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.

The search for a Dunedin brand personality begins. It is very difficult to combine the entire range of city wide features and experiences of all Dunedin has to offer into one definitive statement of fact and emotional feeling. Instead taking one of the strongest and most versatile aspects seems like the most logical approach. As said before a positioning statement must have guts and legs, that means it must be much more than hype if it is to be believable by the public and most important by the locals. Ideally this aspect would be not easily replicable by other centers in the sense that it denotes a differentiating aspect. I will therefore present two brand statements, the first influenced more by competitive strategy theory and the second by the need for an emotive proposition.

Dunedin…
The first city of New Zealand

This proposition draws heavily from an arguable competitive fact; that Dunedin was New Zealand’s first city. It fulfills the need of a defendable unique competitive advantage and differentiating factor compared to other centers. By placing the sentence in the present tense we create the motivating factor that would be missing from an historic reference and interpretation. The sentence is purposely made long to add a stately honourable feel in contrast to “New Zealand’s First City” which sounds rushed. Dunedin is a city of firsts.

Alternatives:

Dunedin
First to the future

Dunedin…
Where life begins

The “where life begins” slogan focuses on the lifestyle aspect of living and working in Dunedin, the defining and youthful student culture and the early settlement of Dunedin as the first city of New Zealand. Many people choose Dunedin for the lifestyle advantage and a slogan along this line would be considerable.

What is Fly Dunedin? Visit the FlyDunedin.com website, or get more information about the development and launch party.

The “Dunedin Difference” is one of those “lets get away with saying nothing at all statements”. At least if we are going to avoid using a positioning statement then we should make an effort to evoke some sort of emotional reaction. It is nice to think though that Dunedin has matured enough to stop referring to itself as “I am Dunedin.”

If we don’t define a “unique identity” for Dunedin city we will continue to complete our marketing communications with empty questions, process sentences or quick fixes. Until then we all await in eager anticipation the answer to the the Dunedin Difference question. What is the “Dunedin Difference”?

What do we want to achieve, what does our final outcome look like?

Lets brain storm a bit here and see what pops out:

1. A thriving economy that delivers wealth and a high standard of living for local people. Young people can find fulfilling employment and opportunities with rewards in excess of options elsewhere. Businesses are successful and continue to reinvest in the infrastructure of the city and the community.

2. A satisfied and thriving population that is rich in culture and community spirit. A multitude of community events. Support for the young and old.

3. A growing sustainable city that attracts people, investment and businesses.

Why do people choose to live in Dunedin?

1. A few of the reasons people choose to live here are due to size. Dunedin has a perception of safety and community.

2. Key words thats spring to mind are “Youth”, “Heritage”, “Wisedom”, “Culture”, and “Lifestyle.” The benefits are as you can see inherently lacking is in the industry/business area. This is not to say that this area is under performing, it is my belief that this area is simply in the most need of more promotion.

What is Dunedins competitive advantage

1. One option is to take a broader benefit approach and consider the benefit of Dunedin as the largest city in Otago. I believe that a strong pull for people living in Dunedin is the smaller city life with access to many lifestyle options. The geographic location of this city provides access to Central Otago and other adventure/leisure holiday areas for enhanced lifestyle.

2. It would take too long to run a campaign challenging misperceptions about Dunedin. For example, cold, small economy problems etc. A campaign that can gain traction quickly could be to go down the knowledge economy route. The city could be seen as an Oxford/Silicon Valley hybrid? A place with depth of expertise and knowledge, and commercial innovation in IT, biotech and much more… all with a fantastic lifestyle of course.

To have any competitive advantage it has to be compared or be competitive. So who are the competitors and what are they doing? I am going to consider just two for starters…Lets think. Wellington first went to market of late as the romantic city “fall in love with Wellington” and is currently marketing as the Gift city. A place to go for shopping. Which is fair enough. I dont think wellington in known as a knowledge city or a gateway to local holiday destinations so either one of our strategies holds up their in that regard. Christchurch has some really nice character elements to it and its benefits are diverse, the “Garden City” proposition is reasonably effective in giving it an identity that is sustainable. After all everyone wants to live in a beautiful city and gardens are beautiful right. It has that holiday access feel to it I guess. Actually it can offer many of the things Dunedin can but these benefits are difficult to utilize in a unique sustainable proposition because there is not one item that defines Christchurch, it is a bigger city with diverse reasons to be there. Of course it has the same problems of bigger cities also.

So at this stage my pitch would be somewhere along the lines of the knowledge city with an adventure lifestyle component.

Further reading…

Dunedin has a small and fast moving marketplace

In Dunedin excellence is recognized and rewarded quickly. There is less room for inferiority and wastage because the market is too small to support this. Those small businesses that survive transformation to become larger businesses have streamlined market expansion capabilities, because they are forced to seek out geographical expansion sooner in their growth phase.

Good people do well

In Dunedin, there are less people than the larger centers, so smart people get connected quickly and they stay connected. People see each other more often because they are closer together. It is easier to get together. In this sense, business relationships are strong and have depth.

The speed of movement

In Dunedin it is easier to get around. You can get to most places around Dunedin in a matter of 10 minutes and with very little traffic to slow you down. This speeds up business transactions, from tradespeople moving between jobs through to how many executive meetings can be held in a day.

Creativity and innovation

Dunedin’s distance creates an environment for unique creativity. New Zealand’s oldest university brings massive amounts of both youth and wisdom into the city where intellect and energy inspires the formulation and sharing of new ideas.

The best of both worlds

Dunedin has an abundance of wildlife and heritage that creates a unique atmosphere and character. Dunedin was the center of New Zealands economy, and you are well aware of it today. The magnificent old buildings of commerce have been brought to life by Dunedins vibrant business community.

You get the sense that the glory of Dunedin has returned already. Today there is massive progress towards a new social entertainment waterfront and a brand new stadium. Sustainable eco-tourism is alive in the new wildlife eco-santuary and many other treasures surrounding the city. Dunedin is a forward thinking progressive city of energy and life humbled by respect for its rich traditions and environment.

When I think of Dunedin I think of both the future and the past. Dunedin rewards those people who commit 100% to the city and if you can make Dunedin a part of your future, you and your business will excel!

I am not saying that a new stadium is a bad thing. I like shiny things. What I will say is that when you swiftly discard a legacy symbol of pride you are left with a feeling of loss, a feeling of disillusionment and you start to wonder whats left to be proud of anymore.

Remember the stories, they were real, a game at Carisbrook used to mean something. Playing for your representative side used to mean something so did supporting your team. Now we find a team lacking pride, a game which is lost, and fans in disillusionment, perhaps it is time to rediscover what made Otago Rugby Proud.