"doing" place branding right by jeremy hildreth at ukraine country and city branding forum
DESCRIPTION
Presentation by Jeremy Hildreth, a founder and creative director of WhereBrands, at the First International Forum "Ukraine: Country and City Branding", December 8, 2010, KyivTRANSCRIPT
“Doing” place branding right: axioms | questions | techniques
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 1
Jeremy HildrethCreative director, WhereBrands (UK)Kyiv, Ukraine, 8 December 2010
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 2
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:
1. Figure what your story is.2. Determine what your story should
be.3. Tell the revised story directly.4. Get the revised story told
indirectly.5. Make the story stronger and more
true.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 5
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 6
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 7
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 8
Five axioms of place branding: 1. Brand image and brand identity are not
the same thing.2. There’s only so much “best practice”
one place can learn from another.3. By and large, you must earn your
reputation.4. Perceptions are stickier than you think.5. If you can’t be perfect, you can at least
be interesting.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 9
1st axiom of place branding:Brand image and brand identity are not the same thing.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 10
“Brand”
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 11
“Brand”
Brand image/reputation
Brand identity
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 12
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
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 13
Place branding question:
Do you realize that “working on your brand [identity]” may not help your brand image/reputation?08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 14
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 15
2nd axiom of place branding:There’s only so much “best practice” one place can learn from another.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 16
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 17
“When it comes to images, most countries aren’t France. Most countries are Paraguay.”
Wally Olins
Most mess up very basic things:
It definitely should have said:
Vilnius, Lithuania | European Capital of Culture ‘09
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 18
Place branding question:
Are you selectively imitating only relevant success models, and mostly doing you own thing anyway?08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 19
3rd axiom of place brandingBy and large, you must earn your reputation (and it must fit you).
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 20
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 21
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 22
Place branding question:
Is the reputation you want obtainable, & worth having? In the meantime, are your interim claims credible and/or sensible?
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 23
4th axiom of place branding:Perceptions are stickier than you
think.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 24
Q: What one factor has the biggest affect on future perceptions of a place?
A: Current perceptions!
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 25
Time, worldview...
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 26
…and emotions
You cannot be reasoned out of a position you weren’t reasoned into.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 27
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 28
“Writing is easy – until you think about the reader.”
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 29Ernest Hemingway (?)
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 30
“I leave out the bits that people tend to skip.”Elmore Leonard,
novelist
Place branding question:
Are you respecting your audience? Does your story genuinely justify their attention?
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 31
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 32
5th axiom of place branding:If you can’t be perfect, at least you can be interesting.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 33
Interesting =
Relevant +clearor stylishor emotionally engaging
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 34
Often, most interesting of all…
Stories.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 35
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 36
Place branding question:
Are you creating and selling stories?
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 37
Five axioms (recap):
1. Brand image and brand identity are not the same thing.
2. There’s only so much “best practice” one place can learn from another.
3. By and large, you must earn your reputation.
4. Perceptions are stickier than you think.5. If you can’t be perfect, you can at least
be interesting.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 38
Bonus section!Two important techniques.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 39
Top technique 1:
Be substantive.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 40
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.”
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 41
Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 4208/12/2010
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 43
Top technique 2:
Label your exports.(Label stuff that’s Ukrainian as Ukrainian, and do it in an interesting way.)
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 44
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 45
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 46
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
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 47
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.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 48
MADE IN UKRAINE
Tell a little story.Plant an idea in the mind.
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 49
WhereBrands.comhttp://blog/WhereBrands.com@WhereBrands on [email protected]
Дякую.Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 5008/12/2010
08/12/2010 Copyright 2010 Jeremy Hildreth 51