HOTEDD Board of Directors, April 2011

HOTEDD Board of Directors, April 2011

What is the Heart of Texas Economic Development District?

HOTEDD delivers information, collaboration, coordination, and training among economic developers, communities, businesses, and individuals in our service area: Bosque, Falls, Freestone, Hill, Limestone, and McLennan Counties. The Honorable Justin Lewis chairs our Board; our President is Russell Devorsky.







Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Regional Branding: Resource for Ideas on Place Branding

Ed Burghard, of The Burghard Group, recently asked for comments from economic development professionals regarding the difference between marketing and branding.

Here are Ed's definitions, followed by a link to his site.

Marketing
According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (Approved October 2007)

Marketing focuses primarily on communicating (or correcting) and ensuring consistent delivery of your product or service image. The emphasis is on making certain the promise you make is understood and authentic. That promise must be relevant and competitive in order to be compelling.

Advertising is one tool used in marketing. So are social media and promotional efforts to support capital investment lead management. Any interaction or communication about your location can be considered part of the marketing mix and will benefit from being in alignment with the core promise.

Branding
My working definition for branding is the proactive management of your product or service identity.

The single biggest differences between branding and marketing are –

1.Marketing focuses on communicating or correcting the product or service image (present) while branding focuses on creating the identity (future).
2.Because it is identity focused, branding includes a strong emphasis on strategic product development.
A way to think about it is branding ensures your core promise remains relevant, competitive and authentic year after year. Good branding plans will have a 5 – 10 year planning horizon and a process for ensuring the plans are responsive to changes in the competitive environment.

In economic development, branding guides choices on asset creation, infrastructure investment and public policy reform.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=689787856&gid=137517&type=member&item=65335799&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fstrengtheningbrandamerica%2Ecom%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D968&urlhash=Djj3&goback=%2Egde_137517_member_65335799

No comments:

Post a Comment