Branding? Make sure it means something

Branding. I'm not a big fan.

I'm no marketing expert, but paying some firm to develop an image seems like a waste of money to me.

It seems to me your work should speak for itself - whether you're a city or region, company or a person. A rose by any other name, a silk purse, a sow's ear - you get what I'm trying to say.

And with all due respect to the Corridor Business Alliance, their push to develop a cohesive regional brand reminds me of an overeager kid trying to give himself a nickname. Something cool and quirky, like Pork Chop, or Sporto or Hoss.

I guess you can't blame them. All the cool regions are doing it. Consultants like to say branding brings business, it brings tourism if that's what you're after. It gets everyone on the same page.

So the alliance has hired North Star Destination Strategies of Nashville, Tenn., to research and develop a new regional brand. One that's a little catchier than the one we've got now. They expect the process to take up to a year.

North Star has masterminded such empty city slogans as McKinney, Texas: Unique by Nature, and Cape Girardeau, Mo., Where the River Turns a Thousand Tales. According to North Star, Sebastopol, Calif., has a Local Flavor and a Global Vision, although that doesn't tell me a thing about the place.

“Branding is the process a city, region, community or municipality embarks upon to change, refine or improve what people are saying about them,” North Star's Website explains. It's about managing your image, creating a reputation.

But I'm skeptical that's something you can engineer, no matter how cleverly designed your logo.

I've never heard a person say: “You know what? Columbus, Ind., is Unexpected and Unforgettable, sort of like the Surprisingly Unexpected Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.” Two more North Star brands. And as much as Jacksonville, Miss., might want to be known as the city that embodies the Triumph of the Human Spirit, a bumper sticker isn't going to do it.

It was heavy lifting, not focus groups, that made Chicago the City of Big Shoulders. Ideas, not branding, that made Paris the City of Light.

A region's identity sticks because it fits, not just because of a clever turn of phrase.

And while it makes sense for leaders to work together in the soon-to-be-formerly-known-as Iowa's Technology Corridor, it's their cooperation and vision that will spur regional economic development, not the name.

As your mama always told you, reputation isn't something you buy, it's something you earn.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com