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Does Branding Matter?
May 28th, 2010 by Mike Knutson
Mr. Madville Times himself, Cory Heidelberger, kicked up a storm a couple days ago in a blog post by claiming that communities are wasting their time — and more importantly their money – by redeveloping their brand. It caused me to do a double-take because earlier that same day, I had plugged the importance of establishing a strong community brand in a presentation I made to some folks down in Kansas and Nebraska.
So who’s right? Does branding matter?
At the center of the controversy was the community of Brookings, SD’s and their recent rebranding efforts. The community felt they needed to refresh their brand because various community organizations were marketing the community in different ways. To help everyone get on the same page, they hired a Nashville, TN community branding entity.
Cory’s objections seem to rest on the following arguments.
- Brookings has done well without a unified branding effort, so why change what’s working?
- Spending $84,000 to hire a branding specialist is a lot of money, especially when community leaders admit that they’ll have to do it again in a few years to keep a ‘fresh’ image.
- It’s impossible to find one thing that defines a community, so don’t try. It’s better to celebrate the community’s diversity, and allow your community to be many things to many people.
- A brand is useless if community members don’t have any actual performance to show for it.
Bottom line, Cory doesn’t think branding works for communities. Some of the commenters to his post agreed, some didn’t. I appreciated that they made me rethink my thoughts on the subject.
The bottom line for me is if we want people to choose our rural communities as places to call home, we need to pay attention to our branding. Our brand is our collective identity, expressed in many ways when people encounter our community.
Too often our small rural communities are known for the last basketball championship. Or worse yet, for being places that time forgot. But changing that identity doesn’t mean we have to rush out and hire a branding company for $80,000.
Start by getting together as a community: talk about what you want your community to be known for, make sure it connects to your vision for the future (if it does, it will help you achieve that vision.), and figure out how you are going to communicate it to others.
Visual elements like a logo and tag line are important, but actions are more important. You have to be able to live up to your community brand. If you want to be known as a friendly community, you’d better make sure residents (especially those who deal with newcomers like cashiers, waitresses, and elected officials) embody friendliness. If you want to be known for supporting entrepreneurs, make sure you celebrate their accomplishments (like posting interviews with them on YouTube).
So, the big question is, does your community’s brand reflect who you really are? If not, people will see right through it.
Tags: branding, Madison SD, marketing rural communities
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (
13 )
May 28th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Fort Collins went through a branding process and ended up with a swoosh and a tag line. A lot of people hated it. Then they got used to it. But when I compare it to my previous home, I’d say it was a failure and a waste of time.
I once lived in a town called Ocean Beach, in San Diego. The logo was a seagull and the letters OB. A local created it in the 1970s, and EVERYONE bought that sticker and put it on their car because they were so proud to be from OB and what that stood for. It stood for a history of standing up to the man, a beach community that wasn’t as money’d as the others, etc. Funky.
I think the city adopted it from there. It’s on the Welcome sign.
It seems like that’s what towns are after with branding. If people in the community aren’t proud to slap the logo on their car, then the brand exercise has failed, IMO.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:58 am
“Our brand is our collective identity, expressed in many ways….”
Ah, I think you’re getting at what put the burr under my saddle. Expressed that way, in the above sentence, “brand” is a multi-headed beast that develops organically from all of our ideas and community activities. A single logo or tagline will be at best a pale, incomplete reflection of who a community really is. The logo may capture an outsider’s attention… but the real “brand” is the impression that visitor will form upon interacting with the community’s people, businesses, parks, etc. No one who comes to Madison will ever wrap up a visit and say, ‘Wow, you really can Discover the Unexpected™!” just like a clever commercial. If they liked their visit, they’ll say, “Wow! Busy college campus, Mochavino’s got good sandwiches, and Lake Herman is a great getaway!” The logo won’t stick; authentic experiences will.
That’s why if you hand me an $84,000 marketing budget, I’ll pay my intern $500 to doodle up something cute and legible, spend another $500 on a local meeting and a visitor’s focus group to make sure the slogan doesn’t sound too dumb, and then pour the other $83,000 into more useful projects (like…???).
May 28th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Cat,
I think the ultimate goal of any branding exercise is for constituents/customers to “own it.” For this process to happen organically, as it did in Ocean Beach, is the ultimate!
Do you think the homogenous nature of the community played a role in the brand’s widespread adoption? What would have happened if 25% of the population was “moneyed”? That’s where branding get’s tough.
Either way, I totally agree with your statement that a community branding effort has failed when the residents don’t feel connected to it.
May 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Cory,
Sometimes I think branding is so simple that its complex. My definition of a brand is what people say or think about your product (ie – the community). As I drive around rural South Dakota, I see so many small towns who display a sign on the edge of town with a logo and tag line that: (1) says little or nothing about the town; (2) flat out conflicts with the town’s identity; or (3) look so bad that it accurately portrays reality in the town – the town is dying. Combine this with our fixation on athletics, and we have a real branding issue.
In my opinion, a logo, color palette, positioning statement, as well as the language we use to convey our brand DO change over time, and they need to be updated. The brand, however, is usually more enduring. But as in the case with Lead, SD, it can change in a heartbeat (check out this post from last year — “The importance of a strong sense of place.
I have to admit that I feel a bit unqualified to comment on Brookings’ branding efforts, or even Madison’s for that matter. I think you and I see community branding in similar terms, and I too was a bit surprised by the price for the consultation. My guess, however, is that there’s a lot of stuff the branding company has produced for Brookings that we don’t know about. For instance, I would hope they helped develop a plan for rolling out the brand with experiences and activities, similar to what you reference in your closing sentence.
As I reflect on my original post, I wish I had changed one sentence. Rather than saying “But changing that identity doesn’t mean we have to rush out and hire a branding company for $80,000,” I wish I had said, “But don’t think you need to pay a branding company $80,000 in order to change that identify.”
My point here leads me back to the beginning. Our small towns need to pay attention to their brands. Obviously, they don’t have a ton of money to put into it, so don’t let the price tag prevent you from doing SOMETHING! I actually think it’s a great idea to hire someone to help you out with a branding effort. How much help a community needs is probably something each community has to decide for themselve. But above all, do something because branding is pretty important.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I have no problem with communities developing a brand as long as they are involved in the process and understand that it is not going to cause money and jobs to pour in overnight. I wish I understood the desire to cough up $84,000 for some person from someplace else who has no real feeling for the town and its people, and really doesn’t care as long as they get the cash. It leaves all of these great brands looking and soundiing the same. What truly makes a community special is its unique character that only those who live in or near the place can identify.
May 29th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Cindy,
Agreed. Branding is just one piece in a large puzzle.
May 29th, 2010 at 11:06 am
I fail to see why South Dakota businesses, cities, and counties are so willing to waste money on businesses outside our state. And, I don’t really think a city brand means diddly squat in “selling” a city.
Who sees those brands? Somebody getting a letter from the city or chamber of commerce? At the end of a TV ad? I’m sure all those municipal utilities and local tax officials will be viewed in a much better light if they just have a really, really cool brand or logo on their nasty little messages and forms.
I doubt any logo on a city billboard is any better than a slogan like, “Welcome to Whatever. Call 605-RINGING for help or info.”
After working in state government years ago and watching managers hire consultants when people in SD could do it or another full-time staff person could at a fraction of the cost, I became convinced that too many managers used out-of-state consultants because the viewed any competent South Dakotans on or off their staff as a threat to their own position.
May 29th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Here, here! This is not just happening in South Dakota! I see the same thing going on here in Arkansas everyday. No matter how many people we train to do the job, even our universities go to outside consultants for answers their own people can give them.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:22 am
In case anybody would like a little more info. about Ocean Beach, here it is, from someone who lived for 20 years nearby.
Ocean Beach, CA is NOT homogenous. It has a reputation for being homegrown, non corporate, community oriented, and tolerant of difference. (Its nickname is “the people’s republic of Ocean Beach.”) For example, I believe the only grocery co-op in the San Diego metro area is in Ocean Beach – a homegrown affair. Ocean Beach has stayed low key because the residents have successfully fought to keep out large beachfront development and the people who move there now are ones who don’t want that.
Ocean Beach is also not an incorporated town. It’s a neighborhood in San Diego that feels very different than the rest of the city.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the clarification Kelly. Its interesting that both you and Cat have moved from Ocean Beach to the Dakotas. Not sure what it says, but we’re happy to have you.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for the welcome, Mike. Not from Ocean Beach, however, but a nearby community.
July 17th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
When I think of branding, I think of McDonald’s. Not their ads, but the experience. I wouldn’t say their food is great, but it is pretty consistent. If you travel, you probably eat at McDonald’s for no other reason than you know what you’re going to receive.
IF a town feels the need to brand itself, I’d have to say that it must start with creating a consistent, memorable experience for visitors and residents alike. There is no out-of-town company, whether a “branding company,” or a manufacturing company, or a giant discount retail chain, that is going to ride to the rescue of most towns. The residents and their civic leaders will have to work together to make it happen. If that begins with branding, then keep that consistent, memorable experience in mind.
One more thing to keep in mind:
I was working in the small town of West Plains, MO last year. In the 7 minutes it took to go from hotel to office, there were over 100 advertisements. This included radio commercial, bumper stickers on other vehicles, signs, billboards, and event flyers / posters stapled on utility poles. If people were not at least partially advertising-resistant, we’d all be beyond broke all the time. Advertising may be an important part of renewing your town, but if that’s all you’ve got, you’ve got nothing.
December 28th, 2010 at 7:13 am
What makes a brand work is recognition. That’s why Coca-Cola, Google and even “The Big Apple” work as brands. What makes them recognizable is billion dollar advertising budgets. Anybody who believes that Bugtussel can put a brand out there and the world will respond simply does not understand this basic reality. Better to get the $84,000 in twenties, pile it up in the town square, invite the citizens and set it on fire. At least then they would derive some enjoyment out of watching city leaders burn their money.