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Community Branding-Another Marketing Gem

Community branding is a unified message that reflects a community’s identity and experience, distinguishing it from the other communities. It is used by communities when competing for business, tourism, and large scale government projects.

Community branding can be a powerful tool that allows targeted markets to focus on what they need or want from their destination. It is about celebrating the unique personality of your community.

It allows businesses to focus their marketing messages more effectively with less investment and effort. It creates a sense of place and can help direct architecture, zoning and infrastructure choices. It can also set the community apart from other competing destinations.

Tips for Building your Own Brand

  1. Be inclusive in the process for a successful campaign. Stake holders, elected officials, residents, visitors and business owners should all be involved.
  2. Research how your community's physical attributes compare to other communities. Test the attractions, visit neighborhoods, schools, museums and attend local meetings. Try to see your community through a visitors set of eyes. What would they think?
  3. Make sure these is an emotional attachment to the brand, not just an intellectual one that differentiates you from the competition.
  4. Be creative in developing strategic initiatives for shaping the look and feel of the community. Evaluate the brand to ensure it is working the way it is supposed to by tracking brand perception changes and making sure the brand represents the architecture, signage, events, attractions, and residents of the community.

Managing Your Community Branding

A city that doesn’t have a plan to manage its brand risks being defined by the competition or the media possibly in a negative light.

Branding should be managed by local government and owned by the community and its businesses both large and small. Creating a business alliance that is separate from the local government allows the branding to weather changes in administration while keeping the essential messaging and focus in the same direction. It’s imperative that branding receives strong support from the major institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce, industries and city and county government offices to succeed and sustain. The community must also have the infrastructure that matters to visitors. Is quality lodging available? Are there fine dining opportunities and easily accessible entertainment? Does your community have public amenities such as parks, trails and shopping attractions?

A community can mean many things to many people and may be emotional or historical in nature. Stress early and often that branding isn’t about consensus or compromise, but about creating a strong, resonating message that will define the community now and in the future.

Do not allow the message to be watered down. View the message from a consumer’s perspective, not a politician.

Create a brand that will not hinder or discourage positive change in the community while at the same time, matching what is presently available. The branding must match the self-image of the community to gain the trust of the consumer.

How has your community brand helped your community?

How's your Community Brand?

Did you ever wonder how people in other regions of the state describe your community? How do your citizens describe your community to others? How does your brand create a sense of place and identity that will attract consumers, potential residents and businesses? How does your brand strength compare with other brands in nearby communities?

If you are experiencing the any of the following; it may be time to change your brand.

  1. The reality of the community is different from the perceptions about the community.
  2. There is a loss of income in a specific sector such as tourism or economic development.
  3. There is a negative, conflicting or maybe a non-existent image of the community.

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