A Case for Branding Newcastle

http://www.thegit.com.au/branding-newcastle/

Newcastle – prosperous and successful? Newcastle a city that supports a thriving manufacturing, service, defence and education sectors, boasting the finest art galleries, theatres and sporting arena’s.

Imagine a city that is, after Sydney, the most popular tourism destination in Australia.
However, the true reality is quite different. As most Novocastrian’s would agree, historically the image of Newcastle still has a dirty and working class reputation tied to its 100 years of producing steel.

It is certainly the case that Newcastle is slowly changing, undergoing a multi-billion dollar makeover and is home to some of Australia’s leading business, sporting and artistic brands. Not forgetting the city’s beauty and unique Australian lifestyle. But the media and some locals still proudly talk of Newcastle as a working class ‘Steel City’.

As competition intensifies between cities and regions, more and more forward thinking city and regional leaders are turning to city branding to stimulate economic growth.

Therefore, Newcastle has to shed those unfavourable stereotypes to make it more, appealing and to be able to compete in the future.

What is City Branding?

Branding isn’t a logo! It’s a GUT FEELING because people are emotional, intuitive beings. It’s a PERSON’S gut feeling, because brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets, or the public.

Unfortunately, there is the common misconception that branding is simply a communications strategy, a tagline, visual identity or logo. It is much, much more. It is a strategic process for developing a long-term vision for a place like Newcastle that is relevant and compelling to key audiences. Ultimately, it influences and shapes positive perceptions of a place.

City branding is a practice that is gaining momentum across the globe with which a country or city collaborates with its stakeholders to deliver a consistent global message around tangible positive attributes. The efforts aim to permeating consistent positive brand associations.

A city brand that is clear, compelling and unique – is the foundation that helps to make a place desirable as a business location, visitor destination or a place to call home. Development of a brand strategy for a city leverages the features of that place to provide a relevant and compelling promise to a target audience.

Most of all, city branding is anchored in a community’s societal, political or economic objectives by focusing on its relevant differences, identifying the core promise that it makes to key audiences, and developing and consistently communicating the core, positive attributes of the place. Whether a place is looking to rebuild, enhance or reinvigorate its image, the first step is a  imprehensive brand strategy.

Why does Newcastle need a brand?
Cities have always been brands in the truest sense of the word. Whilst Newcastle is struggling to project a new image, Sydney our nearest and biggest competitor has been named the world’s best city by the Anholt City Brands Index, followed by London, Paris, Rome and New York.

Paul Keating even said, “If you are not living in Sydney you are simply camping out.”

Rather than being classed as a campsite, Newcastle’s future success relies on it becoming a strong compelling brand. It is no exaggeration to say that Sydney is as close to having a ‘perfect city brand’ as any city can have.

Like Sydney, increasingly more and more cities around the world are using branding, positioning themselves more effectively to compete globally for their fair share of the world’s consumers, tourists, businesses, investment, capital, respect and attention, but the most importantly to stimulate economic growth.

That’s because a strong city brand can:

• Shift the perception of a place that may be suffering from a poor image among external and internal constituents
• Create a common vision for the future of the community and its potential
• Provide a consistent representation of the place
• Enhance its local, regional and/or global awareness and position
• Shed unfavourable stereotypes associated with a place and make it more appealing

What’s required to initiate a city branding strategy?

Developing a brand strategy for a community should not be the task of a single organization. Including a variety of stakeholders assures that multiple perspectives and issues are weighed and makes buy-in and execution less complicated. (On the other hand, a city is unlikely to get a meaningful effort by staging public contests for taglines and ads, as many communities have done. More often, these turn disastrous).

Newcastle needs to involve all key stakeholders who can invest in and communicate what is happening in the place and what they are doing to develop it in line with an agreed, shared, vision.

All of those organizations and institutions that have a stake in the future development of Newcastle need to be involved in the process. The investments they make in the development of Newcastle, the actions they take and the communications they put out are all vital elements of how the story of the city will be communicated.

Therefore, getting the right people involved and connected starts with a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished. It begins with some basic questions.

What does the brand strategy need to solve? Is there a critical business, citizen or political issue at hand that is tarnishing the reputation of the place? Or is it simply about taking a more proactive stance to invigorate the presence of Newcastle to attract business?

In order to create and implement an effective brand strategy places require:

• agreement among key stakeholders on a shared vision of how their place will develop in the future and what it will offer of value to consumers
• shared leadership and partnership between these stakeholders to define and realize their brand strategy
• a clear understanding of the current de facto brand of the place among the stakeholders and how it was formed (i.e. its current offer
• action to connect the key stakeholders and enable them to work effectively in partnership
• “on-brand” actions that are taken by the stakeholders to demonstrate the brand and bring it alive, not just communications about it.

City of Newcastle’s key stakeholders

The City of Newcastle would have to consider most or if not all the following groups:

• Council and Government Economic Development
• Key Business Leaders – including developers, leading brands names
• Elected councillors
• Elected Federal and State MP’s
• Tourism Groups
• Education including University and TAFE
• Cultural, Arts and Heritage institutions
• Local Media – every local TV, radio, newspaper
• Sporting organisations i.e. Jets, Knights and Surfest

Considering all the points

A place brand should have simple and easy to understand values and messages. However, underneath it is a complex animal. Unlike marketing a bar of soap, a city brand relies on a vast number of elements and organisations to communicate its messages across the live, invest and visit audiences.

The main points are outlined below.

1. TOURISM – Tourism is key. Attracting visitors to the city region must be our prime target. However, it is only part of the picture
2. PEOPLE – The Newcastle city region has around 500,000 potential brand advocates (plus tourists). We must engage and learn how to harness their enthusiasm – they are a key communication channel
3. CULTURE / HERITAGE – If you treat growth purely as an economic issue it will attract only investors and tax exiles. Culture, heritage and sport create the third dimension
4. INVESTMENT/IMMIGRATION – Newcastle – and Hunter Region – needs to attract good people to live, work and invest here
5. FOREIGN/DOMESTIC POLICY – In this case, we must work with politicians and business leader at all levels to ensure that they are supportive and that their policies help to drive us in the same direction
6. EXPORT BRAND – A powerful, broad-based City Brand is the most valuable thing you can give your exporters

Eight-Step Process to Develop a City Brand

After the glitz and glamour and razzamatazz of acquiring stakeholder commitment and participation, the most important aspect is the eight-step process.

Step 1: Define Clear Objectives

Step 2: Understand the Target Audience

Step 3: Identify Current Brand Image

Step 4: Set the Aspirational Brand Identity

Step 5: Develop the Positioning

Step 6: Create Value Propositions

Step 7: Execute the Brand Strategy

Step 8: Measure Success

We want to stand out from the crowd!

It is a competitive world and we can’t afford to stand still. We need to build on Newcastle’s existing successes on attracting visitors, investors and fresh talent. We have to shout even louder to be heard and do more to ensure that we stand out from the crowd.

So, at this stage we need to involve a broad base of the community and gain commitment. Work towards a partnership between the public and private sectors.

Branding Newcastle needs your help and commitment.