Re-branding the city: changing the image of places and spaces

1. School of Geography FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Re-branding the city: changing the image of places and spaces Rachael Unsworth

2. Outline • What is a ‘brand’? • Why brand a place? • Types and examples • Process and problems • The case of Marketing Leeds

3. Brand

4. Product differentiation - superior quality First English registered trademark 1876 Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London

5. What do they mean to you?

6. Brand and image Not just name, logo, website, brochure ‘Something that exists in the collective mind of the consumer’ FT article 2002

7. Why create a brand image for a city or re-brand a city? creates/changes awareness + creates/builds consumer demand for a product in an increasingly competitive market place

8. “Competition among cities is like riding a bicycle: if you don’t pedal, you’ll fall off. However, globalization is making us increasingly uniform, so we must construct and promote our difference in order to continue existing” Mirón, Urban Land Institute

9. Place marketing • Assert individuality in pursuit of various economic, political or socio-psychological objectives • Need to attract inward investment, visitors, high skilled workers, promising students • Shape place identity and promote to specific markets Kavaratzis M. and Ashworth, G.J. (2005) City branding: an effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?

10. Major assumptions • Places can be treated as spatially extended products and • Places are in competition in a way that is similar to competition between companies and products

11. Types of branding/re-branding • Structural re-branding/re-positioning; re-branding using events/'year of …......' ; slogans • Creating a new image for a place that is transformed or wants to be transformed – pulling out its best assets and qualities, what makes it special

12. Process of creating a place brand:workshop at Core Cities conference 2007 • Identify visual, verbal, experiential elements of places to communicate • What are the main (3?) things that you want people to know about your place? • Develop message and consider how to put it across to different audiences – internal and external. Forge associations between place and (potential) consumers

13. BRAND IDENTITYHow the owners want the brand to be perceived BRAND POSITIONING The part of the value proposition communicated to a target group that demonstrates BRAND IMAGE How the brand is perceived Kavaratzis M. and Ashworth, G.J. (2005) p.508

14. Examples of slogans • ‘B in Birmingham’, ‘Birmingham: Europe's Youngest City’, or ‘Birmingham, The Global City With The Local Heart’ Oct 2007: announced new exercise • ‘Glasgow’s miles better’ • Kingston-upon-Hull: 'The pioneering city' • 'Uniquely Manchester' • Edinburgh: ‘Inspiring city’ • Nottingham: ‘Our Style is Legendary’ changed to

18. Problems with place branding? • Can cities be treated like products? • Do cities compete in the same way as products? • Do messages ring true? • Can everywhere be ‘world class’?

19. The Work Foundation: specialisms and characteristics of individual places can help cities build and sustain a distinctive identity argues for 3 conceptions of distinctiveness: functional, physical and intangible warns against flashy iconic developments or image campaigns not based on an underlying reality http://www.theworkfoundation.com/Assets/PDFs/distinctiveness_final.pdf

20. Positive images of the city – heritage, up-market, new facilities, public realm, waterfront, sunshine

21. Unlikely to feature in marketing campaigns? Ordinary scenes, social divide, dereliction, abandonment, rain

22. The case of Leeds • Identifying a need for re-branding • The Vision for Leeds – strategic aim to ‘go up a league’ • Marketing Leeds – troubled conception, birth and early years; growing stronger?

23. The need for re-branding • Old-fashioned imagery associated with the city • Low recognition outside the city Brahm report 2003 • Not making the most of its strengths

24. Vision for Leeds 2004Strategic aim of Leeds: ‘Going up a league’ • Appropriate aspiration? • are cities like football teams? • does the urban hierarchy work like ‘leagues’? • Leeds United sank down the rankings just as Leeds adopted this metaphor

25. ‘If you don’t work to go up a league, you will end up going down one’ Senior Planner from Gothenburg, Vision for Leeds workshop, July 2002

26. Survey: identity of city An Agency Called England asked: ‘If Leeds was a person, what sort of person would it be?’ Response: A young male, friendly, your best friend, a really nice person to know, an ambitious person, living in a trendy apartment, driving a VW Golf GTi

27. Divisive process of selecting brand concept from consultants • Made in Leeds v. Leeds Live It Love It Thompson Design v. An Agency Called England • Key stakeholders unwilling to support ‘Made in Leeds’

28. Marketing Leeds as ‘arm’s length’ company • Seen as separate from Leeds City Council • Needed to attract private funding • Greater flexibility in operation

29. Launch of • 26 Sept 2005 • Victoria Quarter – champagne party • Introduced brand image and slogan • Film of famous Leeds people saying what they like about their home city

30. Celebrity presenters Chris Moyles & Gabby Logan

31. Control imagery – a single message from all in the cityWithin this, vary content according to audience Brand image

32. Typeface and colours controlled

33. Row over second-hand city slogan A new slogan aimed at boosting the global image of Leeds is the same as one used in a 2003 campaign in Hong Kong http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/4319162.stm

34. After the party … Chief Executive sacked Debbie Green brought in

35. Using the brand image to convey messages

37. Sub-brands

38. Marketing Leeds plan 2008 Key Issues • Raise profile of Leeds on national stage • Promote a strong business image • Promote the cultural offer • Position Leeds on the international stage - and co-ordinate, not duplicate!

39. Marketing Leeds plan 2008 Supporting current events and activities Thought Leadership – Technical • Yorkshire Women in Business • Leeds Business Week • National high-profile Financial Services event • support for partners’ international activities • FT business supplement Thought Leadership – Social Networking • Quarterly meeting with business and lifestyle champions • Networking events for business leaders Thought Leadership – ‘The Business’ Series – Leeds as a centre of innovation: • Business of Culture, Environment, Financial Services, Security and Protection, Innovation, Sport

40. Lots of action. How effective?

41. Brand extension? Subversion?

42. Work on improving the offer and promotion will look after itself? • infrastructure • public realm • quality of built environment • cultural activities and institutions • skills • social cohesion • crime reduction

43. Buildings, infrastructure, services: minimal costs in use – efficient, low maintenance cope with heat, cold, excess water or drought flexible: long life, loose fit dispersed services improved connectivity – transport & remote effective, multi-purpose green infrastructure People – households, institutions, communities, businesses: adjusted expectations forward thinking + contingency plans genuine community involvement & neighbourliness mixed use & diversity as a strength creativity and innovation valued appropriate use of technology enhanced cultural activities Resilient places with resilient populations Attractive, adaptable, well-connected places where people can enjoy high levels of well-being, make minimal impact on the environment and suffer minimal threat to their safety, security and comfort

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