Marketing Matters

We don’t have to tell you how easy it can be for cities to develop an image problem. Negative headlines, mean comments on social media, and the local rumor mill can all take their toll—both on you and on your city’s brand.

When this happens, it can feel like combating the negative messaging is a distraction from your real work. After all, most people don’t actually know what goes into keeping a city afloat and thriving. And while that’s probably true, you also have a substantial role to play in communicating what goes on throughout town—whether that’s what’s happening at the chamber of commerce, updates from town hall, or the economics of local businesses. If you’re not intentionally adding your voice to the conversation, you’ll have little to no control over the narrative.

So, what’s the solution? Actively sharing your story by talking up your city’s accomplishments and successes—big or small, day in and day out. You may not think of storytelling as “marketing”—but it’s actually the best kind. After all, marketing isn’t only flashy brochures and commercials, but rather a continuous story that defines who your community members are and where your city is heading.

If you aren’t telling your story, someone else will tell it for you. When it comes to attracting young families to the local area, keeping residents around long term, or even just drawing new businesses into the town square—the power of a positive narrative cannot be overstated. It’s time to embrace proactive storytelling to shift how people think and feel about your community.

Anyone can be a marketer

Hopefully, we’ve got you convinced that marketing should be on your radar. Even if you don’t have a hefty marketing budget, we’ve got ideas to help you lay the groundwork for marketing your city successfully.

First, let’s get clear on some terminology. It’s a common misconception that marketing is just another word for advertising: branded T-shirts, billboards, and pop-up ads. You might also confuse marketing with public relations: getting your community into (or out of) the local press. But advertising, branding, and PR are actually just pieces of an overall strategy. Marketing is the whole picture.

Marketing is the practice of influencing how people think and feel about a brand. Right now, people already have an opinion about the local area, but maybe not the opinion you wish they had. The question is, what are you going to do about it?

You could choose to be reactive: waiting until negative news surfaces in your community and counteracting it with an announcement or press release. Or, you could be proactive. You could tell the story yourself. The first is just PR, but the second? That’s marketing.

Marketing aims to build your brand—to make your audience think about your city in the way you want them to.

But what's a brand?

In simple terms, a brand is a symbol that represents your organization. Brands can be logos, names, images, or even people. Anything that represents your city is part of the city’s brand. But in a broader sense, a brand is a reputation. The status of your brand is the way people currently think and feel about your community.

Branding has always been about being distinct: setting oneself apart from the crowd. Our ancestors branded their livestock because they recognized the necessity of differentiating themselves from one another, and understood that the imagery of their “brands” would eventually convey the quality or value of their products. Thousands of years later, companies distinguish themselves from their competition by branding their products with names, colors, and logos. When done well, brands have a lot of power to help companies and their products stand out from the crowd.

Take iPhones, for example. By this point, most smartphones have similar tech specs, cameras, and other features. However, iPhones remain astoundingly popular, even though they aren’t as affordable or as customizable as some of their competitors. Why is this? Because Apple has convinced us that they’re distinct—and that buying their products makes us distinct, too.

As a municipality, you should be trying to cultivate that same differentiation or distinction: the sense that you’re unique and maybe even better than the other communities in the surrounding area. When someone hears about your city, you want them to feel something positive, something different from the way every other town might make them feel. To make that happen, you’ll need to determine which of your qualities you want to emphasize most. If your community has a strong set of core values, this can be a great place to start.

But is my city all that different?

Let’s be honest for a second. Even though you know what makes your city special, not everyone else does. Maybe your city is known for its tight-knit community, its slow-paced living, or its quick access to the outdoors. Whatever it is, the question becomes: How are you promoting what you’re known for?

Maybe you’re thinking you have nothing to promote. Sure—the close-knit community feel is rooted in this one local diner everyone goes to on Sundays. But doesn’t every community like yours have a local diner? Diners, after all, aren’t exactly unique to your city.

But in the world of marketing, that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if your city isn’t all that different from other cities like it; what’s important is that your community promotes what it brands itself on, and it promotes it well.

If you’ve ever seen the TV show Mad Men, this concept may seem familiar. In the pilot episode, the main character, Don Draper, is tasked with creating a marketing campaign for Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Draper asks the Lucky Strike executives to list the appealing qualities of their cigarettes, and they name several, including that their tobacco is toasted. Draper uses this for their new slogan: It’s toasted.

The executives immediately object; their competitors toast their tobacco as well, they say. But Draper counters that it doesn’t matter, as long as Lucky Strike is the first brand highlighting this feature. Oftentimes, people don’t know what they’re getting until you tell them.

While Don Draper is fictitious, the campaign itself was real. Lucky Strike really did adopt this slogan way back in 1917, and it was so successful that it’s still on the brand’s packaging today. Doubling down on this quality set Lucky Strike up for monumental success, even though their products weren’t that different from their competitors’.

When it comes to your community, this distinct quality could be a value that you especially pride yourself on or something about the local area that you feel doesn’t get enough attention. Choose a strength to highlight and double down until it becomes part of what defines you—even if it isn’t totally unique to your city.

Take Borger, for example, a small city nestled in the Texas panhandle. It may not seem all that special at first glance—but if you ever find yourself driving through it, you’ll notice something peculiar. Borger is on a mission to beautify their city, and they’re starting with one of the most prominent features in public spaces: dumpsters.

The Make Borger Beautiful Campaign is a reoccurring, volunteer-led campaign that partners with the city’s Public Works and Administration department. “The objective is to improve the appearance of our public spaces, encourage interest and participation in art, and promote more responsible attitudes and behaviors towards waste management in our community,” one city official said. As part of the campaign, participants of all ages can submit their dumpster design as long as they are able to recreate their design on an actual dumpster. Since its conception in 2019, 15 dumpsters have already been painted around the city. Submissions will re-open in February 2024.

Here’s our point: Is Borger, Texas the only city with dumpsters? Obviously not. But how many cities invite community members to take ownership of beautifying the local area by participating in dumpster-painting? Probably not too many.

That said, it’s not just having pretty dumpsters that makes Borger special. Borger is special because they developed creative opportunities for community involvement. Then, they built an online presence around those opportunities. Anyone who visits the Make Borger Beautiful Facebook page will receive a clear message: Borger cares about their community—so if you’re someone who cares about community, and wants to be cared for by their community, then this is where you belong.

What makes you distinct?

To figure out your distinction points, start by answering these two questions:

What do families in your community desperately want from the local area? You know what families in your particular community value. Maybe they appreciate a small-town feel, high-rated schools, or a good local food scene. But go beyond these concrete concerns to imagine more abstract wants and needs: safety, diversity, or a sense of belonging. List everything a family’s ideal community would offer.

What does your city do really well? It might be public transit, a stellar museum network, or Friday night concerts on the square. Consider what really great things are going on in your area—even if there is some overlap with places around you.

Now, take a look at your answers. The intersection of what families need and what your city does well is the sweet spot, the core message you’ll highlight again and again.

Market to build community.

Marketing has several purposes, and pulling in new residents, tourists, or business owners is likely one of them. However, marketing can also help build up community investment. Even if your next bond campaign isn’t for years, a supportive community can be a game changer for your city.

People can’t be excited about what they don’t know. It’s incredibly frustrating when your community members criticize the local area—especially when it seems like they don’t have all the information. In reality, some people are going to have strong opinions formed by misinformation—or even malice—that you can’t sway or control. What you can do, though, is flood your community with positive impressions—all centered around that core message we mentioned earlier. You have good stories to tell, so share them with as many of your stakeholders as possible.

A lot of cities get this right when it comes to big, citywide things like annual festivals. Take the county fair, for example. Imagine you live in a rural area and the fair is coming to town, but there are no banners, no parades, no articles in the newspaper, and nary a Facebook post. Absurd, right? It’s easy to tell positive stories about large events that happen every year. But why isn’t that same enthusiastic communication happening for smaller successes year-round?

As a leader and decision-maker, it’s your job to communicate a narrative that captures your community’s multifaceted identity. This means sharing everything from annual events to smaller, more every-day wins like a local, small business owner winning a prestigious grant.

When sharing content, think back to your core message and how you want to emphasize it. The content you share is an illustration of your community’s values. People want bang for their buck.

Think about the last time your city completed a bond-funded construction project. There’s something special about your community getting to see their tax dollars put to use in bricks and concrete. But why should that energy be reserved for a ribbon-cutting ceremony? Why not use every opportunity available to you to consistently share small, positive project updates over time? You may be hesitant about over-communicating with your stakeholders, but when it comes to sharing your community’s story, it’s better to err on the side of too much communication rather than not enough.

Think about how the local school district handles athletics. Parents, alumni, even community members with no formal ties to the schools—everyone gets caught up in the excitement when the football team is on a winning streak. One reason for this is that there’s usually a lot of communication around the team’s success. The district isn’t hesitant to talk about it. Families love to hear about the programs that their kids are involved in—but outside community members want to be in the loop, too. After all, public education is also an investment—and who doesn’t like to see the positive impacts of their tax dollars at work?

On the whole, people want to see how their money is being spent, not just after a capital campaign, but all the time. City development is an investment, after all. So don’t be shy about showcasing what you’re up to! Contrary to popular belief, there’s no such thing as too many updates.

Don't apologize for looking good.

If you’re hesitant to grandstand about your community because you’re worried about coming across as bragging—we understand. But it’s important to remember that talking about successes isn’t about being “better than”—it’s about being the best you can be and highlighting your strengths, even if your community isn’t perfect. After all, what community is?

If you’re a college town, then you know universities have a pretty solid understanding of this. They never pass up an opportunity to talk about what makes them special. Nothing is too mundane to highlight because every facet of their identities is part of the larger story they’re telling prospective students and families. They know the value of creating and maintaining a narrative about their school—even when nothing extraordinary is going on.

But you don’t have to be a university to market like one. It’s more about cultivating a mindset of always selling your value to your community and showcasing the small, beautiful moments happening across town.

You probably already know what makes your city special. However, this good work might not make it into the minds and hearts of your community unless you spread the word. If you’re reluctant to think of yourself as a marketer, it might help to think of yourself as a megaphone instead, amplifying all of the amazing moments happening throughout your city.

When you tell your story and show your community who you are, you’re doing important work for your city’s reputation. Great things are happening all over town—why not shine a light on it?