Nation Branding and Place Marketing - IV. The Place
You can purchase advertising online; you can build an identity and celebrate it. Consumers are more open to communicating across distance boundaries than ever before.
-The Huffington Post, "How to Brand Your City"
People in America are more likely to communicate with others who live in the same city as them than they are people who live on the other side of the country or even across the world. So, instead of thinking about your business promoting itself nationally or internationally, think about what place you’d rather be associated with? What is your place branding? Today we'll focus on how some cities choose to brand themselves - how it helps make their businesses a success.
Nation Branding
Nation branding is a relatively new term. It was brought up in 2001 by Simon Anholt who, from 2001 to 2011, ran the Good Country website which encouraged individuals, businesses and nations to identify what makes them good and share their insights with others. The way he looked at it was that brands are created by people’s perceptions of these places or entities. He says the reason why nation branding is important is because, “it helps us determine which countries have the greatest influence and how they should be behaving to make the world a better place." Nation branding is also not just about governments; it's about people too. If you are a citizen of that nation, it's your job to brand the place and make it appealing to both those in the country and outside.
Place Branding
Place branding is when you connect a place or space to an experience for the individual. Businesses do this all the time and normally focus on creating a persona for their business that attracts customers who align with that persona. Some businesses may even go so far as to give their places names (for example, using descriptors like "The Cheezburger Network" or even "The Chevron"). Today we will talk about some examples of place branding in action with two types of businesses - one focused on local business and one focused on national business.
First up: [ARTICLE END]
National City Bizjournal
http://www.citybizjournal.com/article/CA6465844.html
National City Bizjournal: "Is your city or region a brand? If it is, do you know how to market it successfully?"
The Values-Based Brand
Brand: A marketing term that describes a product or service in the minds of its customers. The term is most commonly used to describe the companies that produce the products and services. However, today we use the term brand even more broadly to include non-profit organizations, cities and other non-business entities.
The values-based brand idea is based on the concept that your business should focus its marketing strategy on what makes it different and better than competitors in the industry (for example, its values). Businesses can think of their values as the same way they think of their brand. Take, for example, The Fair Trade Federation. They promoted fair-trade coffee and tea products by mainly focusing on the ethics behind their products and how that makes it different than other competitors. The idea behind this is that consumers will want to buy this type of product because they recognize it as a product that came from a business that stands by its morals. By standing by your values, you will be able to create a stronger sense of place in the minds of your customers and help them relate to your business more than competitors who may be selling the same type of product but do not follow the same set of values.
Let's take a look at some examples of businesses that have found success with this kind of strategy.
The Soil Association is a nonprofit organization in the UK that focuses its attention on the organic movement. These products are made from food that is grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides. They have created a brand for themselves based on their philosophy about what makes organic food better than non-organic food, and through their marketing strategy they set themselves apart from competitors. The company has found success by focusing on what makes it different and not paying as much attention to competitors.
Another example of a marketing strategy based on values is the recent TV commercials by Whole Foods where they have set up this debate between the conventional grocery guy and their organic grocery guy. In one commercial, the conventional grocery guy says, “We are all natural.” The organic grocery guy responds back and says, “It’s not about that. It's about how we grow it...” The Whole Foods marketing strategy is to focus on what makes them different from other competitors who may be selling non-organic or non-natural products.
One great thing about focusing your branding on your values is that you can change what they are as your values change in response to the changing conditions of your business over time. This means you can take full advantage of the power of your brand and make it a strong motivator for your customers to do business with you.
The Benefits of Values-Based Branding
Identifying your brand's values will give you guidance in choosing the type and style of marketing you should use to achieve maximum results from each marketing channel. If you are looking for a non-profit organization to give donations to, then focusing all of your marketing efforts on raising awareness about that non-profit may not be ideal. If there is no single cause, charity or cause that best describes what you do, then it may be better to develop a brand based on values related to your industry or company’s mission in some way. This allows you to focus on what makes your brand unique and most importantly, what benefits your customers.
Marketing Actions
In order to create a brand that fits your business, you will need to spend some time thinking about what type of communication you should use. What medium or media make the most sense for spreading this message? You can make the choice based on whether you think you have a high likelihood of achieving maximum results from each type of communication - for example, if social media has a better chance of having a large impact than print advertisements. Table 10.1 shows a quick comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of each communication channel.
Table 10.1: Communication Media
With each type of medium, you have a different strategy for marketing to your audience, whether it is making an ad or posting on Facebook or making a check-in at Foursquare. The important thing is to link the medium with your brand values and look for ways to add value for your customers and communicate your values through each communication channel.
Place Branding Strategy
This next step is where most businesses stop thinking about branding as it relates to their location or place, rather than just their business itself.
Conclusion to Part I
"In order to create the set of unique and valuable associations that makes up a brand, you first have to know your message. The first step is knowing what you stand for, and how it all relates to your business. The second step is sharing that message with the world in a way that makes it memorable."
Chapter Overview: How to Use Place Brands
How do we use place brands? We use them as a tool for communicating our message about our business, and as a marker to help customers recognize us in relation to our specific industry or niche market.