By Brian Lee
As people discuss how to promote our community and develop its economy, there’s been a lot of talk about branding. One definition of place branding:
"The art of setting yourself apart from everyone else, and making you the destination of choice for investment, business opportunities and as the place to live and visit."
It’s thinking about our community as a product that competes with other places for people’s attention. It means we pare down the essence of what is attractive about this place and package it so people can quickly digest and share it.
I can already hear the old-timers scoff and I don’t blame them. It does sound silly. Is it gilding the lily to take something we already know and cherish and try to put it in a fancy box? And after something is branded, does it cease to be real? Not if it’s done right.
Branding is how we do our hair or what clothes we wear. It’s what colour we paint our house — it’s our style. It just means we adopt a unifying theme to ensure our good side is the one people recognize and share. Settling on a brand should provide a foundation for other projects like slogans, websites and signage. It might also prove to be a natural catalyst for incorporation in order to develop and preserve the brand. Branding is a means to an end and, in our case, many might assume that to be promoting tourism. That’s not neccesarily the case.
The question of what we want to gain from a branding campaign directs us to which of our many strengths should be emphasized. I would say this community’s biggest challenge, both economically and socially, is the exodus of families leaving for work opportunities.
So, following that path — to encourage families to move here — what is it we have that they want? Do we focus on highlighting our envied tourism attributes to attract more visitors, and spawn more employment? Or do we highlight the safety, high teacher to student ratios and lifestyle available to families hoping to abandon the city and whose migration will reinvigorate our economy? Or, do you focus on attracting business and industry to develop year-round, sustainable jobs?
What if you aimed for something that achieved all three? Robert Jones, consultant director at international brand consultancy firm Wolff Olins said, "Successful branding can turn a city into a place where people want to live, work and visit."
As a defining principle in its development, our brand should encourage that goal while targeting working age people. But our brand should also identify competitors we hope to displace. Would that be Sechelt and Gibsons or Tofino or Hope?
They "Keep it real" in Ponoka, Alberta, Oliver is "The Wine Capital of Canada" and Powell River is the "Arbutus Coast."
Everyone knows Sin City but what are we — Area A? Pender Harbour and/or Egmont? The Upper Sunshine Coast? It seems a complicated first step.
Comments