Rebranding Columbus

[JonMyers]

At Mike, I agree on narrative, story. What’s the story.

Some additional thoughts for doing things and telling the story of a city.

Six elements of persuasion:

1. Liking: It’s much easier to influence someone who likes you. Successful influencers try to flatter and uncover similarities in order to build attraction.
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2. Social proof. People like to follow one another, so influencers imply the herd is moving the same way.

3. Consistency. Most people prefer to keep their word. If people make a commitment, particularly if it’s out loud or in writing, they are much more likely to keep it. Influencers should try to gain verbal or written commitments.

4. Scarcity. Even when companies have warehouses full of a product, they still advertise using time-limited offers that emphasise scarcity. People want what they can’t have, or at least what might be running short.

5. Authority. People are strongly influenced by experts. Successful influencers flaunt their knowledge to establish their expertise.

6. Reciprocity. Give something to get something. When people feel indebted to you they are more likely to agree to what you want. This feeling could arise from something as simple as a compliment.

How to Influence People

[christylwilliams]

“…design by focus group almost never works.”

This is music to my marketing ears. I think often cities fall into the classic trap of too many cooks in the kitchen. Instead of designing something authentic and emotional, the public forum can turn it into something diluted and overly-PC.

[JonMyers]

Christyl, I emphatically agree. I f’n can’t stand “design by committee”.

It’s the equivalent of some boob getting their hands on a knife and suddenly they’re a brain surgeon mindlessly hacking away at someone’s skull.

Columbus should leave it to the pros, which means getting those “Columbus leaders” the F outta the room.

[artbomb112]

I still think that providing tangible examples and real experiences beat talking any day.

[cbustransit]

anybody seen this? i think i don’t like this.

http://www.experiencecolumbus.com/about-campaign.cfm

[Twixlen]

cbustransit wrote >>
anybody seen this? i think i don’t like this.
http://www.experiencecolumbus.com/about-campaign.cfm

I actually find it clever and snappy – I really dig the T-shirts… the problem is in the follow thru. It’s not enough to tell someone what you aren’t, if you aren’t selling what you are and can do and have on the back-side.

I’d prefer to see those T-shirts at the airport over the cow-tipping ones any day.

[JonMyers]

Yeah, I always find saying what you’re aren’t, don’t have and will never have to be really inspiring. That’s what draws me to a place.

[Analogue Kid]

gk wrote >>
Has any consideration been given to changing the name of the city? Columbus is a very generic name. Changing the name of a large U.S. city would surely put people on notice.

I vote for Keenhongsheconsepung.
Either that or Constantinople

[GBKS]

cbustransit wrote >>
anybody seen this? i think i don’t like this.
http://www.experiencecolumbus.com/about-campaign.cfm

This is just getting worse the more I see and hear in this branding debate.

+1 for the previous comment about needing more storytellers in this process.

[lisathewaitress]

GBKS wrote >>

cbustransit wrote >>
anybody seen this? i think i don’t like this.
http://www.experiencecolumbus.com/about-campaign.cfm

This is just getting worse the more I see and hear in this branding debate.
+1 for the previous comment about needing more storytellers in this process.

is this campaign still ongoing?

[lifeliberty]

I hope not. This is the first I heard of it. I get the premise

Columbus has so much to offer, it’s easier to tell you what we don’t have

Stop the reader. Grab their attention. Invite them to learn more. Engage them.

but that isn’t how it is coming off to the viewer.

I vote no branding.

[Columbusite]

It’s all about focusing on our great urban neighborhoods and increasing their numbers. Once again, Portland’s NE Alberta St. used to have the highest number of drive by shootings and would regularly see a taped off crime scene complete with numerous police cars blocking off the road. Yet it went from a Linden or Near South equivalent to now being lined with coffee shops, restaurants, bars, a cycling community center, grocery co-op, etc. Streets like Parsons and W Broad pale in comparison to such places, but over here we’ve let even streets like these decline up until very recently. It would be nice if the city would throw streets like these a bone rather than adding lanes to sprawling streets in the suburban parts of the city. We can offer as much as Portland in several departments as mbeaumont mentioned, but we’ll only do so by multiplying the number of our great business districts. Continuing to lopsidedly spend big money on improving and aiding the further expansion of suburban areas while only occasionally improving conditions in the urban core will never accomplish that. We’ve got some serious catching up to do and it would be nice if the city government would help rather than act as an obstacle in many cases.

[MikeReed]

[Andrew Hall]

lifeliberty wrote
I vote no branding.

That is not a viable option. Branding happens. The question is to how intentional or thought-out it is. While a ‘let Columbus be Columbus’ organic approach feels like a good idea, I (and many others here) don’t think that often happens in the world. (I think never.) Where it appears to be, it is the result of a subtle and *successful* branding campaign.

A.

[GBKS]

Anybody interested in crowd-sourcing Columbus branding to get more specific ideas? There is a crowd-sourcing blog for the Dollar bill which has gotten some nice entries (http://richardsmith.posterous.com/). Maybe this works for Columbus, too?

I’ve seen a lot of debate over this recently, but it would be nice to move forward with practical steps to get closer to some type of conclusion and brand. There is a lot of energy in this debate would be nice to bundle that.

[Author]

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