nations to that list!

He advocates that the innermost circle is the product or service where you should have engineered the communications, satisfaction and advocacy into the design of the product, saving the expense and trouble of yelling about it. Godwin adds, “when in doubt, when your marketing isn't working, the answer is easy: go one circle in.”

The message is clear for places. Before you get into a shouting match with your competitors, actively work on getting your product and its surround fixed first, then think about telling the world about it.

Is Altering the “I Love New York” Logo Like Defacing the Mona Lisa?

I cannot think of a more enduring or beloved logo than the iconic and much copied, “I Love New York” logo.  I am also finding it difficult to think of an occasion when local residents have reacted strongly to efforts to modify their city’s tourism logo. As Ad Week points out, “New Yorkers have an opinion about everything. True to form, when it comes to the "I Love NY" logo, some say they want it left alone.

New summer tourism commercials replace the iconic heart with sketches of things like Long Island beach balls, Coney Island pizza and Adirondack mountains to suggest vacation destinations in the state. It hasn't taken long for the media to take umbrage, comparing the shift to “defacing the Mona Lisa” and “slapping tattoos on the State of Liberty” and calling it the tourism equivalent of New Coke.”

I think that it’s a very creative campaign, but if they continue with this concept after this summer then they will run the risk of devaluing one of the world’s great designs.

New Book: Destination Branding for Small Cities – Second Edition, Now Released

I am pleased to announce that my second book, Destination Branding for Small Cities - Second Edition has now been released. This expanded and revised edition has updated our 7A Destination Branding Process and includes new place branding elements, advice, checklists and techniques. Some of the changes include:

• Explanations of the different forms of place branding, branding in tough times, selecting place branding expertise and the important role of product development, placemaking and wayfinding in place branding.  
• Actions to introduce a stronger strategic focus to enhance city competitiveness.
• Interesting insights from some of the world’s leading place branding consultants, academics and practitioners.
• Worldwide examples from the USA, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Australia, moving beyond the USA focus of the first.

While the title is Destination Branding for Small Cities, the underlying principles and processes can just as readily be applied to regions, counties, Downtowns, Main Streets, resorts, and even states and countries.

I hope that you enjoy this edition as much as the first. Worldwide sales are available through Amazon.com.

Colorado Invites Audiences to “Come to Life”

 

Colorado Tourism Office is taking an interesting approach in its forthcoming television advertising campaign aimed at boosting summer visitation. Instead of focusing on its geographic and iconic features alone, the advertising features the transformative qualities of the state with an invitation to Come to Life. The focus is squarely on the prospective visitor and the emotional rewards of spending time in the outdoors away from their everyday hectic lives. Actually, Colorado is not identified until the end of the 57^th second of the ad.

The emotive film shows how viewers can come to life in lakes, cascading waterfalls and open fields, and prods them to rejuvenate by exploring spectacular mountains.

The campaign is supported by print advertising, a visitor guide and web and social media marketing programs providing critical links to towns and operators throughout the state. It will be interesting to review the results of the advertising and how it translates to increased Summer business for the state’s towns and tourism businesses.

Xiamen Slogan Competition to Create a Brand Without Research or Strategy

Xiamen also known as Amoy is a major city on the south east coast of the People’s Republic of China and is known for its scenic beauty and tree lined beaches.  

The Xiamen Tourism Bureau is calling for public suggestions for a new tourism slogan, logo and souvenir to represent the city.  The Bureau has established a web site for the competition which closes on April 30. The winners will be announced after public online voting and expert review, seemingly in that order.  Winners will receive approximately $US 3,200 each.

Unfortunately this is another example of a DMO attempting to take a shortcut to acquire some of the key elements for shaping their city’s brand identity.  Not only is it a mistake to run a competition to obtain logo and slogan suggestions, but to then turn it over to residents to make the choice further compounds the problems of this strategy-less and research-less approach. The Xiamen Tourism Bureau will be left to then shape their brand strategy around their new logo and tagline, rather than have those elements emerge from a well-researched strategy that is based on their most competitive positioning, personality and benefits.

Xiamen could be well advised to take a page from the research and strategically focused branding approach of nearby Shaoxing which I blogged about several weeks ago.

An Epidemic of Anemic City Taglines

In recent weeks I have seen what must be an epidemic of anemic and insipid taglines that had me reaching for the quote that my colleague Tom Buncle at Yellow Railroad in Scotland gave me for my forthcoming book. Here it is…

“Taglines are brilliant when they are inspired, convey a destination’s benefits succinctly in a way that evokes the essence of the place, and could be nowhere else. It helps too if they say something new to you and say it in a way that grabs you, make you smile or think “yeah, that’s nicely put”  i.e. impactful, memorable and, usually containing one strong idea. But mostly they fail spectacularly. And how much money has been wasted with expensive agencies generating mediocre calls to action in insipid taglines?”

Buncle adds, “The risk is that a destination looks amateurish and hick if it tries too hard and fails to come up with a compelling tagline – in which case no tagline at all is better than an embarrassingly lame one that patronizes consumers – and residents. If you can’t come up with the Holy Grail of a killer tagline, use a descriptive one or one that anchors the place in a single powerful idea, e.g. Angus: Scotland’s Birthplace or Innsbruck: Capital of the Alps which at least paints a picture of your destination, or be brave and don’t have one. In other words trust your product, get your brand and marketing right, and treat consumers as potential visitors who want to be inspired and informed, but not patronized.” 

These are wise words that every place, committee, leader and firm should read before they start a place branding assignment.

New Destination Video Sings the Praises of Brand Vancouver

Tourism Vancouver’s new destination film takes an innovative approach in projecting the city’s brand messages using multiple platforms. Central to the film is the original music of local band Watasun and their song, “It’s You… Vancouver”.

Watasun is a Vancouver-based duo that fuses urban beats with traditional folk sounds. One-time buskers on Vancouver’s Granville Street, singer/songwriter Adam Bailie and percussionist Reid Hendry now record, produce and sell their own albums, taking inspiration from everyday experiences in the city.

Throughout the three-minute video, the duo perform their catchy tune while making appearances in, near or atop iconic Vancouver attractions. It’s nice to see a destination really trying to make all of its brand communications distinctive and authentic – and hopefully exposing a few locals to a larger audience.

A Great Case Study in Worst Practice Place Branding

It’s very hard to know where to start with this one. There is a fineline where edgy and funny can become crass and plain stupid. KJCT8 TV has shone a light on Fruita, CO where a bumper sticker has evolved into being proposed as the city’s tagline. The bumper sticker reads “WTF”, meaning “Welcome To Fruita”.

"We saw them and thought it was pretty funny and thought it might be a good idea," Fruita city manager Clint Kinney told KJCT8. "And so before we ran with the idea we wanted to get feedback from the community."

Mr. Kinney might like to also get the opinions from prospective visitors, potential new residents, or executives considering relocating a business to the city. Does the acronym hint at any benefit or reward for them? What message does it convey to them? Has The City of Fruita also considered that it really doesn’t come any more generic than “welcome to”? There’s zero distinctiveness about that.

This contains so many examples of what small communities shouldn’t do when they want to establish a verbal identity to project their competitiveness. If Fruita adopts this as their tagline, the reaction to it from outsiders might well be, “WTF!” Cities need to take their competitive identity way more serious than this. It has a direct impact on the income and well-being of the comunity as well as the tax receipts of the city council. It deserves much more serious and informed consideration than to base the city's identity on a joke from a bumper sticker.

Image: Fruita.org

England's North East Tourism Secures Its Brand Equity

Well-developed place brand strategies can falter for a wide variety of reasons.  Some of the most common pitfalls can relate to a lack of funds for consistent implementation or changes to the structure and emphasis of the lead organization.

An interesting situation has been resolved in North East England, where their successful destination branding strategy was under threat because the lead organization One North East is due to close in March due to government cuts. The Passionate People Passionate Places campaign was launched in 2005 by One North East. The region’s tourism industry was very loyal to the brand and recognized its value to business i.e. its brand equity. Importantly, they didn’t want to contemplate life without the brand.

BBC reports that the Passionate People Passionate Places intellectual property and brand elements have been purchased by NewcastleGateshead Initiative on behalf of their tourism partners across the North East for £2,500.  It’s good to see that the region can capitalize on its hard-earned brand equity and ensure that it continues to deliver for them.  This highlights our conistent point that a destination brand is not owned by the DMO but its stakeholders and residents.

A Mixed Bag of 2011 City Taglines

The Atlantic Cities has an interesting take on some of the city taglines and slogans that were announced during 2011. Some make sense and seem to be an important element in a comprehensive brand strategy, while others are real head scratchers that seem to be a clever line in search of strategy.  Some are aimed at a addressing a specific problem, e.g. Downtown Las Vegas’ effort to establish its own identity in the shadow of The Strip. Others could apply to just about any other city. While others might cause us as outsiders to exclaim, “So what. What’s in it for me?”  I sense that a number of them are feel good lines for locals and are not part of a brand strategy aimed at projecting the competitive identity of the place for external audiences.

Is it Really The Greatest Place to Live, Work and Play?

We rarely conduct a brand workshop or focus group for a community when someone doesn’t say, “this is the best place to live, work and play”. Further, many advocate that it should be the city tagline.  Unfortunately, for many communities that do not use objective outsiders to assist their brand planning, they too often pat themselves on the back and agree that they’ve found the holy grail of place branding for their city - and “a great place to live, work and play” it is.

I am currently researching and writing an updated edition of “Destination Branding for Small Cities” and decided to Google the term, “a great place to live, work and play” and found over 4 million results. There are also over one hundred videos on YouTube with various spokespersons for communities using the term.

Scrolling through Google, I lost count of the number of communities that actually use the term as a tagline. So if you are considering joining the masses in building a brand based on being “a great place to live, work and play”, you have simply identified a threshold credential to play the game. There are tens of thousands of places in the USA and even more around the world that can match the claim. This is where you have to dig deeper to uncover the true essence of the place that will be valued and meaningful to target audiences. And why use the line to communicate with residents? They already live there and know it!

It’s amazing how many places pat themselves on the back and settle for this self-adulation and waste their time, on a line that is probably the most commonly used by citizens to describe the place where they live. Why bother! Even worse, they call it their brand.       

Alberta Launches Stunning Brand Advertising Campaign

 Differentiated and compelling experiences and emotional connections are the hallmarks of strong destination brands. The brand advertising campaign recently launched by Travel Alberta displays these hot buttons in excellent fashion. Travel Alberta unveiled several visually stunning and emotive television spots that are full of the usual icons - mountains, horses, cowboys and skiers –but they were filmed and paced to allow viewers to share in the emotion of the experience. Some stunning work and the tagline, "remember to breathe" is so appropriate.

Alberta’s new tourism brand is the result of an 18-month process which included consultation with industry stakeholders representing all regions of the province as well as opinion research with frequent travelers in Alberta’s target tourism markets in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

Though Travel Alberta has had logos, slogans and brand promises before, this is its first overall tourism brand, said CEO Bruce Okabe. “And not having a brand in this competitive market is like going into a street fight with one arm tied behind your back.” I couldn’t agree more. However, it’s one thing to have a brand strategy; it’s another thing altogether to execute it brilliantly! Mind you, it does help when you have a place as stunning as Alberta.

Minneapolis Launches “City by Nature” Brand

Meet Minneapolis, the organization contracted by the City of Minneapolis to market the city has unveiled its new strategy for positioning the city as an attractive convention and visitor destination.  The tagline is “City by Nature” and seeks to capitalize on Minneapolis’ natural environment.

KARE 11 Television reports that the State tourism organization, Explore Minnesota is also conducting research for a statewide re-branding. "We hope to have a state brand and a narrative soon," says John Edman, the Director of Explore Minnesota Tourism. "People around the country only know about our weather, we need to change that. People look back to that TIME magazine with (former governor) Wendell Anderson on the cover, holding up that fish and talking about the good life," says Edman. "We need to get back to that."

Destination brand positioning based on nature is a fairly crowded field. The new positioning for Minneapolis immediately reminded me of Seattle’s MetroNatural, but without the edginess. I am also not sure if it goes very far enough toward addressing the overwhelming negative perception that they are trying to combat of being regarding as having a very cold climate.  It will be interesting to see approach taken by Explore Minnesota on behalf of the state.

Downtown Las Vegas - The Other Vegas with Soul

An important element of most successful city and destination brands is their ability to resonate with local residents, as well as external audiences. A challenge for Las Vegas is that the it’s iconic brand strategy with its famous, "What happens here. Stays here." tagline probably doesn’t work with the community in ways that generate self-pride and project it as a place to live. While I am sure that residents respect the success of the tourism brand, it really is aimed 100% at external audiences – and does a darned good job! However, the Las Vegas identity that it supports is mainly focused on The Strip and not on the city’s central business district in Downtown Las Vegas.  

Downtown Las Vegas is a few miles south of The Strip and is the city’s original gambling district. This area in recent years has played second fiddle to the larger and more famous Strip. However, the City has been working on revitalization efforts to entice more visitors and residents to downtown. This has involved the redevelopment of Downtown and the surrounding older commercial districts to create jobs and eliminate urban blight.  With an unemployment rate hovering around 14% and one of the worst real estate markets in the country, it is important for the economic vitality of the city to extend way beyond The Strip. Revitalization efforts have joined property and business owners for a $5.5 million streetscape improvement program over a three-block area that includes pedestrian-friendly street redesign, landscaping and retro-looking neon signage.

A new slogan was unveiled Wednesday for Downtown Las Vegas. The winning line, "Every City Has a Soul", captured 35 percent of more than 1,200 votes in an online contest between four finalists. While we are not fans of community competitions for slogans, on this occasion it was important because this time residents would be a priority target audience.  While it will not rise to the stellar heights of the famous tourism slogan, it does have an important role in addressing what has been an economic development void for the city.   

Austin Celebrates 20 Years as the “Live Music Capital of the World”

 

One of America’s most enduring and organic place brands belongs to Austin, TX. This week the city celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the City of Austin’s visionary vote to proclaim the city the "Live Music Capital of the World", a label that has stuck for two decades. To me this is not what distinguishes Austin. It’s that they didn’t sit on their laurels, but instead continued to live the brand that they had envisioned and kept it fresh.

The decision to adopt this positioning was based on Austin having more live music venues per capita than any other city in the country, including New York, New Orleans, Nashville and Los Angeles.

KXAN reports that Mayor Lee Leffingwell said the city has grown in 20 years to include 250 live music venues featuring 50,000 live music performances on average every year. A 2001 impact study showed live music has a $1 billion dollar economic impact every year for the city.

Max Nofziger, a former Austin city council member who voted on the "live music capital" name back in 1991, said  "I'm amazed that this is still a slogan of the city. I'm shocked it hasn't been repealed, frankly," he said jokingly during Thursday's celebration.

I must share Mr. Nofziger’s amazement because one of the greatest hazards for city brands is the challenge of new councilors, employees and executives wanting to adopt something new so that they can put their own stamp on it. So, Bravo Austin! And congratulations to the thousands of stakeholders responsible for keeping Austin weird and building one of America’s best place brands – even though they may not have recognized how enduring it would become.

New Brunswick Burns $230,000, Then Holds a Competition for a New Slogan

Two years ago, the provincial government of New Brunswick, Canada adopted “Be ... in this place” as its slogan for use on license plates to aid the promotion of the province. It is reported that this fine piece cost an estimated $230,000 to develop. Needless to say, it quickly became a joke with residents and gained no traction within the Province. In March after two years, the government quietly buried it. Didn’t they research it in the first place?

Now in a stroke of genius, the new government is inviting residents to participate in a competition to come up with a new slogan. Yes, you’re right. We’ve seen a lot of this going around lately!

I can understand that after spending $230,000 just two years ago for “Be .…in this place”, they might not want a repeat. What we have here is a series of extremely bad decisions that resulted in the launch of “Be.…in this place”, now giving way to another bad decision or cop-out to pass the slogan over to the public.  I guess their thinking might be that they couldn’t do any worse. Will they be doing the same for the design of new buildings, roads and bridges?

New Jersey Governor Promotes the Real Jersey Shore

 

A few weeks ago I blogged about the negative impact that the reality television show The Jersey Shore was possibly having on the destination of the same name. It seems that a lot of New Jersey residents agree with me. A survey by Quinnipiac University in 2010 revealed that 50% of New Jersey residents felt that the reality show was revolting and negatively impacted the image of their state.  On the other hand, The Daily Mail is reporting that tourism numbers are up and that surveys reveal that the show is not having a negative impact on the real Jersey Shore.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has stepped up to lead the fight to reclaim the state’s image. This is after cutting $2 million from the state’s tourism marketing budget last year. He is visiting many prominent Jersey destinations and a video featuring the Governor has been released to push back and portray the positive aspects of the state and its beaches. While it’s good to see the Governor supporting tourism, I hope he has few more tricks in his bag such as replenishing the tourism marketing budget because ad hoc efforts are no substitute for a comprehensive, integrated marketing program.  

St. Kitts Unveils New Brand Identity

The St. Kitts Tourism Authority has announced their new brand identity which includes a new logo, tagline and an update of its web site.

The new logo features an elegant script with an open-heart shaped signature graphic and a new tagline that encourages potential visitors to “follow your heart” to the island. The color pallet was inspired by the colors in St. Kitts’ natural landscape.

The new branding serves as the basis for the website redesign and has also been rolled out in a new cruise magazine, official social media accounts, e-newsletters, wedding flyers, tradeshow backdrops and banners, and will continue to appear on new materials as they are produced.

Some nice work, but I don't get the sense that it has clearly differentiated St. Kitts from competitor destinations in the Caribbean. This is the ongoing challenge for Caribbean islands needing to build a distinctive brand identity that captures the essence of the place.