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Business First of Columbus wrote
Experience Columbus speaker: City must think globally, brand narrowly
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
by Matt Burns
Creating a single, distinct brand for more than 700,000 clients sounds like a marketing nightmare, but it’s the task Columbus’ tourism and convention business is faced with as the city moves closer to its bicentennial.
Officials on Tuesday gave a snapshot of the progress – and the obstacles in the four years until 2012 – at the annual meeting for Experience Columbus, the city’s tourism and convention bureau. The big step ahead is the city’s Bicentennial Commission, an effort to improve several facets of city life.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
BY MARLA MATZER ROSE
Columbus needs to distill what makes it special before it can effectively sell itself to the outside world, an expert told those attending the annual meeting today of Experience Columbus, the city’s convention and visitors bureau.
Carol Coletta, president and chief executive of the nonprofit advocacy group CEOs for Cities, said city promoters should look to compete globally, not just regionally, in defining an image.
Most people are surprised at the impact of the convention and tourism business in Columbus. It’s a $5.3 billion-a-year industry, Experience Columbus Chairman Fred Ransier said.
Ransier said even though Columbus last year found itself pressured to compete with other cities for visitors, the tourism business here brought in $456 million in tax revenue and supported more than 142,000 jobs.
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not to put too fine a point on it, but this is pretty much exactly what we’ve been discussing here for quite a while.
Credit all around to the laymen and experts for laying out a clear call to action.
Well, or for pointing out the obvious.
Only we didn’t get paid to do it.
“Columbus needs to understand it’s not playing the Midwest game,” she said. “Why would you want to carry the burden of the Midwest?”
The game, instead, is one that needs to be played on a global scale but carry a specificity to it that can’t be achieved by developing a catch-all appeal.
“You have to put the politics aside to do these things well,” Coletta said, adding that the biggest mistake cities make in developing a brand is in trying to be all things at once. “You’ve got to be willing to put your stake in the ground.”
The World. Duh. Thanks for letting us know! :lol:
ive never noticed until this thread, but the “experience columbus” logo is really bad imho.
THANK YOU!!!!! I’ve been mentioning this around here for some time, and nobody else seemed to care.
For a city that needs to ‘think globally’, it’d sure be nice if our outward-facing identity didn’t look like signage for the carnival midway at a county fair. It’s quantifiably unsophisticated and embodies *everything* we as a city do NOT want to be…
I agree about the logo. If you took all the letters off, it looks like the shape and color of a sign for a cheap diner. Or maybe someplace you take little kids to eat pizza and play ski-ball and whack-a-mole.
Chuck E. City!
Actually, Chuck E. Cheese’s logo is less offensive:
http://www.chuckecheese.com/
We’ve got nowhere to go but up…
This quote was posted in a larger context above but I think it’s worth culling:
“Columbus needs to understand it’s not playing the Midwest game,” she said. “Why would you want to carry the burden of the Midwest?”
I know folks love this region, but like it or not, admit it or not, the Midwest is indeed a burden, and I think that was the best thing she said. After everything many of you/us have been through with the successful attempt at viral branding, I believe that a whole lot of people finally understand this now! (Well, one can hope. :lol: )
There are some really nice people at Experience Columbus. That said, the logo makes me think if Highlights for Children for some reason.
D’oh?
I’m all for ‘putting a stake in the ground’ as far as branding is concerned, but that can’t be the whole story. The point of the ‘branding’ is to get attention through a focused message. Once you’ve got that attention, you need to make a broader case.
It’s like a clothing retailer- they use branding to sell the ‘fashion’, but once you’re in the door the clothes have to fit and wear well.
BTW, did anyone dare to put a stake in the ground in terms of specifically how Columbus should put a stake in the ground?
I think the Columbus branding needs help for sure…something that captivates the arts, capital, etc.
This is cool I have no idea what it is for, but it looks creative, definitive and makes an impact–use this style to write out the name Columbus
that fact that its a logo… and you have no idea what its for… makes it a terrible precedent for a new one.
It is cool looking..
If someone could write Columbus in the Cool Whip blue banner section, that would be COOL too.
I still like this the best….Coooool, light and airy~!
D’oh?
D’oh, oh, D’oh–oh, oh, OOOOOOOOOOOOH. :P
I think about it in terms of t-shirts and stickers…
Then we could totally have this as our City Logo with tons of hidden meanings…Cool city, cool whip headquarters, creative, light and fluffy.
Posted in Ideas on February 27th, 2008
It seems that no matter where you look these days, someone is talking about the best way to brand the city they live in. Every place is struggling for a unique identity in order to easily collect the most Young Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Visitors, Conventioneers, Students, or whatever the next best demographic du jour happens to be.
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