9 July 2009

By Catherine Proulx, Managing Director, Twist Marketing

In part 1 of this article, we talked about the value of bringing a fresh set of eyes to helping communities weave together their brand. Like most things in life, there are economic realities to be considered as well. Just as you wouldn’t hire a furniture upholsterer to tailor a suit, you wouldn’t hire an advertising firm to brand your community.

Community branding requires professionals with experience in municipal economic development. This is because they need to understand the realities of your community’s infrastructure needs, relevant fiscal environments, resource management, investment criteria—the hard data that helps you reject the Emperor's new clothes in favour of the Dolce & Gabana (or Mountain Equipment Co-op) you're looking for.

A broader knowledge of the realities of supply and demand is essential to avoid the patchwork effect. If you have just the one fishing hole with room for half a dozen people to drop a rod at any given time, your brand should snip that thread. It may be an appealing little spot, but six people won't provide the economic return to justify including it in your long-term strategy. Brand should aim, instead, for the thousands of tourists who will fit around your waterfall...and stick around to buy dinner and maybe spring for some souvenirs and a hotel room.

But what if the fishing hole really is that great? Should you invest time, money and resources marketing to all fishermen, everywhere?

Not if the pond is only stocked with trout.

Brand should delineate target markets so you're not wasting precious, and limited, resources marketing to the folks who want to hook a bass or a salmon—and to ensure there are enough people out there with a taste for trout to make your efforts worthwhile.

This approach allows you to cut out all the extraneous patches and pieces (the bass and salmon fishers) that are cluttering your vision and reducing your potential return on marketing investment. Honing in on specific markets not only allows for less waste in marketing, but also lets you make more effective pitches to people just waiting to buy what you’re selling. This is as true for tourism as it is for commercial investment, industry, potential residents—whatever market you've defined as ideal.

To carry the analogy one step further, think of words as the dye with which you colour the fabric of your community. Bold, vivid colours are compelling. But use too many and you end up with a uniform, muddy brown. Too many words with too many messages can dull your impact and muddy your intent. Brand incorporates the meaning behind the often-verbose governmental documents about planning and development that lose the reader through sheer tedium, not to mention the myriad and sometimes contradictory taglines and descriptors applied to your community over the years—and reduces all of it to its most basic elements, like separating the colours from a rainbow. It articulates your long-term vision in simple, honest, and direct terms, making it accessible to your residents and your target markets alike.

The end result is a development tapestry that's more than just attractive: it's durable, flexible and productive. Just like your community.

The Twist: Tying development direction to brand doesn't mean relinquishing the power to define your own destiny. Development strategy is less a created entity than a found object. It's already there. Now all it needs is to be cleared of debris and polished so it can shine in service of your community. Brand is what brings that found object to the surface, clearly defining its contours, releasing it from the obscuring rubble so it can evolve as a beacon guiding your community's future.

For more marketing articles, please visit www.twistmarketing.com/resources