When people talk about place branding, be it nation branding, region branding or city branding, most are thinking about logos and campaigns. They are the culmination of the many steps that go into creating a brand.
Behind the witty tagline or clever logo is a brand strategy built on a deep understanding of what makes a place special and compelling to its target audience. We share here some place branding best practices.
Place branding is a tool for communicating what makes a nation, region, city, or even business district or neighborhood special. It is the cornerstone for attracting economic activity, talented residents, visitors, and consumers of local goods.
1. Identify audiences for your place brand
You need to choose who your target audience is, whether it is tourists, businesses, newcomers, locals or all of them. Will your brand appeal to tourists? Will your brand encourage businesses to invest? Do you want to promote local products and services to locals and visitors alike? Who will your neighborhood or business district restaurants, cultural institutions, and points of interest appeal to? The first step in any branding project is to understand who you need to reach and what they care about so that you can craft a brand that appeals to them. Take the time to invest in understanding your audience.
2. Focus your offer
You can’t be everything to everyone. Once you have identified your audience you need to do research and figure out what matters to them. Then, you can define an authentic singular place brand focus that appeals to them and that no other place can duplicate. By staking out a position of relevant difference in the marketplace, you have the foundation for your brand. Areas to explore include:
- Culture: New Orleans is known for Mardi Gras, jazz, and creole cuisine where everyone can “laissez les bons temps rouler”
- History: Prague’s Old Town promotes its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Values: Switzerland’s nation branding centers around neutrality, stability and trust
- People: Thailand as the “land of smiles,” plays up its reputation for hospitality and warmth
- Education: The Research Triangle is a regional brand in NC that is home to three major research universities
- Art: Florence is a living museum as the cradle of Renaissance art
- Nature: Australia plays upon its natural attractions from the Great Barrier Reef to its unique animals, personified by the Ruby the Roo animated kangaroo, its “Experience Australia” television series, and the slogan “There’s nothing like Australia”
- Geography: Denver, as the Mile High City is a gateway to the Rocky Mountains
- Business environment: Saudi Arabia promotes its transforming economy in “Vision 2030” as a center for business growth and innovation
- Industry: Huntsville, Alabama is “Rocket City” a center for aerospace innovation
- Infrastructure: Chattanooga, Tennessee boasts “the world’s fastest internet.”
3. Co-create to involve and align stakeholders
When branding a place, you have a wealth of perspectives that can either strengthen or derail your place branding initiative. Successful nation branding all the way down to local city branding involve the active input and collaboration among government, the private sector, tourism boards, cultural institutions, and citizens. Place branding thrives with grassroots involvement, so build from the bottom up to shape and champion the brand narrative with a shared vision to ensure consistency and impact.
Align Stakeholders Across Sectors
Successful nation branding involves collaboration among government, private sector, tourism boards, cultural institutions, and citizens. A shared vision ensures consistency and impact.
Focus on the Experience, Not Just Promotion
Branding isn’t just about logos or slogans—it’s about improving actual experiences. Investment in infrastructure, safety, sustainability, and innovation help shape real-world perceptions.
Leverage Soft Power Assets
Use culture, education, sport, cuisine, and diplomacy as vehicles for influence. Films, music, celebrities, universities, and international events are powerful tools to enhance reputation.
Be Consistent but Adapt
Stay consistent in the overall brand proposition while translating your messaging to appeal to different audiences and across different platforms. Adapt tactics to different cultural contexts and changing geopolitical landscapes.
Engage the Local Audience First
Citizens and locals are brand ambassadors. Internal buy-in ensures authenticity, pride, and word-of-mouth advocacy. If locals don’t believe in the brand, outsiders won’t either.
Use Data to Monitor and Adjust
Regularly assess global perceptions using tools such as research, tourism data, and investor sentiment to guide adjustments in strategy.
4. Emphasize execution
Logos, slogans, and ads can help you bring your place brand to life, but the real drivers of perception are actual experiences. Involvement with the realities of a place are what shape opinions and reputation. Make sure the brand values carry through for visitors, new residents, businesses, events, and everyday life. Flagship initiatives, like development zones, transit hubs, investment incentives, festivals and events, along with branded spaces deliver and reinforce the brand physically and with direct engagement. Support consistent messaging and tactics with all stakeholders—they are your brand ambassadors.
5. Get expert place branding help
Work with professionals who have experience in place branding, from research to strategy development, brand creation, and living the brand execution. Simply creating a slogan is not enough.
It helps to work with a consulting firm that keeps you from making mistakes. Before we worked with Minneapolis, their slogan was “The Coolest City in America.” While the point was to make a clever joke, it brought the primary negative of the city to the forefront of peoples’ minds. Being clever could not compensate for the areas’ negative stereotypes. The rebranding of Minneapolis as a place that shines and attracts, as a North star, is behind the new “Find Your True North” overarching theme of the city and then aligning the state “Star of the North” positioning with it.
You need a consulting firm that can identify and reach out to target audience groups. You need to uncover all the details of your place, the good, bad and indifferent, and know which ones are relevant. Your consulting partner also needs skill in bringing the brand to life, making it have real impact, and ultimately to measure the results and your return on your branding investment.
We would love to share our many place branding cases and discuss the value doing branding right brings to your location.