Branding and Economic Development

As part of our ongoing clubhouse calls on Economic Development, I summarize the previous week's discussion in an article. Branding was the topic.

What is a Brand?

A brand is not a logo or piece of artwork. A brand is a representation of its product. What the product stands for and its values. Yes, a brand will have a logo and a tagline. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Branding a community or place for economic development or tourism purposes is no different from branding a product like Coke, Apple, or Nike, the process and outcomes are the same. In our case what is the essences of this place, what does it represent?

When developing a brand for anything, but in our case a community first and foremost you want to keep it real. The brand should reflect the place from which it represents.

Authentic is the adjective the keeps coming up. The brand should represent the physical attributes of the place and the culture or historic attributes, perhaps even its future attributes.

It must be kept real, tied the place, and don't make stuff up. That is the death of any brand.

Branding is Story Telling

A brand really is a representation of a product or in our case an organization or place/tourism destination.

Branding goes well beyond logos and tag lines. A brand paints a picture and tells a story of what the place is. For example, Lara Fritts, one of our clubhouse leaders spoke about Annapolis Maryland. It's a port and marine community, and its assets are things such as the ocean, seaside, marine heritage, marine industry, marine-based tourism, people, stories are mostly tied to that.

So Annapolis's brand is going to reflect that, and yes its logo and tag line will reflect its story as well. It's not trying to be something it is not. This is a good thing.

A brand can be aspirational and future-looking as well. It's really up to the community to decide who it is and who it wants to be.

Be Unique

It seems that everybody wanted to brand themselves as a Silicon Valley alternative at some point in time. Silicon Valley North for example.

Don't do that... Please!

The best place brands are those that are unique and reflective of your sense of place. Geography, people, architecture, the community makeup, history, future, and more.

Jill Roote shared with us that Kincardine, Ontario is deeply rooted in Scottish ancestry and culture. Therefore it branded itself as Ontario's Scottish Destination. It has Scottish banners on the main street, a Scottish festival, bagpipe playing on Friday nights, and more. These are examples of communities that know who they are, have leveraged their uniqueness, and brand themselves very well.

Ambassadors

It's all well and good that you have a brand, but after that now what. How do you let people know about your community and its brand?

Well, of course, you could advertise, but that's expensive, and yes you want to use social media but that takes time and money. These mediums should be a consideration and part of your mix for sure.

My favourite and highly leverageable way to get the brand story out is through harnessing the power of ambassadors.

You may be familiar with Brand Ambassadors and Influencers. I think of Instagram when I hear those terms. They typically cost money, a lot. Those are not the kind of ambassadors I'm talking about.

I'm talking about courting the media including traditional, digital and social media. You create and take your brand and storylines that you've laid out and have them tell your stories that relate to your brand for you. Your business investors, citizens, and visitors are also ambassadors. They can be engaged and become extremely powerful ambassadors through word of mouth, their networks, and social media. It's extremely powerful. It's a third-party endorsement and public relations really.

Trust

When building a brand, especially for a place, community, or destination it is important to tie the brands to the DNA of the community.

Make sure your brand story is meaningful and authentic and the brand is linked with the land, geography, pool, business, industry, and culture of the place.

If you do that you will be building long-term trust with your customers, who are residents current and future, businesses, investors, and visitors.

The stronger the brand is tied to place and the factors listed above, the stronger the trust. The stronger the trust the more success your community will have.

Brand Guidelines

Last but not least, when developing a brand, be sure to create brand guidelines. The main goal is to literally create guidelines on how to represent the brand. This can include such things as persona, tone, and brand personality description. It will also include design guidelines such as fonts, colours as much more.

The key is to provide as much information as possible. When you have others execute your brands such as staff, executive assistants, outsourced talent, agencies, and more, you don't want your brand to get misrepresented.

About The Author: Dan Taylor is a strategic advisor and guide to those in the economic development and tourism profession, as well as to small business.

He helps bring focus to their work and cuts through the clutter to save time and increase performance to take their work to the next level and create maximum impact and results for their communities and businesses.

He specializes in rural, small, and medium-sized towns, counties, regions, and businesses in North America and across the globe.

He is also the Economic Development Catalyst for the Town of Innisfil and can be contacted at [email protected].

Reach out to experience a consultation to assess your situation and see if we feel there is a fit.

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