Posts Tagged ‘Aaron M. Renn’

Civic Branding: A refresher

March 20th, 2012

Thanks to Aaron Renn at the Urbanophile, I received a great refresher on civic branding. In a brief post titled "Don't Brand Your City," Renn shares a fifteen minute Chicago Public Radio interview with Jeff Leitner and Howell J. Malham of Insight Labs. The central question they analyze: Is it possible to successfully brand a region (like the Great Lakes) for tourism and economic development?

A lively interview, Leitner and Malham question the concept. Now, let me be clear, I still think that every rural community needs to be concerned about its brand. Your town’s identity does matter. But we need to be smarter about how we attempt to strengthen our brands. I hope you listen to the audio interview embedded below and then take a look at a few of my follow-up comments. If you have some additional thoughts on the topic of branding rural communities, we’d love to hear them.

Click here to listen - Luring tourists to the Great Lakes region (WBEZ91.5, Nov. 15, 2011)

My take aways

First, before we start, let’s make sure we're on the same page when we say the word branding. To me a community’s brand is its identity. It’s what people think and talk about your community. Logos and jingles are nice, but let’s not be fooled into thinking that they are your community’s brand. Their just a part of it; a small part of it. Second, if you want a strong brand, you need to have strong features that make your community special. In the interview, Jeff Leitner drives this point home with the Seth Godin truism “The best way to be remarked on is to be remarkable.” This means saying “Our town is a great place to live and raise a family,” isn’t good enough. It is a start….but it is not the end game. What are your community’s remarkable features that make it an awesome place to raise a family? Perhaps it’s a remarkable lake with an incredible bike path; perhaps it’s an incredible summer festival that brings everyone in the community together; or perhaps it’s exceptional outdoor activities that families can do together. If your town doesn’t have those things, you’re time and money are best invested I developing them -- before trying to promote your brand. A third take away is that branding is not about you (or in this case your community); it’s about your audience. While commenting on the ability of branding to help develop an affiliation with a region, Leitner tells us that the way to do this is by “demonstrating to the world what you are going to help them do.” In other words, don’t just tell me that your community is filled with great businesses. Demonstrate to me how your community can help me become a successful entrepreneur. What types of assistance will I get in your community that I can’t get somewhere else? Do you have an entrepreneurship support system in place? And while demonstrating value, remember the power of stories. If our community does have a system for supporting entrepreneurs, share the stories of entrepreneurs who have benefited from it. That’s a “demonstration” that people will believe.

Wrapping it up

Listening to the interview, some people will throw up their arms and decide that civic branding is a waste of time. I think that is a mistake. Rural communities need to develop stronger brands so that people recognize the value they have to offer. Just realize that the first step isn’t to hire someone to build the build the brand for you. (Note: My apologies for originally mispelling Howell Malham's last name.) Photo credit: Punk Toad - Flickr

Tags: Aaron M. Renn, branding, marketing, seth godin
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (2)

Buy Invega Without Prescription

July 9th, 2010

Buy Invega Without Prescription, Attracting and retaining people is a hot topic in the community and economic development fields today. I first started thinking about it years ago after reading a study titled "Natural Amenities Drive Rural Population Change" by David McGranahan (1999). That interest was kicked up a notch when Richard Florida released The Rise of the Creative Class, buying Invega online over the counter, Invega craiglist, identifying a clear connection between the ability of a community to attract knowledge workers and economic growth.

Although I have a love-hate relationship with the ideas put forward by Florida in The Rise of the Creative Class and in subsequent work, Invega to buy, Buy cheap Invega, I do wholeheartedly embrace its basic tenant that the economies of our communities today are being driven by talented, creative people. In his light, buy Invega from mexico, Purchase Invega, communities would do well to make themselves places where talented people want to live.

Recognizing that talent attraction matters to economic growth is pretty easy and benign. But a closer look reveals more complexity. First, most of the creative class theories are dedicated to urban areas. Do the principles of talent, Invega for sale, Invega gel, ointment, cream, pill, spray, continuous-release, extended-release, technology, and tolerance serve as important attractor roles in rural areas like they do in urban areas? Second, Invega in usa, Invega buy, people attraction strategies consume financial resources that could come at the expense of traditional economic activities like business recruitment. Doesn't it make more sense to invest in creating jobs than community amenities.

Those and others are pretty big questions that I hope to spend more time addressing in the near future. Today, purchase Invega online no prescription, Saturday delivery Invega, I want to share a post that helped clarify some matters related to the jobs vs. amenities debate, buy Invega without a prescription.

Introducing the Urbanophile

If you are interested in community development, rural or urban, you need to check out Aaron M. Renn and his Urbanophile blog. Although his outlook for rural communities is not as rosy as I would like, he offers incredible insights into what makes cities tick. Elements of this are very relevant to rural communities, even when it's stuff we don't want to hear, Buy Invega Without Prescription. Purchase Invega online, Recently I found one of his posts titled "Does Anyone Really Believe Human Capital Is Important" to be very helpful because it clarified some ideas about people attraction strategies. I think they are worth sharing.

Does Marketing Matter?

The first issue Renn tackles is the notion that marketing your community for people attraction is a waste of money because "what really attracts people is a good economy, buy Invega from canada, Buy Invega online without prescription, quality public services, and efficient government."

In laying out a defense for marketing, buy Invega online without a prescription, Online buy Invega without a prescription, Renn offers two comparisons. First, he describes the value of marketing for businesses selling to customers. He writes:

In real life, order Invega from United States pharmacy, Invega prescriptions, as we know, corporations spend gigantic sums on sales and marketing, delivered overnight Invega. Invega discount, Clearly they wouldn't do this if it didn't work. That's not to say that every dollar spent on these activities is effective..., buy Invega without prescription. Buy Invega Without Prescription, But it is also critical to build awareness of your product in the marketplace, to effectively communicate its brand promise and value proposition, and to induce someone to make a buying decision." (source: Aaron M. Invega in india, Renn, "Does Anyone Really Believe Human Capital Is Important", Invega in australia, Buy Invega no prescription, Urbanophile, June 13, where can i find Invega online, Cod online Invega, 2010)

Second, he argues that if communities are willing to market for business attraction, Invega to buy online, Buy no prescription Invega online, why wouldn't they market for people attraction.

I agree. Especially about the importance of brand awareness. In fact, Invega tablets, Order Invega online c.o.d, I'd wager that brand awareness is a bigger issue for rural communities than urban.

That said, I hope communities don't look at this as a carte blanche endorsement to rush out and spend large sums of money on advertising. I think there are a lot of steps to complete before a community is ready to advertise. And there's a lot more to marketing than advertising. (If I had limited resources, sale Invega, Buy cheap Invega no rx, I'd invest a lot more in building relationships.)

Do jobs follow people or people follow jobs?

The second and more important topic that Renn addresses is the "chicken or egg" issue of whether jobs follow people (as the creative class theory advocates) or the vice-versa. This is an issue that has constantly tripped me up. Although I accept the premise that talented individual are both more likely to choose location over job and create new job growth, I've never been able to say definitively that one is more important than the other.

The real value in the argument Renn presents is that he calls on communities to think more deeply about "specific niches or segments of population" with their recruiting efforts. In this regard, fast shipping Invega, Rx free Invega, people attraction efforts are no different than any other marketing exercise.

Renn goes on to say that communities should match labor and employment needs as they determine specific population niches to recruit and the civic investments they make.

This is all good advice, and it should cause those of us in rural communities to think more deeply about how we build communities that are attractive to talented people. It also suggests we have a great deal more to learn about the people we hope to recruit, Invega in us. Buy Invega online with no prescription, We can start this learning process by going back and looking at the research by McGranahan and others about the role natural amenities in rural population movements. We should also use the Appreciative Inquiry method to understand what has attracted new residents to our communities in the past.

There's bound to be a lot of differences in what communities learn from this type of exercise. After all, "if you've been one rural community, Invega in canada, Order Invega no prescription, you've only been in one rural community." But it's an important step if we hope to be effective at recruiting new residents.

If your community has already started a process like this, I hope you'll share it with us, buy generic Invega. Buy Invega online no prescription,

Photo credit: Derek Purdy - Flickr

. Invega in japan. Invega price, coupon. Where to buy Invega. Invega prices. Invega from canadian pharmacy. Invega in mexico. Invega overseas. Over the counter Invega. Buying Invega online over the counter. Invega in australia. Purchase Invega online. Next day Invega. Order Invega online overnight delivery no prescription. Ordering Invega online. Buy Invega from canada. Where can i buy cheapest Invega online. Invega in usa. Fast shipping Invega. Buy cheap Invega. Buy Invega from mexico. Buy Invega online with no prescription. Invega buy. Invega trusted pharmacy reviews.

Tags: Aaron M. Renn, creative economy, human capital, people attraction, Richard Florida
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (2)

Buy Epogen Without Prescription

Connect with us on Twitter

Popular Posts

Tag cloud

Search

Blogroll