Branding Buffalo
It looks like the self imposed exile of our development and architecture blogger, Mark Byrnes at All Things Buffalo, has come to an end.
Mark is what we in the Buffalo Homecoming industry like to call our “target demographic”. He’s a college kid with a bright future and that special sort of youthful optimism and idealism that are the roots of a growing city.
We want critical thinkers like him to stay and contribute to our region after they are done with college, but how do we as a region incent him to do so? What is the value proposition for a 22 year old kid with tremendous potential to stay in Buffalo? Especially when he can find work in just about any other city in America?
Essentially, what is our brand?
For the purposes of the discussion, we will define brand as follows:
- A collection of ideas that provides a strategic clarity for what Buffalo and Western New York will represent in the 21st century
As we sit here today, what is our brand? How do we perceive ourselves and how do those familiar with us perceive us?
I would argue that our current national brand is that of a snowy, dying, heavily unionized, rust belt town that is still reeling from the death of our local manufacturing base. Marketing organizations like the Buffalo CVB, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, Buffalo Homecoming and Buffalo Rising have attempted to demonstrate that we are more than that confining description through urban and regional boosterism. They have done so (with varying degrees of minimal success) by marketing the things that we currently love about our region; low cost of living, minimal traffic, arts destination, parks, etc.
The issue with our tactics is that all of these value points can be discounted by a skeptical customer. Low housing prices? Must be low demand. Short commutes? Because no one lives there. Arts and parks? Yeah Memphis has ‘em too.
In the end, these are things that we like and that we think are important because we already live here and we have demonstrated that we value them through our decision to stay. In other words, those marketing points don’t demonstrate a value proposition to someone who is considering a move here as those things can also be found elsewhere. We also have a fantastic ability to constantly look backwards in this town and while its important to preserve our history, I think we do it to distraction.
So, I propose that we start thinking about our city like a product that needs a branding and marketing campaign. Not as a place we wish to tell people we love. There is a fine difference between those two ideas.
We should brand Buffalo as the city we want it to be; not the city we were, or the city we think we are. Once we have strategically decided on what it is that Buffalo is to become, we go about making it so. This is something that we are beginning to do at Buffalo Homecoming and I’d like to start crowdsourcing a place branding campaign.
According to CEO’s for Cities:
Developing a brand strategy for a community should not be the task of a single organization. Including a variety of stakeholders assures that multiple perspectives and issues are weighed and makes buy-in and execution less complicated. (On the other hand, a city is unlikely to get a meaningful effort by staging public contests for taglines and ads, as many communities have done. More often, these turn disastrous.)
What are your thoughts?
16 Comments
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Branding is very important. What niche does Buffalo serve compared to other cities in the USA
I’ll preface this by saying that I know squat about marketing and business-speak. I’m a research scientist at a university, so I’ve never had to sell anything in my life. I’m not even sure what you mean by “value proposition”…
Given that, upon reading this my first thought is what is the brand identity of other, more successful cities? What is Charlotte selling people on that is so attractive? What about Atlanta? I get that places like NYC or SF (and to lesser degrees places like Austin and Portland) have a well-defined image and lifestyle that attract people, but that doesn’t explain why unglamorous places like Raleigh are prospering. In your opinion are they doing a good job of branding themselves, and if so, what is there message? To me, when I think of Atlanta, all I can think of is horribly hot and humid weather, hours of traffic, Coke and TBS.
To answer your question though, if I had to sell Buffalo as a brand I’d highlight the ability of someone to grow a business here. I know, you’re laughing. I’m not referring to the headaches involved in starting up a business. What I mean is that because of our low cost of living and affordable space, a business owner should be able to capitalize on their lower overhead and reap the rewards. Especially in a web-based industry where no one cares where you’re physically located. If your lease is 1/3 what it would be in a NYC skyscraper, that’s more money for you. I dunno, maybe I’m oversimplifying things because it seems like a no-brainer to me.
Oh, and just in case someone will make the point that said business won’t be able to lure anyone to work for them in Buffalo, I call BS on that. I know of several small businesses in my field that are located in Dayton, OH (because of their proximity to WP-AFB), and they get people to work for them. Seriously, Dayton f-ing Ohio!
I’d say, off the top of my head mind you, that the “city-as-a-product” metaphor might have severe limitations. Products are things you do things with, that you want to have, that you own. They are privately held. They are objects. So while I do see the value in promoting what we’ve got, broadcasting some positive “hey, we’re here, have you ever considered…?,” I’m not sure you can really ‘brand,’ or even really market, a city. And, to the extent that any other cities really have “brands,” they’re certainly not top-down creations. Nobody told the grungies and coffee-swillers to descend on Seattle.
but like Dave above, what do I know?
Buffalo’s brand as a city is rather diffuse and certainly…musty. The only bright spot is UB which presents a really exciting, dynamic image. I may be a bit biased as a student, but I think the city should build off of UB’s progress and the environment that only a large university can create.
buffalo needs to simply make itself a place where everyone feels they can just show up and do what they do best. not in the NYC “i’m gonna make it big” way but more like the berlin “i’m gonna do what i’ve always wanted, and i’m gonna live a relaxed, happy life while doing it”.
berlin also has no growth future but everyone who visits and most who live there love it like its the greatest city in the world.
berlin was in shambles when the walls came down. young people inherited abandoned housing and eventually the quality of life became stellar as these same creative minds pursued their dreams. buffalo never had the aura and intrigue of berlin but it does have the abandoned housing
but seriously, it comes down to people wanting to live in a place where they can relax and have the job they want.
I agree with Snarky. Trying to market a city in business terminology would prove to be a huge turnoff to the type of folks who make cities exciting places to live. People who like cities like them for the randomness, humanity, idiosyncrasies and all other non-sanitized nuances that offer such a sharp contrast from the homogeneous, standardized corporate world that bombards us with mind-numbing insipidness on a daily basis.
Buffalo: NOT New York City
Buffalo: Where everyone know’s your name (like it or not)
Buffalo: Bigger cultural bang for your buck
Buffalo: Yes, we have real authentic blue collar culture
Buffalo: Our hipsters really are poor; trust funds need not apply
Buffalo: Hey, at least we’ll never run out of water
Buffalo: If you don’t mind snow, you got nothin’ to bitch about
Buffalo: Stay outta the ghetto and it’s like a mini Portland or Madison
Our economic future appears to be heading towards the biomedical informatics fields.
I really think we underplay the natural beauty that draws HUGH crowds of tourists to Niagara Falls. As far as I’m concerned, the Candiens can keep their Carnevalley, yes there is a place for amusements, but, take away the natural setting of the American side and the entire experience suffers. It has two sides, and WE provide a gorgeous view. There really should be some sort of bi-national Commission dedicated not only to preserve what little is left of the natural park-like beauty that is Niagara Falls and the entire Lewiston gorge, but share some of the revenues so that the American side has a way to capitalize on keeping it’s side pristine ands preserved.
First you need a product to sell. Make the city someplace to be, and then you work the branding angle otherwise you become
“Buffalo – more concerned with image than substance”.
I remember the whole Target versus Wal-Mart versus Sears post I wrote a couple years ago that got some people up in arms. I labeled Buffalo akin to Sears as a “tired, mispositioned brand.” To me – New York is Neiman Marcus and Charlotte is Wal-Mart. They both clearly articulate certain demographics and successfully attract them. Buffalo, in my mind, should strive to be like Target. Play the low-cost game but throw in the cultural, educational, and public amenities that higher taxes buy. Target is a classier, cleaner place to shop and, as a result, chops off a nice segment away from Wal-Mart on the low end and Macy’s / JC Penney on the mid-range end (which would probably be akin to a Philadelphia).
And with the Wal-Mart analogy, I actually mean that as a compliment to Charlotte. Wal-Mart is wildly successful because they decided they would be cheaper than everyone else and out-competed to win the demographic that buys on price and price alone. No frills. You get what you pay for but you don’t pay much. When you count the true fully-loaded cost of living, Charlotte is cheap. So it wins those who want that – people and businesses.
To Snarky and Denizen – thinking about branding and positioning is very different from how we market ourselves. A cool, non-corporate, ambiguous place, by definition, has that level of ‘artsy-ness’ as its brand. Having a positioning that consciously defines and seeks a target audience can be accomplished without making the city homogenized and antiseptic.
All this said – having moved back here for almost 3 years now – I am sadly more pessimistic about this region than ever before. The “can’t do” / “embrace the status quo” attitude can feel all-encompassing and contagious. Downtown is downright depressing. It makes it tough to feel good about ourselves when we’ve missed out on 50 years of progress.
Two thoughts:
1) Your brand should be closely related to the PLAN you have for your city. Buffalo politicians have no plan, no vision of where we want Buffalo to go. Collins wants to grow or die. Maybe true, but not very helpful for concrete actions. Brown wants to attach his name to every success, from Bio-informatics to the casino to Canal Side, none of which have much to do with eachother. We need a vision to have a plan, and a plan to have a brand.
2) That being said, Chris is right about what our current brand is: rust belt and snow. To beat that truth, you can’t have only a snappy slogan, with no substance behind it (as Pauldub points out). You need a new truth, that is no attractive. My suggestion: sell Buffalo as the crossroads of commerce. Buffalo has more in common with Chicago and Milwaukee (Great Lakes), than it does with NYC. That being said, we are close enough to the Bos-NY-Phil-DC megalplex to sell that too. Being immediately next to Canada is only a bonus. Sell the central location, and blatantly steal as much as possible from Chicago, NYC and Toronto.
Prodigal, that geography mattered a lot 1850-1950. In the 50s along came the the St Lawrence Seaway and it started to matter less. Since then, with many more changes such as commercial air travel, the information age, and globalization, it matters less and less each passing decade to be physically located in between Chicago-Midwest and the East Coast megaplex.
I agree with the those who say making the region more attractive to business generally would have much more real impact than any marketing-branding efforts or strategic planning about particular industries.
Excellent discussion — very timely. Thanks for launching it, Chris. I am learning a great deal from the back and forth (and I love the term “crowdsource”). I will invite our entire Buffalo Homecoming & Buffalo By Choice community to chime in. Analyzing, digesting and disseminating the comments that build on the wisdom in the original post will be very useful. Who knows, we may all find ourselves on the same page and pulling in the same direction, for a change. I plan to stay tuned and contribute.
Place branding, as some posts have mentioned, is about more than marketing. It’s also a growing field, and there are many cities that have already seen positive results from their branding efforts. Place branding is about setting a vision for the city and then taking action to create that vision. Therefore, place branding involves both what a place is and what it can be in the future. Any branding effort needs to be a regional effort that involves Buffalo and Niagara Falls. What Buffalo/Niagara lacks is a growing economy and the jobs that come with that. Our brand needs to focus on bringing in private investment. Taglines or slogans are only part of a branding campaign. That said, here’s my suggestion for a tagline:
“Buffalo Niagara: Historically Innovative”
This tagline connects our past innovations (Niagara Power Project, Erie Canal, etc.), our present (Steel Winds, Medical Campus, Globe Specialty Metals, etc.), and focuses on builing from this foundation to create a new green/tech economy in Buffalo Niagara. The vision/plan behind this slogan would involve attracting new businesses to the region and growning existing businesses, and a big part of this effort would be working to create more business friendly government, laws, and tax code.
Nathan – I love it. And as I posted previously, and you bring up as well – you need a vision and plan behind this branding that reinforces it, and in some cases, makes it more true. At the moment, I would say we WANT to be more historically innovative than we actually are. The history is certainly there, and it even ties into things we are doing now (we invented the pacemaker here, and now we’re doing more medical device innovation). But it will require greater investment, tax cuts, and planning to make that branding more true.
Starbuck – The irony that Buffalo grew because of being the corssroads, and then waned, is not lost on me. I think as energy costs rise, the cost of travel increases, and globalization expands, Buffalo does become more important for the old-fashioned commerce reasons. My proof: Corn shipped to Buffalo for ethanol production from the west, and ore shipped to NF from the east. Buffalo has major comm and internet lines running through it. The cost of rail become more competitive, and goods are increasingly dropped off in Buffalo from lake freighters, and shipped via rail from Buffalo. Our proximity to Canada makes us a logical hub for Canadian business investment, as they set up US HQ. North Dakota is close to Canada too, but its far from NYC, Chicago, etc. If physical proximity to these places made NO difference, then giant clusters of development would not exist in Northern Virginia (related to DC, but not immediately next to it), or other booming areas.
That all being said, I like Nathan’s idea better.