According to Marty Neumeier, Place branding is the branding of a country, region, city, or neighborhood to attract tourists, businesses, or new residents. Most times, Place branding can be used interchangeably with other terms like, Place Marketing, Place Making and Destination Branding.
In this brief chat, we talked about the state of place branding in Nigeria. We gave a quick summary on the topic and noted a major challenge to it in Nigeria
Can every place be branded, even the small towns?
Joseph Ojo
Yes, once the intent, motive and means are available.
Anthony Chinweuba
Cool! In place branding, what people are needed to form the team? And if I may ask, what’s the role of the Environmental development professionals in place branding?
Joseph Ojo
Professionals and non-professionals get involved in a project if it is well executed. It could range from the obvious ones such as Environmental development Professionals to marketing professionals and down to other valuable skilled persons such as designers, strategist, researchers and many more.
Place branding is all about planning an area, state or nation so it will promote a course or activity. The need to plan already has a planner involved. Once the planner is to create a master plan, other services would be needed in the planning stage or/and execution.
A good example would be in creating the designs, budget, schedule and every other work blueprint. Same applies in the execution of the approved plan.
If a planner understands branding, he may be able to execute such tasks better.
Anthony Chinweuba
Wow! Can a place branding project be successful without involving the government?
Joseph Ojo
No. A small scale project can be self-funded and developed. But as it involves a city, and operates as a business in most cases, the government will probably get involved. A big project can be executed with the help or approval of the government. Either ways, the government has its way into such projects in various aspects.
Anthony Chinweuba
What are the few aspects, if I may ask? The project is about turning a city into a place of destination. That’s why I’m looking for insights into branding. I feel it’s beyond having a logo.
Joseph Ojo
You’re correct because a Logo and it’s like are just the Brand Identity. About the aspects, no matter how good your management structure is, the government still finds a way of demanding some charges. Take for instance, coming as a private entity probably means having a business or an NGO. Either ways, if tax is not asked for, LGA fees will be asked for, amongst others.
All these should have been sorted out at the startup stage of most Businesses. But as startups, the finance and awareness about these requirements may not be available or known. Once the setup begins to get some attention, the government may come demanding for various charges now as contraventions.
The amounts charged are usually high for the management to offset at this stage. The huge payment, when paid, is shared by the management and the task force. In this aspect, the government is a challenge to place Branding.
An aspect of planning can attempt to tackle this problem. This involves advocating/politicing duties from the planner. A planner/strategist who knows how to do this stands a chance of being able to reach the necessary authorities on time. The planner gains the needed knowledge and equally foresee the problems while strategising how to sort out the least possible point. Perhaps cutting off on the exorbitant costs of registration and filling of necessary documents with the government.
Anthony Chinweuba
