Place-based Branding: Essential for Economic Development

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Understand why place-based branding is important in driving economic development and prosperity.
• Learn how the process of building community engagement works.
• Understand how place-based branding is critically linked to economic indicators such as development, tourism, sports, arts, population metrics, sense of place, and community pride.

MORE SESSION DETAILS

Discuss the critical necessity of building a sustainable community brand and its role in advancing the economic growth and prosperity of a region. A holistic community brand serves as a halo over individual community marketing efforts (economic development, tourism, arts) and ties them together under a common strategy. The absence of such a strategy results in disparate marketing campaigns and activities that might provide a short-term return, but do nothing to build long-term, sustainable value. Further, these independent efforts lead at best to a lack of consistent community brand expression, and at worst to a fragmented representation of what the community represents. The failure is the missed opportunity to speak with one voice in an aligned fashion to leverage the synergy of all marketing efforts. By presenting research and results, this session will share how the Columbus Region has done just that and how other communities are too.