Place branding, or nation branding, is the practice of using branding techniques to promote a location. As opposed to corporate brands that can be created from scratch, nation brands are pre-established and deeply connected to national identity and cultural heritage. Place branding can communicate a location’s uniqueness and character, making it more memorable. But how useful is that in terms of attracting investment?
FDI Center’s marketing lead, Kathryn Rothwell attended the PLACExNordic conference on place branding for investment, talent and tourist attraction. Here are her key takeaways from the sessions and ensuing discussions.
A strong place brand can be incredibly impactful for smaller economies
Crafting a strong and unique place brand can support smaller countries, regions, and cities in distinguishing themselves from their larger and mightier competitors. It can also support their efforts to establish themselves as hubs for their investment target sectors.
Skellefteå, a city in the north of Sweden may have earnt its name on the map from the Northvolt battery megaproject, however the municipality is now using this period of rapid change to build upon its success and establish itself as a hub for green energy projects.
Smaller economies have the advantage of being even more targeted with their FDI target sectors, but if it is within a region’s strategy to maintain a diverse economy, careful management of the place brand to highlight other factors of the location can help to ensure their region does not get anchored to the sector of the mega project.
Control the narrative and counter disinformation
Place branding can be incredibly effective in retaining control of the narrative in difficult circumstances, as exemplified by the work of Brand Ukraine, the strategic communications organization of Ukraine. Their session highlighted the importance of having a crisis communication plan and moving fast to execute it. This involved setting the narrative on popular information outlets such as the website, social media, and traditional media, as well as establishing any additional platforms. In Ukraine’s case this led to the creation of war.ukraine.ua.
The session also highlighted the importance of communication informed by data. Data sources such as google analytics can provide insight into what people search for in relation to your region and subsequently assist in preparing accurate and up-to-date answers to these questions to counter the spread of disinformation.
A dedicated team – be that a comms agency or an EDO’s PR department – can disseminate reliable information to calm the investment community and reduce pressure on staff from handling inquiries. Regions dealing with political turmoil or wanting to transform an unfavorable brand can benefit from implementing these insights too.
Digital tools can enhance your brand
Few investment promotion agencies have the human and financial resources to attend all trade shows internationally to meet investors, thus many are seeking more diverse and sustainable avenues for reaching investors.
Digital tools are becoming increasingly useful in raising the brand of a region, particularly if they are trying to attract digital and innovation sectors. In fact, most digital tools have become a “must-have”, with fDi Intelligence’s Economic Development Marketing & Priorities 2024 identifying 19 out of 25 website tools as industry standard. Talent pool data, location comparisons, local industry performance data, blogs, transactions, and live chat are the six remaining features to adopt to have a competitive advantage.
Invest Estonia provided excellent use cases for these tools including: two chatbots, one for website users and another for internal use; “Comparest” a location comparison tool; and an e-Consulting service that provides customized value propositions within a matter of hours.
Raising the Europe brand
European regions share many similarities, challenges, and EU regulations affecting business, creating more unity than division. Collaborative place branding efforts can position Europe as a competitive destination for investment. Invest-in-Europe branded campaigns are one way of presenting a united approach.
In their individual efforts to differentiate themselves from their neighbors, locations should use data and location comparison tools to highlight their unique selling points. For instance, Estonia’s average annual temperature of 6.9 degrees may not sound very appealing. However, they use this to suggest there is more time to work indicating higher productivity than in the warmer parts of Europe.
IPAs should be cautious in over-selling or “over-branding” their location. Investors need a realistic picture of life there and what they can expect for their business. Over-selling may lead to investor dissatisfaction with reality, relocation, and ultimately a damaged reputation for the IPA.
Holistic approach
The benefits of place branding are often challenging to quantify, with KPIs focusing on reach, interaction and enquiries rather than straightforward metrics such as jobs and projects. Thus, since place branding has positive spillover effects onto talent and tourist attraction, the benefits need to be evaluated holistically.
Organizations which hold the mandate for investment, talent, and tourism attraction are better placed to create a united place brand. EDOs with singular mandates will need to work together to create a cohesive place brand conducive to all their goals.
