Create West Virginia

Legendary marketing guru Al Ries has suggested that companies or branded products can only "own" one position in a consumer's mind. Those brands that focus on a powerful, singular image are more successful than those who try to stand for two or more things at once. In other words, "Low prices, always" is more likely to stick in a consumer's mind than "Low prices...plus high quality."

This concept is applicable to regions as well. Karen Post's article on the BrandSpeak web site should be a must read for anyone concerned with sharply improving our state's growth prospects:

As people and companies decide where to plop down their roots and cash, just like with any other buying decision they need to feel the emotional connection to their needs and the earned trust to reduce their fears.

Destination branding is about:
1) Clearly defining a purpose,
2) Being distinct,
3) Consistently communicating a persona, and
4) Delivering on a promise.

However, like many companies, regions have certain brand dysfunctions. Karen provides a valuable list, many of which are very applicable to our Create WV conversation:

• Creative class deficiency - Many cities lack creative potency or organized creative movements and/or allow fear to halt their creative progress. This spills over into their branding.
• Competing complexities - A typical city [or state] can have the business chamber, the visitors and convention council, economic development councils, and the government all reaching out with both similar and different agendas.
• Committees that kill ideas - A by-product of brands "for the people" is the committee that compromises and kills potential brand homeruns. This why you never see statues of committees in parks; you see brave leaders.
• Some many good things, nothing stands out - To gain something, others must be sacrificed. The great brands in every industry have a strong singular message. The same thing applies to destinations. If you try to brand with everything that you have, your brand will mean nothing.
• History is hard to change - Many well-deserving destinations are burdened by some mind-chiseled brand or event from their past.

For those regions that developed their brand "personality" in the industrial era, it is a continuing challenge to decide how to position themselves in today's New Economy.

Few regions are more identifiable with the Industrial Age than Pittsburgh. It's the Steel City, home of the Steelers and their new mascot Steely McBeam for crying out loud. The business community and image shapers of Pittsburgh have been trying for at least two decades to re-position Pittsburgh as a center of innovation and knowledge, with mixed results. Pittsburgh, despite being the home of world-class knowledge centers such as Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is still not a highly-ranked "Creative Class" city. However, it could be argued that their past efforts have helped stem the tide of out-migration of young people.

What does this mean for West Virginia? In addition to being highly identified with coal, an "old economy" icon if there ever was one, we are all aware of some particularly nasty stereotypes we must overcome. Is it possible to re-position a region such as ours with both these strikes against us?

There is reason for hope. Cities such as Tacoma ("the aroma from Tacoma" emanating from paper mills) and Richland (atomic waste legacy), Washington. Both suffered from industrial-era stigmas. In both cases, however, the trick was to focus on a new "stereotype" instead of constantly trying to fight the old stereotype. Tacoma zeroed in on its innovative glass and arts scene, while Richland was positioned as having a high percentage of Ph.D.'s per capita, a major asset in the New Economy.

The most successful transitions come from new branding that is not a total departure from the strengths of the old. In West Virginia's case, perhaps "Wild and Wonderful" could be mined for an angle of adventure and innovation. "Open for Business" doesn't quite deliver on the goal of a distinctly unique brand position that conjures up the best of what we have to offer for New Economy businesses and employees, most notably our beautiful natural settings, extreme sports (whitewater rafting, skiing, mountain biking, etc.) and less expensive lifestyle. All of these strengths could be appealing to the Creative Community/New Economy generation, especially if developed into a cohesive, powerful brand that outshines the previous negative one.