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Easy to love.
The Richmond area refines its image while building its
brand
by
Douglas Forshey
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Some
30 years ago, the commonwealth of Virginia launched
one of the most successful national state branding campaigns
ever — “Virginia is for Lovers.” That
tag line, developed by The Martin Agency in Richmond,
has been in the hearts and minds (not to mention on
tee shirts, buttons and bumper stickers) of tourists
along the Eastern seaboard for decades.
It’s
not easy to compete with that kind of success, but the
Richmond region is giving it a try with its own branding
effort — “The Historic Richmond Region is
Easy to Love.” With the goal of guiding tourists
to the area, a group of nine business organizations
(see box page 30) formed an alliance with the sole purpose
of discovering and promoting the essence of what makes
the city and surrounding counties unique. “The
movement to brand started with the Convention and Visitors
Bureau as an attempt to increase tourism and create
interest in the new convention center,” says Greg
Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership,
Inc. “At the same time, we were considering a campaign
to foster economic development and it seemed natural
to join forces and pursue this together.”
The
effort was a bit harder than the group first thought.
What was the area’s true identity? Not all members
had the same ideas, but in time, they realized that
if representatives of all nine groups could pull together,
then they might just come up with a description everyone
could be proud of. “The Richmond region has never
had a comprehensive identity to market,” according
to Jack Berry, president and CEO, Richmond Convention
and Visitors Bureau. “Each individual organization
put forth a different message. Like many other destinations,
we needed a consistent, unifying theme.”
Previously,
there had been several attempts in the past to brand
Richmond, but the messages never caught the public’s
attention the way “Virginia is For Lovers”
did. One campaign referred to the region as the heart
of Virginia, and another paid homage to Richmond’s
history and connection to the Old South. The major difference
with this campaign was the deliberate approach the group
took to come up with the right message — one that
would accurately reflect the region and its people.
“We started with the people who live, work and
visit here, to determine what makes the Richmond region
unique,” says Wingfield. “And through that
process, several common themes emerged.”
The
branding project first took shape in the spring of 2001,
when the nine partners enlisted the help of brand and
advertising guru David Martin. As the founder of Richmond-based
The Martin Agency, and now president of brand consultancy
BrandSync, Martin was a natural choice for the assignment.
“We started by interviewing residents, business
leaders, meeting planners and tourists to find out the
one thing that comes to mind when Richmond, Va., is
mentioned,” says Martin. “That one thing is
what converts a product into a brand. The primary objective
of the research was to provide a strategic focus for
Greater Richmond by identifying the region’s brand
promise — its unmatched claim to fame.”
To
arrive at Richmond’s “claim to fame,”
Martin and his team probed a wide variety of constituents,
from West Enders to South Siders. He wanted to make
sure that the eventual perception conveyed through the
campaign, accurately matched the reality of the area.
“We all knew the time had come for us to discover
our brand,” says Jim Dunn, president of the Greater
Richmond Chamber of Commerce. “We are truly excited
about the effort, because we believe the brand identity
campaign is something we wrap around everything we do.
From promoting tourism and attracting conventions, to
encouraging economic development and making the region
an inviting place to live, we feel the campaign covers
a multitude of bases.”
Four
core values consistently emerged from the survey work:
Quality of Life: Richmond offers the amenities
of a large urban center, with the warmth of a small
town. As Martin put it: Around every corner is another
pocket of discovery.
A Family Place: Richmond is a great place to
raise a family. Neighborhoods are friendly and housing
is affordable. And the schools and colleges are exceptional.
A Creative Spirit: Innovative thinking and a
real sense of entrepreneurship are everywhere in Richmond.
This enterprising spirit keeps the economy going.
America’s History: The area is rich with
history, spanning more than five centuries — from
the colonies, the Civil War, women’s suffrage and
the civil rights movement. (For additional information
on the survey results, log on to www.brandsync.com.)
Once
the results were analyzed, BrandSync went to work to
identify a common theme that would capture the essence
of the region. “We kept coming back to one central
idea,” says Rob Martin, managing director at BrandSync.
“Richmond is an easy place to live, work and do
business in. There was also a strong sense of history
to the area that we felt should be conveyed in the campaign.”
BrandSync’s
final recommendation on the positioning was: The accessibility
of the historic Richmond region makes it an easy place
to live, visit, and do business. From that position
they created the tag line.
The
theme was unveiled Oct.19, 2001 at a kick-off gala in
the recently completed Richmond Convention Center ballroom.
More than 800 business and civic leaders came out to
see the brand campaign come to life in a dramatic presentation
that included original music written especially for
the campaign and an audio-visual film capturing the
essence of the area. RightMinds, a Richmond-based advertising
agency, was hired to strategically develop and roll
out the campaign, which included the logo design and
the brand introduction.
“Easy
to Love” is a great tag line to work with,”
says RightMinds CEO Chris Thurston. “It’s
broad enough to address the many different value propositions
our region has to offer, and yet there is still a clear
emotional association that can be made with the Richmond
region.”
For 2003, the original nine sponsoring organizations
have once again come together to breathe new life into
the ongoing brand effort. Their plan includes a series
of innovative one-week sponsorships that begin in March
and will carry through for 16 weeks. The group is recruiting
businesses to sponsor one week of ongoing promotion
and marketing, tying the existing theme to an aspect
of their business or industry. The
net effect will be 16 weeks of brand reinforcement for
the area.
Bill
Axselle, law partner at Williams Mullen and 2003 Chairman
of the Greater Richmond Chamber, put it this way, “Things
in Richmond are good, but we want them to be better.
We have expectations of marketing the region to the
citizens, business community and tourists, through this
16-week campaign. We’re saying to the sponsors,
‘Here is the core message — Easy to Love —
how you play it out is up to you.’”
Each
sponsoring organization is approaching its week in a
different way, tailoring the media and the message to
suit its needs. Whether adding the tag line to its existing
print or broadcast advertising, creating a special event
during the week, or generating press though public relations,
the cumulative effect will be a continuous message in
a variety of voices.
“I
give Bill Axselle a lot of credit for taking the leadership
to organize this campaign, because I think it is needed,
both to promote the brand and demonstrate how the “Easy
to Love” message has applicability to the community
as a whole,” says Robert Skunda, president and
CEO of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park. “The
Biotech Park is partnering with the Greater Richmond
Technology Council during our week, and we’re exploring
how the brand can be used to demonstrate that the region
is a great place for tech companies.”
The
business community is not alone in its support of this
initiative. Local leaders in government and higher education
are getting behind the effort to promote civic pride
and help define Richmond’s identity.
“Across the country, regions are known for certain
things,” says Calvin Jamison, Richmond city manager.
“The purpose of this campaign is to create an identity
for the Richmond region and give people a reason to
come here and stay here. We want to create enthusiasm
for why people love Richmond.” Cynthia Schmidt,
director of university marketing at Virginia Commonwealth
University in downtown Richmond, agrees. “We need
constant reminders of what makes this region special,
and we need to think and act as a region, not a county,
a neighborhood or a zip code,” she says. “If
we can do this, we will be much more successful attracting
visitors and businesses and making this a better place
to live.”
Since
its initial launch two years ago, the campaign seems
to be making an impact. The logo appears on billboards,
window signs, in print advertising and on collateral
materials of the nine partners. And Richmond made Business
& Development magazine’s list of the best downtown
areas in the South (ranked No. 2, behind St. Petersburg,
Fla.). As the magazine put it: “Richmond is the
only city in the country to have culture, history, architecture
and the urban flavor of the Northeast with southern
advantages like modern infrastructure, pleasant climate
and lower cost of living and doing business.”
That’s
exactly the kind of sentiment that Axselle wants to
hear. And he is hoping that the upcoming 16-week initiative
will continue to foster that sentiment. “Through
this campaign, we want people to start saying ‘Yeah,
the Richmond region is easy to love.’”
Return
to Virginia Business - March 2003
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