Municipalities often struggle to align investment, tourism and resident interests into a municipality brand. This tends to create market dissonance, duplication of resources and structural tensions.
Municipal branding plays a pivotal role in shaping a city’s identity and its value proposition. However, many municipalities rely on their tourism brand or a specific attraction to tell their story. While a tourism brand can draw visitors and fuel the economy, it doesn’t talk to residents and investors.
It becomes more complicated if the region becomes known for a dominant private sector institution whether that’s a multi-national corporate or university.
A municipal brand is unlike a tourism brand which is informed by marketing cycles, tourism campaigns and shareable attraction experiences. A municipal brand focuses on what makes the region a place for people to live, work, and invest in.
What are the characteristics of a municipal brand?
Evokes a sense of belonging: It creates a connection with shared values, vision, and aspirations.
Drives economic development: In a competitive market, it creates conversations why the region is attractive to businesses, investors, and developers.
Promotes consistent communication: Consistent messaging and communication serves as a rallying call within the municipality, and ‘connects’ at a meaningful level with residents, investors, and businesses.
Differentiates the municipality: The performance of many South African municipalities does not make them investable. This means that the ‘investable’ market is extremely competitive. Although it is an important consideration for investors, getting a clean audit is a qualifier but not a deciding factor for an investor.
Here, the construction of a municipality’s brand architecture becomes intense as they must seek value propositions which will differentiate them. Product or process innovation will often be needed. For example, how do you make it easier to do business in your region compared to others? Are decisive decisions made to meet the private sectors sense of urgency in the pursuit of profit? And do your decision-makers understand what makes the private sector tick? Answers to these questions can become a core brand value of the municipality.
Where does tourism come into a municipal brand?
We must distinguish between brand and marketing. A municipality has different products and services residents, investors and tourism and some are common to all categories.
Tourism sells their products at trade shows, and to destination marketers and travel designers. They can also create a market for destination marketers or attract direct interest by marketing attractions on social media, and through advertising or getting earned media in travel publications.
Like investors, tourists want to know that the region has solid infrastructure, responsive emergency services, and crime prevention strategies in place. This means that the overall municipality brand strategy plays as vital a role for Tourism as it does for Investors and Residents.
Liken a municipal brand structure to a washing line, with the brand as the line. Pegged to the line are products or different types of clothing.
Managing Inter-Municipal Debt in an Era of Fiscal Constraint: Accounting, Governance and Sustainable Recovery
Municipalities as brands.
