Humans can be simple creatures, we love to generalize and place things into boxes. It makes it much easier to understand our world. While someone may have diverse and complex interests we define people by their role in society. Fred is a plumber, John is a lawyer, everyone has a role to fulfill. City identity is similar. Consumers like to generalize about locations.

It seems to me of late that storytellers prefer to have audiences daydream about romance or mysterious discoveries. Marketing cities has therefore become less about the Single Minded Proposition and more about what happens to you when you get there.

In advertising it seems to make some sense to place the projected consumer in a romanticized context in hope of consumption. These fantasy environments, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland for example in the Auckland campaign “BiglittleCity” have interwoven reality and truth. Only time will tell if Big Little City comes close to the cry of City of Sails.

What interests me is, how do these creative campaigns build long-term regional identities in the minds of consumers. How do we get everyone signing of the same page so to speak, and the same song?

There are a myrid of possibilities in this question given that locals get to define their song, and consumers or visitors may already associate right or wrong stories with a location. Which may make convincing them otherwise more difficult. Take my home city Dunedin for example. A commonly heard story outside of Dunedin is “Dunedin is too cold”. Yet Dunedin has a beautiful climate even in winter where locals get outside in the sun. Stories are everywhere, and they can confuse and complicate the marketer’s role.

So what core stories exist already in New Zealand? When thinking about the core story for Wellington, I would use the words, fun/quirky, lively, forward thinking/proactive, and creative. Brand advertising and even on the ground environmental design evidence reinforces this story.

When Dunedin questioned whether to build a stadium there were people for and people against it. Ultimately, that passion came down to touching a nerve of the core story of the city. When the idea was progressed it was a defining moment where the core story of the city was changed. Dunedin through off conservatism and reflection and became progressive, proud, bold and confident. Dunedin’s evolutionary story will always be about revitalizing a proud prosperity and a new future and not languishing on what it was in the past.

The challenge of the City Brand Identity champion is to define a role for the city and to craft a song. A single minded proposition that sets the location apart from any other. We can flirt with supporting campaigns and other objectives but before all that everyone must know the core story. After all, like cities, we may all have jobs and roles to play but we are all have our own unique story, and this is what sets us apart in this world, this is what attracts like minded people to us.

Your brand tells a great true story about your company that deserves to be told well. Leadership brands represent the relationship and common understanding between consumers and companies. When this is done well it is more valuable than any other marketing or management investment.

Remarkably, if you are in business and you tell someone you tell stories this might seem to be something bad. I have to come clean and tell you I love stories, especially commercial stories. I am proud to be a master storyteller, a brand magician, stories excite me. Consumers love stories too.

Today on Breakfast I watched Brian Richards, an Auckland based Brand strategist, reiterate the importance of brand story development in the role of developing successful brands. This statement was in response to the Auckland Super City running a quick fire competition for a new logo to represent the city. The point is can you have a logo symbol without the story behind it? The answer is yes you can. You can design logo’s until your hearts content.

What you cannot do is fake a story and get away with it. You cannot throw a logo together and then create a story later because they wont match up. The brand story and logo originate from the same place. They represent the essence of an organisation. One should not exist without the other, though it does happen and when it does everyone senses there is something missing.

Great agencies get to the heart of what your organisation is about, where it has come from, where it is going, and they craft a grand representation of this through the art of design. Brand logos may often be seen as the final design output by clients, though the enlightened know they live more passionately when secured by a properly interpreted and understood brand story.

You should also be developing a set of values with a brand story that elicit particular feelings. One way of developing these values is by working back from the unique benefits that your company offers through its products and services. Having gone through this exercise you can then create a unique selling proposition which guides graphical output and media elements. This is a great way of ensuring that you are being consistent to your brand image over time.

Whenever you begin to doubt the validity of a communication go back and check to see if it is consistent with your selling proposition.

If not get rid of it because it isn’t communicating what your company is about.

A great exercise when developing a new brand identity is to consider a brand in the form of a living human being. A concept called brand personality is useful to conceptualise otherwise intangible elements. You develop a brand personality by asking a series of questions that personify a proposed brand. For example, if myth was a person what kind of car would they drive? Would they be male of female? Young or old? You can see straight away how this kind of questioning begins to build a character that can be more easily translated into marketing communications.

Finally, let’s go back and touch on this topic of feelings. Great brand advertising evokes powerful emotions that impact memory and associations that last well into the future. Thinking about the end result of your company messages, what feelings and emotions should your company evoke? This really depends on the type of product or service you are selling doesn’t it. Do you want to make people cry with joy, or fuel determination through aspiration?

Another important thing to consider, when thinking of brand creation, is what stories already exist in the market. Stories and legends that already have human feelings attached to them are ideal brand building blocks. Many companies don’t start their brand building from scratch because they have harnessed the power of existing stories to leverage their own value through association.

First of all, take this scenario, you are a leading accounting firm who has developed an established client base, you have decided to diversify into business advisory services. If your current customers perceive your brand as meaning “Accounting” for example, what are you telling them if you start up aspects of your businesses such as Human Resources or Marketing?

At a very basic level your organization may be able to sustain these associated services in terms of the resources you have available and through leveraging of intellect across professions. However, I would be doubtful if you could perceptually develop these functions professionally to become perceived as the leader in each field. Simply because the consumer doesn’t see you as a professional “Human Resources Company” or “Marketing” company. You also leave yourself more open to innovative competitors who are selfish enough to sacrifice and specialize in one area. Imagine fighting for the perceptual mind space of a variety of professional services against specialist and focused competitors.

If your organization has a very large proportion of the market and that markets level of sophistication does not demand advanced levels of expertise in these associated services then it may be advisable to offer rudimentary levels of support services in order to compete with your competitors but be prepared to source outside relationships and more specialist advice. At the end of the day, stay true to who you are. Do not try and be everything to everyone. Your business has got where it is today by doing very specific things and doing those things well. Your long term customers respect you for this. Don’t give your customers an opportunity to be confused about what you do and don’t do well. Focus.

Beyond this brands start to get confusing. For example, we could consider the people, buildings and almost every aspect of consumer interaction a part of the brand experience.

People like brands that are like them or who they want to be.

Designing your brand is simple if you know who and what your business is. Like people, every business is unique. If you can capture the unique characteristics of your business in your brand then you will attract customers who share common characteristics or who want more of the characteristics you can offer.

Brand is an extension of self.

Your brand is like your business on a good day, even its best day! You control the creation of you brand, you can determine how this idealized version of your business looks and feels. Remember the closer that you can get your brand to represent the actual aspects of your business, the stronger your proposition will become in the marketplace.

Customers and brand builders seek consistency.

Once you have a clear brand personality you can begin to tell your brand story through communication with your customers. It best to keep this really simple and consistent so that the bits of information that customers receive about your brand can be easily formulated and digested.

Deliver on your brand promise

If you deliver on your promises then your customers will grow to love your brand over time because they can understand it and rely on it. They will build up a relationship with your brand based on loyalty and trust and your business will be loved by all.