Branding St. Louis Sunday, April 16, 2006 St. Louis has launched a new branding campaign. The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association will invest $2 million a year on marketing. The new slogan: "St. Louis: Perfectly Centered. Remarkably Connected." It's a very good tag line. Broad brand-building campaigns are expensive. But they can and do work to reposition a region. The key is to invest enough money so that it matters, and keep focused on the positioning for a number of years. Read more. It's also important to move as many agencies and organizations to adopt the same messaging and design. So, for example, tourism and economic development strategies need to be linked. (Pittsburgh tried this a few years ago. It didn't work out all that well, but the Pittsburgh Branding site is still very useful. Visit the site.) Getting this level of coordination is tough, though. Everyone is invested in their own logos. More serious, each organization has a budget and their own set of marketing relationships. This problem is particularly acute for state governments. The change of each administration brings in a new (usually politically connected) marketing firm to remake the state's image. I'll be curious to see how Oregon's branding strategy turns out. They seem to have done a good job is defining and executing their campaign. It will be interesting to see if it sticks past the next governor. Learn more. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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