Living in Nelson County: Nelson County Marketing and Branding Process

Nelson County Marketing and Branding Process

Nelson County is working with the firm, Arnett and Muldrow Associates, on a new branding strategy and marketing plan.

Company principals Aaron Arnett and Ben Muldrow interviewed more than 75 individuals and reviewed the more than 100 surveys returned during their three day visit December 20-22, 2006. They toured the County from Afton to Montebello, along the James River and all points in between.

Ben and Aaron returned February 4 and 5th to take more photographs and met with more than 60 community members at the Nelson Center. Click here for the presentation and brand concepts (Adobe Acrobat pdf format -2 MB). Please email your comments before February 21, 2007.

The final report will include two CD-ROMs with all related graphics, final presentation and the final report in with one copy of each of the graphics mounted on boards.

Creating a Brand for Downtown
Tripp Muldrow, Arnett and Muldrow Associates
Reprinted with permission from the Virginia Main Street Program.
Articles originally appeared in the Fall 2006 Virginia Main Street
Monitor

We see them everyday on the products we consume, the familiar red and white script on a Coca-Cola can, the swoosh on a pair of Nike sneakers, and those ubiquitous golden arches on the by-pass. They are brands that help us associate a product or service with an image. Some are as simple as colors: “What does Brown do for you?” - UPS, others are tag lines. Remember, “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t...” - Mounds and Almond Joy. As Main Street organizations work hard to recruit and retain customers downtown, more and more communities are turning to branding to help put the polish on downtown’s image. They too realize that “If you build it, they will come,” is not always true, and many times a strategic and well-connected marketing and branding effort can be just as effective as brick and mortar projects are in bringing people back downtown. However, creating a brand for downtown is not as simple as you think. It is easy to fall into the trap of sending mixed signals to our customers. Conveying a consistent image and message is important. To do so, you have to ask yourself some important questions. Does the design of your Main Street Web site look like the shopping and dining guide for your town? Does the shopping and dining guide use the same lettering as the “Welcome to Downtown” signs? What about special events? Does the promotional material for them cleverly play on that same image of downtown - ingraining downtown’s brand into the psyche of the consumer? Have you updated that tired design from 1985 to market your downtown’s true image for 2006?

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you might consider evaluating your downtown brand. Remember, those chain stores on the edge of town spend big bucks to make sure their image is polished and up-to-date. Let’s explore examples from two Virginia communities that have worked on their downtown brand. Leesburg, a DHCD Commercial District Affiliate, has a vibrant downtown in fast growing Northern Virginia, yet a zip code survey of customers visiting downtown shops indicated that a relatively small portion of their customers were coming from the local area, particularly the mammoth Washington, DC market. In order to capitalize on this missed opportunity, downtown merchants are teaming up with the town to launch a joint marketing effort using the brand, “Meet ME downtown. The ads will profile local shopkeepers and the individual attention that they give to customers, allowing individual business owners to catch a piece of the brand equity. The ads seek to contrast downtown Leesburg’s small town charm against a rapidly growing and
congested Northern Virginia market. Also planned is a series of ads for the holiday season that will invite shoppers to get reacquainted with all that downtown Leesburg has to offer. Last year, Luray Downtown Initiative, with the assistance from the Virginia Main Street program, went through a two-day branding charrette put on by Arnett-Muldrow and Associates to develop a community brand. Like many communities, Luray was sending mixed messages to consumers with a variety of images and brochures. As the home of Luray Caverns, the gateway to Shenandoah National Park, in addition to a great downtown, Luray had a number of images it was projecting. The new logo and tag line took the image of the Hawksbill Creek and the Shenandoah mountains and nestled them together with
the tagline: “The Town Where Caverns Meet the Sky.” The brand is now being used on marketing material for downtown and the community as a whole.

Both of these communities went through a branding charrette process to establish their image. Like a design charrette, the branding charrette quickly delves into the issues that a community faces and prepares a series of branding recommendations and images to share with the stakeholders. The images are refined and then used as a springboard for implementation. Branding can be an effective tool to refine your message and clearly connect downtown to the consumers.

Tripp Muldrow, AICP is president of Arnett Muldrow & Associates, Ltd. a community planning firm based in Greenville, South Carolina that specializes in downtown branding for Main Street Communities across the United States. Arnett Muldrow assisted the Virginia Main Street Communities of Luray, South Boston, Harrisonburg, Rocky Mount, as well
as, other Virginia communities on their community branding efforts.

What is a brand?
A brand is an image with which people can associate a product, service or place. It is an identity. It is the ability to capture positive interactions and reapply them to the worth of your name. Your brand can develop equity, which can have a real impact on your bottom line. For example, why do millions of Americans walk into the drugstore and pay four or five dollars more for Tylenol than the drug store brand with the exact same ingredients? Part of the answer is that Tylenol has spent decades and millions to grow their brand equity.

Back to those of us that don’t have millions to spend on advertising. How do you develop a brand? How do you promote your brand? How do your evaluate your brand? And finally, how do you use your brand to your advantage?

How do you develop a brand?
The process is simple. Ask, ask, ask, and then ask some more questions. Everyone in your town knows what the brand is. It is why they live there. It is what they do on the weekend. It is where they take people who visit. It is how they relax, what they miss when they are away, and why they want to raise their kids there.

Put all that together and you have your brand. Throw in some snappy graphics that make you unique, attach a tagline that shows your wit, and you are off to a good start!

How do you promote your brand?
Once you have created an image, use it. Use it consistently, and most importantly, use it everywhere: street signs, banners, house flags, bumper stickers, Afghans, benches, trash cans, gateway signs, way finding signs, vehicles, and anything else you can think of. You can begin creating a strong identity for your community simply by getting your brand on everything. So, make that image available and easy to share. Get everyone to use it: local government, the media, the school system, local businesses, etc. The more your brand is seen, the more valuable it becomes. Consider running co-operative advertising with local businesses that include you logo. Appear united!

How do you evaluate your brand?
Every year of so, step back, look, and see if people are still relating. Change that is market-driven is good, change for change’s sake is not good. People will become attached locally, but make sure the identity is still connecting with both local and regional audiences.

How do you use your brand to your advantage?
This is a simple: develop a brand, promote the brand, and people will catch on. People move closer, shop closer, work closer. Tax base increases, and everything is better off. Bigger tax base equals more room and resources to grow your brand!