atlas - how to build great community brands
DESCRIPTION
In the webinar "How to Build Great Community Brands," Atlas Advertising CEO Ben Wright shares insights gleaned from a decade of branding communities, as well as case studies from Tucson, AZ and San Francisco, CATRANSCRIPT
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How to Build Great Community
Brands
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About Atlas Advertising
Atlas Advertising helps economic developers reach national and international prospect and site selection audiences. We deliver branding, website development, GIS mapping, research, and creative services professionally and with a staff experienced in economic development. Unlike firms with little or no economic development experience, Atlas Advertising uses a proven mix of economic development marketing tactics that generate interest from site selection audiences.
Atlas Advertising is led by a former economic development practitioner and has worked with 50+ different economic development clients in 30+ states. Our approach and experience means that our campaigns generate an average of three to ten times the response of other campaigns.
Featured clients:– State of Ohio– Indy Partnership– City of San Francisco– Greater Phoenix Economic Council – Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership
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Table of contents
The case for and against community branding
How prospects and site selectors experience brands
How to structure a successful branding process
How to leverage a brand for the largest impact
The Atlas approach
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What is a brand?A trade name: a name given to a product or
service
A recognizable kind; "there's a new brand of hero
in the movies now"; "what make of car is that?"
An identification mark on skin, made by burning
The sum of all the characteristics, tangible and
intangible, that make something unique.
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What is a place brand?
The sum of all the characteristics, tangible
and intangible, that make a development,
city, state, or region unique.
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Challenges in creating a single
ED place brandThe vast majority of “place branding” campaigns focus on marketing a community under
one single banner. Political leaders and the private sector quickly embrace the concept of
an overarching brand and in theory it makes a lot of sense.
It doesn’t work for a simple reason: the needs of your different target audiences –
potential visitors, corporate executives with site location responsibilities, individuals
considering moving to your community – are completely different.
In my experience, attempts to develop a single brand and market it under one banner
yields mush. And mush doesn’t motivate anyone.
Andy Levine, President, DCI
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Why is branding important for economic development?
Places leave the most lasting impressions, tangible or
intangible, on human beings. And, human beings still
make the decision where a company stays or relocates
to.
As the world becomes more competitive at a faster and
faster rate, choices for companies get harder. As a
result, for one site selector, a brand, or reputation, has
become one of “Four Pillars of Community
Competitiveness.”
As companies work to locate where workforce is, how
your brand attracts and retains workforce is that
brand challenge of the next 25 years.
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Why the debate is irrelevant
Who owns “Educated workforce?”
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“Educated workforce” =
Boston, San Francisco
Why the debate is irrelevant
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Who owns “Competitive Business Costs?”
Why the debate is irrelevant
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“Competitive Business Costs” =
Alabama, Tennessee, Carolinas,
Mumbai
Why the debate is irrelevant
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Who owns “Business Friendly City?”
Why the debate is irrelevant
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“Business Friendly City” =
Charlotte, Nashville
Why the debate is irrelevant
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Familiarization tours
Websites
Direct relationships with ED Professionals
Word of Mouth
All supported with coordinated communications
How site selectors say they like to experience brands
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Familiarization tours
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Websites
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Experience with ED Professionals
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Word of Mouth
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Input from local stakeholders
Interviews with national site selectors
Positioning your community
Creative concepting
Execution
Leveraging the brand
How to structure a successful branding effort
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What challenges is your business facing?
What are the key determinants your company used to locate
here?
How well does our city meet those criteria today?
If I said that our city was [Insert message] how believable
would that be? How appealing?
When you describe the city to other businesses, what do you
say?
How well is our organization doing its job?
Input from stakeholders
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What are the key attributes your clients are using to select a
location?
What cities do you think of when I mention a certain
attribute?
When you think of [insert city name] what comes to mind?
If I said that our city was [Insert message] how believable
would that be? How appealing?
Have you ever considered [insert city name] as a location for
any of your clients?
When you have had a project that has considered [insert city
name], what other cities did you also consider?
How well is our organization doing its job?
Test findings with site selectors
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Sample geographic coverage
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What attributes matter today?
What cities/regions are my competition for owning that
attribute nationally or globally?
What are the perceptions of my city/region and my
competition today?
If I used certain messages, would it be appealing? Would it
be believable?
Is my city/region even on the list for consideration?
What experience does the national market have with my
organization?
Key things you will learn
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For (target customers)
Who need (primary need)
Your city is a (known product category)
That provides (key product attributes)
Unlike (the alternative)
Your city provides (key differentiators)
Writing a positioning statement for ED
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Relevant
True
Different
Three keys to outstanding positioning
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Concepting
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Concepting
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Concepting
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Cost effective, multilingual workforce
Specific strengths in aerospace, optics, and light manufacturing
Moderate taxes and business costs,
Expedited permitting and incentive process through single
economic development entity, with services of city, county,
private sector, and incubator all under one roof.
Tucson, AZ positioning
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Tucson concepting
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Tucson concepting
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Tucson concepting
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Tucson web
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Monthly email newsletter to
investors, prospects
Track performance of those
newsletters
Post newsletters and news items
to your website weekly or
monthly
Tucson email
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Website visits up to 3.5 times the national average
Prospecting activity up significantly
Investment in the organization jumpstarted
IEDC Award winning website
Tucson results
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Companies here have access to world class talent
Talent has unequaled access to university infrastructure, arts, dining,
and other community amenities
Companies have access to the largest pool of investment capital and
support services in the world
San Francisco positioning
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San Francisco execution - print
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San Francisco website
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San Francisco email
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Businesses can now articulate why they would brave the
challenges of being in a center city
Business now has a more visible “place to go” when talking with
the city
San Francisco results
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There should be no debate about ED branding – the brands
exist and are being used every day.
How to best execute the brand is then the issue
Include your local stakeholders
Learn what you don’t know from a national audience – they
will change your campaign remarkably
Concept across a wide swath – places are complex things
Execute in ways that site selectors and prospects value –
online and through events.
Recap
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Recruit for and conduct familiarization tours in a highly branded
environment, from the invitation to the locations you select.
Immerse site selectors in your positioning.
Use a website to prove your positioning, with data, testimonials,
sites and buildings, and video.
Change the way you answer inquiries – Promise a response in a
certain amount of time, personalize your responses, and use a
consistent look, voice, and message in all of your
communications.
Create positive, consistent word of mouth by rolling out your
message to your large business stakeholders. They will be your
best salespeople.
How to best leverage a brand
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The Atlas approach leverages opportunities in the site location process
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Brand development services
• Brand research, local and nationally
• A local brand promise, and national message as well
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Brand development (2)
• Industry specific website content
• Marketing collateral
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Website design and development: Content, data centers, and more• Flash to tell
the story on the home page
• Links to social media such as blogs and twitter
• Outstanding media center and brochure generator
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Search engine marketing programs
• Search engine marketing optimization that will draw traffic to the site
• Pay Per Click Campaigns that will extend the site to the most targeted audiences
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Social media programs
• Social media strategies to engage locals and national audiences
• Blogging about policy wins, events, and new announcements
• Sharing relevant data now, every week, not monthly or less frequently
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Email marketing programs
• Custom email marketing campaigns to opt in audiences, at least monthly
• Targeted lists of site location decision makers
• Targeted lists of engaged stakeholders that we need on the team
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Atlas InSite (GIS)
• Property Database• Business Database• Data Maps• Communities search• Geospatial Report
Generator• Back end
administration, integrated with content management
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Contact Atlas
Contact information:
2601 Blake Street, Suite 301
Denver, CO 80205
Contact: Ben Wright
t: 303.292.3300 x 210
www.Atlas-Advertising.com
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