Place Branding: A Snapshot of 25 City Brands
In the world of economic development marketing, place branding is a hot topic. Despite the myriad of important elements that go into building a brand, the logo is often at the center of the discussion.
With that in mind, we surveyed the logos and key messages of 25 cities in order to identify trends in economic development place branding today. DCI identified these 25 cities using Forbes’ 2018 ranking of “The Best Places for Business and Careers.” In order to select the brand to review for each city, we conducted a Google search for “City Name + Regional Economic Development” and used the website with the top rank on Google’s algorithm to identify the organization. The selected organizations span economic development organizations, chambers of commerce and city governments.
In this report, we seek to answer:
- How common are taglines among city brands?
- How common are icons?
- What color palettes are used?
- Does the city brand reference the larger region?
- Does the brand reference the place or the organization – or are there logos for both?
Our research supports the importance of place branding for your EDO. Visit our Branding & Strategy services page to see DCI’s proven results and case studies.
