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Regional brands for the bold - The Good Oil by Rod Brown

Last month I talked about the problems in coordinating action on regional food brands.

This got me thinking about regional branding itself – about getting regions recognised as important economic and administrative units in their own right. It’s a battle because local government is legally beholden to state governments. And both local and state government are beholden to the federal government for their revenues.

I doubt that these two realities will change in our lifetimes, even assuming constitutional recognition of the role of local government. But, on the bright side, local government is now coming of age, and councils should be building their local brands.

Why? Well, the public is getting mightily cheesed off with the power imbalances inherent in a federal system of government. There is also a worldwide trend to decentralisation in government. And thirdly, contrary to the advice you might have been offered at Sunday School, the meek shall inherit nothing. It’s thus a no brainer for regions to build their brand.

Your community promise

The starting point is to understand what your community promise is, and the target audience. The promise must be relevant, competitive and authentic. Defining your brand promise is hard work – you need to discover what your brand promise is, and articulate it in a way that is understandable to everyone involved in your branding process.

If you skip this step, the branding effort won’t succeed. Instead, you’ll have a narrowly focused marketing or salescampaign. Indeed, as our US colleagues advise, you will have invested in a logo and tagline that have no sustainability. On the other hand, a proper branding effort guides community development decisions for decades.

In the Australian context, the persistence of state brands is an anachronism. International visitors don’t think of travelling to NSW, the Northern Territory or South Australia.

They think in terms of actual places, like Sydney, the Hunter, Uluru and the Barossa Valley. Examples of other regions and regional cities with already strong brands are the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Far North Queenland, the Hunter, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

Core attributes

However it’s the regions and communities on the next rung down that stand out for brand development. Three core attributes are:

an existing level of identity that can be built on
strong social capital
community champions who are committed to making things happen. In this regard, our US colleagues also emphasise that the traction a brand gets externally is completely connected and dependent upon the traction it gets internally.

One shouldn’t get worked up about conforming to some politically correct geographic scope or boundaries, because these are largely defined by the three core attributes. It should also be stressed that a hierarchy of regional branding can exist. For example, ‘Riverina’ is the regional brand, and Wagga, Griffith, Cootamundra, Junee, etc. are local brands within that hierarchy. Likewise, ‘The Kimberley’ is the regional brand, with Broome and Kununurra as the local brands.
Regional branding must have outcomes. Without them it becomes a pointless, academic exercise.

The brand needs to encapsulate

the vision
the expectations of the local community
the realistic points of difference. If it does this, it can drive your lobbying effort to federal and state politicians for grants of all types.

We are thinking of making an approach to some state governments to access some funding to hire some marketing professionals to assist groups of local councils. Please contact us if you are interested.

Grace Kelly features in Bendigo

Did you notice Bendigo’s three month exhibition ‘Grace Kelly – style icon’? What an extraordinary coup! It’s also a very good example of the benefits of brand building. So I chased up Sharon Wells at the Bendigo Art Gallery for the good oil for our loyal readers.

The factors underlying this exhibition appear to be six-fold.

Bendigo has longstanding expertise in fashion and textiles. This dates back more than a century
a continuum of top notch gallery directors, the latest of which is Karen Quinlan who has been in residence for seventeen years. Karen had been tracking the Grace Kelly collection in Monaco for some time, and she harnessed Bendigo’s collaborative strengths to bid to host the exhibition
a bevy of champions – Andrew Cannon (Honorary Consul for Monaco in Melbourne), Victorian Major Events Corporation (its first investment in a regional gallery), Vic Tourism, Regional Development Victoria, Bendigo City Council, Premier Baillieu etc.
State, local and philanthropic funding for the upgrading of the Gallery building – some $14 million over 15 years. This now provides a quality venue.
very good and committed staff
Bendigo is a marginal seat!

Visitor traffic has been huge. Based on entry fees of $20/head ($5 for primary schoolers, $10 for secondary schoolers), I guess that revenues might nudge $4 million.

A great aspect of this project is the spin-off business it has created for other art and tourism facilities, hotels, motels, restaurants in and around Bendigo. It has given Melburnians an additional reason to take a weekend trip.

ANZAC events

While on the subject of regional events, the program for the centenary of Anzac has been announced by PM Gillard. The funding totals $83.5 million for refurbishments of WW1 galleries at the War Memorial and war graves; overseas commemorations; local community commemorations; education programs; a travelling exhibition; a new interpretive centre in WA; and the restaging of events and activities. The Centenary will run from 2014 to 2018.

The Chair of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board, the recently retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said his Board will advise the Government on the detailed planning, development, prioritisation and scheduling of the Centenary Program and liaising with the community. He is also encouraging private sector sponsorship in relevant projects.

We are currently working with councils to access this funding. Contact us if you’re interested.

Iron Ore saga – stuff up more likely

I am writing this on 28 May, as PM Gillard faces more leadership speculation following the government’s decision to allow the import of 1700 workers for its Roy Hill Iron Ore project in the Pilbara.

Was it a conspiracy between the Resources Minister Ferguson and Immigration Minister Bowen to white ant the Prime Minister? For sure both are in the Rudd camp, but I suspect this latest embarrassment results from a stuff up:

Ferguson’s unchecked championing on behalf of his mining constituents
the lack of a countervailing force from the manufacturing portfolio – to argue those 1700 jobs would have helped offset the alarming job shedding underway
the dry economic landscape in Canberra – even the Employment Minister Shorten has been quiet.
Gillard’s minders took their eyes off the ball.

On semi-related matters, have you ever wondered why there have been so many factory fires of late? Why Singo, with his longstanding Labor connections, allows his shock jocks to endlessly attack the Gillard Government? Why the Government of the world’s most buoyant economy is polling so badly?

Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction, clusters and accessing Federal grants. He also runs the Cockatoo Network. He can be contacted at apdcockatoo@iprimus.com.au or phone (02) 6231 7261.

Go to the blog at www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com for 550+ articles on issues relevant to Local Government.