July 2008 E-NEWS
from Steven Donaldson and Michael Zinke, the Brand Guys
Creating the Visible Brand in a multi-channel world—web, retail, print and electronic media.
We send these brand "bites" monthly to give you insights and tips on building value, uniqueness and loyalty for your brand. Your brand's critical differentiation helps your customers find you, remember you and come back to you.
In this issue:
- Place Branding: Can cities really define who they are? Building brands for products and companies is one thing but when a city defines itself around its name or as a destination — that's another…
- Brand Tags: An amazing website that shows how visitors value brands. A friend recently showed me this fantastic site that gives you the ability to react to brands and then see how others view them. A very insightful consumer-driven view…
- Our Work: Oakland 10K: Defining a development goal helped a city change perceptions. RadiantBrands worked with the City of Oakland in developing and promoting its Oakland 10k program…
Placing Branding — Can Cities Really Define Who They Are?
Building brands for products and companies is one thing but a "place brand" — that's another. A city or place wants to attract the "customers" — residents, shoppers or businesses — by defining its brand in a way that best reflects the authentic experience that the city or place is all about.
 Like Disneyland, Las Vegas has powerfully branded itself around an entertainment experience, but as a leader in adult entertainment. It's easy to forget that this city was only a speck in the desert for years before the first casinos were built. Reflecting its memorably naughty (and perhaps accurate) tagline, Las Vegas has built a world-renowned destination based on adult fun such as gambling, floor shows and other adult entertainment. The tagline was a strategic branding move in 1999 by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau to attract exactly the type of visitors they desired.
Another city that has targeted its brand to a specific market is Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This city values its gay visitors — 800,000 annually — who contribute $1 billion annually to their local economy, according to Richard Gray, vice chair of the Broward County Tourist Development Council. The Community Marketing survey ranked Fort Lauderdale as the fifth most-visited U.S. gay destination, and the November 2007 issue of Out Traveler magazine names the city its "Favorite Gay Resort Town", based on a readers' choice survey.
 Lastly, as an example of branding that makes places very special to live in, let's look at Redbud Elitist City, one of Shanghai's new suburbs for the wealthy. They have positioned this new town as being for the "elite", a symbol of success — you've made your money and you're above everyone else. The irony of this positioning in a communist country seems not to be a problem for the Chinese developer of this burg for "only the best".
The Keys to Location Branding
- Define your audience — tourists, develop new business or new residents.
- Build your message — clearly reflect their experience and motivations.
- Be consistent and authentic — you can't say what's not true.
- Support this brand strategy — develop efforts that support the message.
Brand Tags
A business associate recently showed me this fantastic site that gives you the ability to define brands and then see how others view them. This insightful, consumer-driven view of brands gives you an immediate visual perception of brands.
How the site works: you'll be asked to enter a one word or short phrase impression of a brand presented to you. These impressions are entered by thousands of site visitors. It's addictive simply to enter in your impressions.
But wait, there's more. Go to the link "what other people have tagged it". You'll end up on a page with the brand at the top and a "tag cloud" — words in varying sizes that reflect the number of people who said the same thing about the brand. What's amazing about this is it gives you an immediate visual impression of the brand. The Heinz tag cloud, for example, shows 57, pickles, beans and, of course enormously displayed, catsup! The smaller phrases tend to be more emotional and descriptive. Go to American Airlines and you'll be hit with a visual experience of a brand that is in trouble, from "9/11" to "bad service", "flight attendants are bad", "flights are late", etc.
This site is one of the most interesting experiments in consumer-driven brand expressions. It really shows that a brand truly lives in the experience of the consumer and is controlled by the consumer — not the company. Give it a try at www.brandtags.net
Our Work: Oakland 10K
How defining a goal the City of Oakland changed perceptions.
RadiantBrands worked with the City of Oakland to produce its original Oakland 10k program to attract 10,000 new residents to downtown Oakland by encouraging multi-unit residential development. This plan was implemented by Jerry Brown's administration and has been key to turning downtown Oakland into an increasingly vibrant and successful area.
Challenge: To build awareness of and credibility for a major shift in downtown land use.
Solution: RadiantBrands created a brand identity for the campaign and extended it to a suite of printed materials highlighting the attractions of the downtown area and targeted development areas around the downtown core. A folder and brochure project a colorful and sophisticated image of this key area of Oakland, and individual area data sheets feature development information and attractive images of each development area to create a sense of the character of each area. These materials were distributed to all interested developers over a period of 3 years.
Result: Oakland's promotion of development has resulted in a massive build out of multiunit properties around the downtown core, energizing a visible and ongoing revitalization of the area with the opening of new cafes, galleries and other businesses.
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