|
Community branding has traditionally utilized conventional methods such as television, radio, print advertising and one-to-one marketing as branding tools to create the core of their communities. These tools provide a great tactical approach, but lack a unified strategy that truly targets the ambassadors and develops roles for members of the community to become engaged. Grassroots campaigns have evolved to counter these conventional tactics and are having greater and greater success. Reaching people without the glam and the slickness they’re used to seeing helps to impress your message upon them in a more intimate manner that feels friendlier as if it’s part of their existing community.
The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) tapped Bill Donabedian as the new director for Cincinnati, Ohio’s Fountain Square in the heart of the city. This was no accident. The city has committed itself to change and living up to its “All together surprising” tagline for the region. Their choice of Donabedian recognizes his founding of the grassroots MidPoint Music Festival that brings 50,000 young indie music lovers into the city’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood downtown. (Sept. 20-23, 2006)
Nothing has a stronger community than music. Band names are brands that have been worshipped by teens across the world for generations now. They’ll buy anything with that band’s name emblazoned on it. Even when it has nothing to do with the music. Why?
Because the music makes them feel. And that feeling is a natural elixir. They crave it. And guess what else? Their friends like it too. They understand. They feel it too. They are kindred spirits and they are part of a community. The lyrics and melodies fill their heads and they have a hard time concentrating on anything else. There are users of Tide® laundry detergent who interact with the brand and with one another on a daily basis without even realizing that they belong to the larger P&G community. It’s one thing to recognize that a song has many listeners or a product has consumers that become a community, but it is quite another to think of an actual place being a branded symbol in people’s minds.
Society regularly reminds us of how similar we are to one another. Our kindred aspects are not as predetermined by our birth as by our choices during life. Sure you may be born black, white or neither and that segments you by appearance, but increasingly we are allowed to choose what career we pursue, what neighborhood we live in and what car we drive. We are making very conscious decisions that develop a community of like minds around us.
Our brick-and-mortar communities are developed in this same manner. Sometimes it is a developer that decides to sell a certain size, style and amenity-laden house on a specific plot of land and attempts to attract couples who are looking for a certain size home that fits within their current budget and has a particular list of amenities.
This developer is creating a physical community that ties people together by mere proximity and geography (and of course, budget). Not only are they there to borrow a cup of sugar or lawnmower from, but they could also alter your life by being home to help when your child breaks his/her arm and your car won’t start.
Kindred spirits can be hard to come by, but when you are talking about businesses and residents who are in close geographic proximity the hurdles are shorter. There are multiple connections that can occur and multiple opportunities to create these connections in a friendly, inviting, and non-threatening manner. Time for the lemonade stand. Civic brand renewal is about making a place friendlier and more inviting for the community that is targeted. Some cities require a brand that screams "destination" for everyone while others are developing a brand for themselves that focuses on a particular business niche or a distinct residential base. There are so many factors to consider that it can cause your head to spin. So developing a brand community comes down to understanding who the kindred spirits are and making sure they are being taken care of. It’s sad to me that so many cities are complaining about their cores needing revitalized. And that they need to bring people back downtown. How did they lose them? Was it the greed of developers raising rents. Was it the City raising taxes? Was it unclean and unsafe neighborhoods?
Many communities attempt to use gimmicks and quick fixes, but if they could simply understand who they want their city to be populated by and understand those individual wants and needs then they could begin to pull these people back into the city. They wouldn’t have lost them in the first place if they had been able to share a vision for the future and the individual’s place in it.
In this way a brand can represent that future vision. It can say, this is what we are about this is why we are here, come join us, together we can build a better future. A future that you have a place in. Because we recognize that you are an integral part of our community and we couldn’t be who we are without your involvement. We have a plan. Welcome to the neighborhood! Lemonade 50¢... [-pull-]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ran Mullins is the founder and CEO of Metaphor Studio. He is a consultant and advisor on branding and Web site strategy integration to corporations and community organizations. In addition to being an artist and entrepreneur, he is a resident, business owner, and community advocate in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.
|
