News.

17/03/12

Branding Strategy for Tuggerah Lakes EMP

The Tuggerah Lakes Estuary Management Plan (EMP) is a long term plan for the responsible management, protection and restoration of the Tuggerah Lakes estuary on the Central Coast of NSW.

It is considered by the Australian Government as one of the most important environmental conservation projects for Australia at the moment, aside from the Great Barrier Reef project.

City Marketing and L&L Design have been retained by Wyong Council to establish a strong and consistent brand identity for the image and reputation management of the EMP.

 

18/07/11

To market or not to market – the challenge in a downturn

Chapel St in Melbourne is an iconic shopping destination which has evolved originally from a base of young designers, able to establish in a competitive environment and build a successful business.   A council promotion  levy introduced in 1992 would certainly have helped build recognition of the Chapel St brand identity.   Many of the street’s retailers are purportedly opposed to a proposed increase in this levy, questioning its value in a retail  downturn – while organisers say that  spending more on promotions is vital in times of economic hardship attributing  the levy rise partly due to increasing marketing costs.  This is not a new debate – what say you?

31/05/11

Escape the Rat Race to an Australian evocity or a PORTown

We’ve worked for Wagga Wagga City Council and one of us was born and grew up in Albury, so we’ve got a strong affinity for the rationale behind the ‘evocity‘ campaign inviting city dwellers to experience the art of living, working or investing in Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Tamworth or Wagga.

And the push to ‘PORT’ (promote our regional towns) encouraging regional towns to apply for Federal grants of up to $1Million on the strength of the evocity campaign is fantastic.

But we just can’t help wondering if the name ‘evocity’ is a bit contrived…………even though the 7 evocities are centres of ‘Energy, Vision and Opportunity’ – does the name ring true? does it resonate with target markets? are city dwellers beginning to think ‘I must move to an evocity?’

The question has relevance to those regional towns who want to take advantage of the PORT funding – what will a collaborative campaign by the smaller councils of Parkes, Lithgow, Cowra, Young, and the Mid-Western Region be branded: ‘portowns’? ‘evotowns’? ‘etrrtowns’ (Escape the Rat Race towns)?

We’d love to hear what others think….especially anyone already touched by the evocity work.  This little video on the evocity website says it all…….

13/05/11

Congratulations Stephen Gregory new CEO Canberra CBD Ltd

Stepping into the big shoes of Linda Staite, the inaugural CEO of this ground-breaking place management business improvement organisation, is Stephen Gregory, former CEO of Snowy Hydro South Care.

Canberra CBD Limited is funded by a 5 year grant from the ACT Government – the grant itself is funded by a compulsory levy on CBD property owners.  In 2006 and 2007, City Marketing assisted the ACT Government, the ACT Division of the Property Council of Australia, and the Canberra City Heart Business Association establish the framework for the levy and its future operations.

For the last 4 years, Linda has been delivering against a 5 year strategy City Marketing wrote for Canberra CBD Ltd as part of its funding bid.  She’s done a wonderful job and left the organisation and the place it manages in great shape for the new CEO.

 

06/05/11

The 3Gap Model for Place Branding

We’re intrigued by the 3Gap Model for Place Branding in Robert Govers and Frank Go’s book Place Branding – Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities.

Gap 1 – where a place has a unique identity but there are gaps in the product offering and brand expression

Gap 2 – where implementation is ‘off-brand’

Gap 3 – where the place experience is ‘on-brand’ but the perceived image is skewed for a range of reasons including cultural interpretations, and biased word-of mouth.

In explaining the 3Gap Model, Govers and Go argue that many branding efforts focus too much on the ‘rational’ elements of destination choice behaviour and too little on the ‘seeing, smelling, feeling and hearing’ that create a ‘rich perceptual experience’.  Analysing a place brand (or brand potential) using the 3Gap model must incorporate the fact that consumers are not purely rational decision makers and ‘affective perceptions are indeed of tremendous importance’.

30/03/11

Big Ideas, Little Budget

Recently we’ve seen quite a few Councils calling for quotes on branding and marketing projects that sound well thought out in every respect except one……the budget that Council has allowed for the work. When we see these projects coming from smaller or regional Councils it’s hard to know whether it’s just a lack of Councils experience, or whether there might be small local firms willing to take on ambitious projects to get a ‘foot in the door’. Our advice to any Council thinking it might need a branding project is to speak to some of the larger Councils who’ve done it well in the past, to get a realistic idea of the budget and resources that should be allocated………Penrith, Parramatta and The Rocks spring to mind. A big idea deserves the right funding.