Jettison the generic

How does a community, town, city, state or province make the top of the list for visitors, new residents, and new business? They need to stand out from the competition.

In this age of fast and easy information, the world is at people's fingertips. With more than 1,200 marketing messages bombarding us each day, we tune out everything that doesn't directly appeal to us. An effective community brand can cut through that clutter and grab our attention. When that brand promises us the experience we're looking for, we take notice.

This is the age of specialization - being known for something specific. Branding is often misunderstood, and frequently communities spend too much time and money attempting to create a brand that is too generic and can fit virtually anyone, anywhere.

Here is the first of ten things you need to know about branding a destination.

1. You MUST Jettison the Generic
Avoid, at all costs, the generic in your marketing. If your marketing messages can be applied to virtually any community, it won’t make you stand out from the competition. The days of “a great place to live, work, and play” are over. That’s what everyone says about their community. Anyone can say “Experience Us,” “Four seasons of fun,” “Fun for the whole family,” “Unique by Nature,” or “Pure and Simple,” or worse, “We have something for everyone.” Do those tell you anything about the community? What you might experience? Do they give you any reason to visit?

Read through your marketing materials. If you can take out the name of your community, region, county or state and insert anyone else’s name in that space and it still rings true, then it’s too generic.