These days, information overload is status quo, making it harder than ever to differentiate your brand from your competition and connect with your customers in a meaningful way. Community visioning and destination branding, while time consuming, is your first step toward laying the foundation on which to build your economic development and marketing strategies. To earn that top-of-mind spot in your customer’s minds – and more importantly in their hearts – this collaborative community effort will give you a brand that resonates with your customers.
Branding messages that don’t capture the true character of a community aren’t designed to be intentionally misleading — think Vegas as a family destination. Often they’re created in a vacuum without the collaborative process and research necessary to determine who you really are to your stakeholders and your customers. Each of your community stakeholders has a different perception of the community’s strengths, weaknesses and assets. That’s where community visioning comes into play.
An effective community visioning process brings key destination partners to the table to share perceptions of your brand – where it’s been, where it is now and where it wants to go. More importantly, the visioning process allows partners an equal voice in your branding efforts. The commitment and communication built through this process creates a team of brand ambassadors, your advocates in the community and beyond.
Analyzing the data gathered during this process, along with additional research into your competition and customers will give you the common themes and trends that define your brand. Embrace those themes, even if they aren’t what you anticipated. The themes that emerge from this collaboration will hit home with your customers – the businesses you want to attract to your community, the folks you want to live there and the visitors you want to attract. They’ll see you living the brand. They’ll trust you and remain loyal, a home run in the branding game.
The community visioning process will result in sound strategies and tactics like logo, tag line, brochures, social media and website presence. Your strategies will be consistent because your community stakeholders will be sending the same message. That message – your brand and your promise to your customers – will be stronger because it’s authentic and reinforced with every customer experience.