atlas - how to build great community brands

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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

benw@Atlas-Advertising.com

www.Atlas-Advertising.com

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