It’s funny how certain fields of marketing seem to demonstrate sudden surges in interest.
One field showing this lately is place marketing (‘place branding’, ‘location marketing’ or ‘inward investment marketing’ if you prefer) – the promotion of cities, towns, districts or counties to boost their economic fortunes by attracting businesses, visitors, students or residents, or all of the above.
There’s probably a good reason for the apparent rise in interest, as follows:
Recession bites … then Brexit looms … businesses batten down the hatches and avoid thoughts of expansion or relocation while uncertainty abounds … public bodies hunker down to save money and see what happens … time passes … businesses and local bodies adapt to the new economic flux … companies’ thoughts return to growth and expansion … and the pressure is on to attract them to your area.
It’s interesting to look at the types of organisations which are taking this inward investment action. Certainly it’s the more dynamic, forward-thinking local authorities. It’s also business associations, inward investment bodies, tourism groups, colleges and universities.
Those which work well together within an area will fare the best. And these organisations are wise to grasp the place marketing nettle now.
Firstly, competing places may be sitting on their hands, so you may be able to steal a march on them.
Of course, the converse is also true: if you’re not taking action, your rival locations could well be – and good companies and economically active residents deciding to locate there instead will be your loss for years to come.
Secondly, you can’t turn place marketing and inward investment on whenever you like by turning a tap. Like any serious branding effort, it takes time and commitment to build.
So places need to start today, if they haven’t already, and be as proactive as possible.
Those that do it well will put themselves in a far stronger position to grab a decent slice of economic growth in a post-Brexit nation, whatever that ends up looking like.
See my next post on this subject: How inspirational is your place brand?
See also information about our work with economic development companies and local government bodies.
I agree with most of your points.
For a long time, cash strapped authorities and agencies cut back on or stopped marketing their place and then wonder why its not on the radar of their target markets as budgets ease. This is rather a simplistic description but has a lot of truth.
The issue, in my experience, is that too many public bodies simply do not take a strategic view and a long view of both their place and their marketing of its offer and experience. Those that do usually have a well developed brand strategy (not the logo or the tag line) for their offer and the investment they plan to make in it over the years ahead. This helps them better position themselves in relation to their competition and to tell a convincing and compelling story to their target markets. It also demonstrates that they have their act together.
The clever bodies have used recession to rethink the purpose of their place, the functions it best performs and how to improve their offer. The less strategic often just start off again where they left off and then wonder why their marketing is not resonating with their targets.
Martin, thanks for your comments.
Despite the apparent upsurge in interest, it’s surprising how many places still don;t have a good brand strategy or even a co-ordinated marketing approach.
Fundamentally, some local authorities and other bodies don’t consider their places seriously enough as products when it comes to marketing, even though they are generally products on a grand scale with high stakes for the whole community. This is compounded by a lack of clarity over whose job it is: everyone hopes someone else will do it.
In some bodies, one or two individuals see the bigger picture but have a tough job bringing others with them or galvanising any action.
But at least increasing numbers seem to be starting to take definite steps. This may force the rest to follow suit as they realise they’re being left behind.