Branding Columbus | News & Discussion

[CalebParticipant]

New branding study to help Columbus define image

By Steve Wartenberg

The Columbus Dispatch • Tuesday February 18, 2014

Experience Columbus has hired a research company to determine what people throughout the country think of the city — or whether they think of it at all.

“I’ve seen a lot of these efforts,” and the results have been strikingly similar, said Doug Kridler, president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation.

“Two times (before), they came in and said: ‘We have good news and bad news for you,’” Kridler said. “‘The bad news is, we found Columbus doesn’t have a consistent image, and the good news is, you’re starting with a blank slate.’”

READ MORE HERE.

[MikeReedParticipant]

It’s about time we spent some time and money on figuring out our “brand”.

[Walker EvansKeymaster]

Plenty of previous discussion on past efforts here:

https://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/tags/branding

[lazyfishParticipant]

MikeReed said:
It’s about time we spent some time and money on figuring out our “brand”.

We have spent lots of money figuring out our brand. Fahlgren got a bundle and the story mentions other efforts. Seems our brand is a town without a brand, or a town that loves to pay politically connected consultants.

[bob.osParticipant]

“Columbus, the re-branding capital of something something!”

[heresthecaseyParticipant]

The city relaunched their website (columbus.gov[/url]) today with a new design and the “US” branding.

So far from what I’ve seen, it’s very very buggy and a big step backwards as far as actual functionality/ease of use.

[NewsParticipant]

If Cities Want to Succeed, They Need to Focus on What Makes Them Distinct
BY AARON M. RENN | SEPTEMBER 2014

Have you ever noticed that while every company tries its hardest to convince you it’s different and better than its competition, every city tries its hardest to convince you it’s exactly like the coolest cities?

READ MORE: http://www.governing.com/columns/eco-engines/gov-cities-marketing.html

[NewsParticipant]

[lblParticipant]

i think it would help greatly to get the national media to recognize Columbus on their various maps during the news and weather. you never see Columbus – its always Cleveland, Cincy, Detroit, etc. Columbus is larger than all of our close neighbors, yet continues to be an overlooked point on the map.

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[Walker EvansKeymaster]

Had a lot of fun sitting down to chat with Tim Lai and Mike Brown about branding, identity, design and a rambling range of other topics at the most recent Design Talks event! You can watch the 53 minute video of the conversation, below:

(For more on upcoming Design Talks events, visit columbuscfad.org)

[Anne EvansKeymaster]

Woo, I am excited to see this city in 10-15 years! Nice chat.

[King GambrinusParticipant]

Great video. Would love to see those branding research slides though. I bet there’s some interesting stuff in those.

[drewParticipant]

That was an excellent conversation. Everyone had great input, but I particularly appreciated Mike’s recounting of the Experience Columbus research and his clear-eyed, no BS assessment of the good and the bad found within. EC’s thinking on branding so far has been very smart, and I suspect it’s largely because they’ve taken the time to realistically assess the true challenges that face the city, image-wise.

[Walker EvansKeymaster]

drew wrote:

That was an excellent conversation. Everyone had great input, but I particularly appreciated Mike’s recounting of the Experience Columbus research and his clear-eyed, no BS assessment of the good and the bad found within. EC’s thinking on branding so far has been very smart, and I suspect it’s largely because they’ve taken the time to realistically assess the true challenges that face the city, image-wise.

+1

Lots of great data from Mike. There’s a lot of good top-down work going on at Experience Columbus that involves research, benchmarking and making regional assessments across a wide variety of focus areas as it relates to visitor trends, perceptions and experiences. Always interesting to hear the latest findings from them.

[vestanpanceParticipant]

Great video with some good stuff, and some stuff that I don’t agree with.

I’ll share with my colleagues.

I was surprised the University and how it can be big in the marketing of Columbus nationally and globally wasn’t mentioned at all until the Q&A portion.

[Author]

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