"Doing" place branding right by Jeremy Hildreth at Ukraine Country and City Branding Forum

From Confessions of a Dangerous Mind:
“ When you ’ re young, your potential is infinite. You might do anything. Nearly. You might be Einstein...you might be DiMaggio.
“ Then you get to an age when what you might be gives way to what you have been.
“ You weren ’ t Einstein. You weren ’ t anything.
“ That ’ s a bad moment. ”
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth

With a place this moment never comes.
You are always young.
You always have potential.

So okay …
Right now, you are not Sweden.
You are not California.
You are you.
Make the most of that.

The meta-process:
Figure what your story is .
Determine what your story should be .
Tell the revised story directly .
Get the revised story told indirectly .
Make the story stronger and more true .

Five axioms of place branding:
Brand image and brand identity are not the same thing.
There’ s only so much “ best practice ” one place can learn from another.
By and large, you must earn your reputation.
Perceptions are stickier than you think.
If you can ’ t be perfect, you can at least be interesting.

1st axiom of place branding:

“ Brand ”

“ Brand ”
Brand image/reputation
Brand identity

Let’ s be clear:
Logos, flags, colours, songs, websites and so on:
… brand identity
What people have in their heads about you:
… brand image/reputation

Place branding question:
Do you realize that “working on your brand [identity]” may not help your brand image/reputation?

2nd axiom of place branding:

Most mess up very basic things:
It definitely should have said:
Vilnius, Lithuania | European Capital of Culture ‘09

Are you selectively imitating only relevant success models, and mostly doing you own thing anyway?

3rd axiom of place branding
By and large, you must earn your reputation (and it must fit you).

Is the reputation you want obtainable, & worth having?
In the meantime, are your interim claims credible and/or sensible?

4th axiom of place branding:

Q: What one factor has the biggest affect on future perceptions of a place?
A: Current perceptions!

Time, worldview...

… and emotions
You cannot be reasoned out of a position you weren’ t reasoned into.

“ Writing is easy – until you think about the reader. ”
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth Ernest Hemingway (?)

Are you respecting your audience? Does your story genuinely justify their attention?

5th axiom of place branding:
If you can’t be perfect, at least you can be interesting.

Interesting =
Relevant +
clear
or stylish
or emotionally engaging

Often, most interesting of all…
Stories.

Are you creating and selling stories?

Five axioms (recap):
By and large, you must earn your reputation.
If you can ’ t be perfect, you can at least be interesting.

Bonus section!
Two important techniques.

Top technique 1:
Be substantive .

Symbolic actions (Anholt)
“ A particular species of substance that happens to have an intrinsic communicative power:
They might be innovations, structures, legislation, reforms, investments, institutions or policies
which are especially suggestive, remarkable, memorable, picturesque, newsworthy, topical, poetic, touching, surprising or dramatic.
Most importantly, they are emblematic of the strategy: they are at the same time a component of the [place’ s] story and the means of telling it. ”

Top technique 2:
Label your exports.
(Label stuff that’s Ukrainian as Ukrainian, and do it in an interesting way.)

Label wines (and other Chilean exports) in a way that characterises* and conveys ‘Chilean-ness’ and teaches people something about the country.
* or even mythologizes

Use creative, clever labeling:
Made by Chileans, the British of South America .
Made in Chile, the most stable, safe, prosperous and democratic nation in South America.
Chile: Latin America’ s success story.
Product of Chile, home of 55 active volcanoes.
Made in Chile, called “ the thin country ” by the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

MADE IN UKRAINE
Tell a little story.
Plant an idea in the mind.

WhereBrands.com
http://blog/WhereBrands.com
@WhereBrands on Twitter
[email_address]
Дякую .
Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 08/12/2010

"Doing" place branding right by Jeremy Hildreth at Ukraine Country and City Branding Forum

by UkraineBranding on Dec 10, 2010

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"Doing" place branding right by Jeremy Hildreth at Ukraine Country and City Branding Forum — Presentation Transcript