Small City Is On Track To Become a Brand Destination

A small Southeastern (U.S.) city planned to position itself as a vibrant destination that would attract three distinct stakeholder groups: residents, business owners, and visitors. The challenge was to develop a branding and marketing strategy based on a deep understanding of experiences, perceptions and viewpoints from a broad cross-section of City stakeholders.

Meeting the challenge was high-stakes. It impacted the development of the City’s core value proposition, which would guide branding, marketing, and, ultimately, the City’s future economic growth and quality of life.

We provided strategic direction to the marketing agency contracted by the City to develop the City’s value proposition, brand and marketing strategies, and brand collateral. We delivered implications and recommendations based on insights from a composite of seven segments of primary research, which were implemented mostly on site and analyzed within the allocated budget and timeline. The research design we implemented included:

• Client Discovery Session
• One-on-one Interviews with City and Community Leaders
• One-on-one Interviews with Visitors and Residents
• Web-Based Survey (of residents, business owners, executives of nonprofit organizations that serve the City)
• City Leaders Workshop
• Community Leaders Focus Group
• Web-based Analysis of Social Media Content

We provided strategic direction to the marketing agency contracted by the City to develop the City’s value proposition, brand and marketing strategies, and brand collateral. Our implications and recommendations provided guidance and inspiration to the creative team entrusted with delivering an effective solution to the City’s challenging goal of becoming a branded destination. The brand campaign is still in development and on schedule.