What would you say to a person unfamiliar with your hometown in northeast Indiana? How would you describe the place you choose to make a living, build your home, or raise your family?
To grow the region’s economy and meet the talent needs of employers, economic development leaders in northeast Indiana are soliciting public input to develop an authentic brand to market the region’s quality of life and opportunities to talented individuals and businesses around the country.
The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership is asking each of the region’s 790,000 residents to share their opinions about what it’s like to live and work in northeast Indiana by taking a 10-minute survey.
Residents who work and live throughout the region are asked to share their opinions to help gauge perceptions, strengths and weaknesses of the region as a place to live and work.
The survey is being conducted online, and all residents are encouraged to provide feedback that will be used to develop the ultimate brand strategy.
Attracting people to grow the economy
Data illustrates that northeast Indiana is facing a talent shortage that will define the economic future of the 11-county region for years to come, and the region must do more to secure its position in the global economy.
Northeast Indiana’s challenges are similar to other Midwestern communities, creating a competitive environment. According to the Census, northeast Indiana is losing talent to communities in states like Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, and Iowa.
How can northeast Indiana stand out among the country’s best communities?
Brand awareness is part of the challenge, and one proactive strategy is to create a memorable, authentic brand to share key messages about the region. The jobs opportunities are here. Quality of life in the region is top notch. Talent just needs to know about it.
Why branding?
A brand, while simple, is powerful. It’s a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.
Make no mistake though, a brand name or symbol alone means nothing. It is not the brand name that provides the differentiating qualities in the eyes of customers. The value of a brand is rooted in its reputation, performance, and ability to deliver service that the brand or symbol embodies as a value proposition.
Brand names, good or bad, are all about reputation, character, and results.
Northeast Indiana needs a way to tell the region’s story, evoke emotion, and sell the community to attract new people to live and work in the region. And, to build a successful brand, economic developers need to understand residents’ perceptions of where their community is today.
The ultimate goal is to create a unified vision and roadmap for long-term initiatives that includes a brand, logo, and tagline that’s authentic and resonates with skilled talent who want to call northeast Indiana home.
The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership has collaborated with Development Counsellors International (DCI), a specialized place-marketing agency, and northeast Indiana-based Britton Marketing & Design Group to build this new brand and forward-looking marketing strategy.
“The more unified a region is in its brand, both in style and in substance, the stronger its message will be and the more likely it is to be heard,” Luther Mosher, senior graphic designer at DCI, writes in a blog about branding communities. “To promote brand unity within your region, saturation is key. The more people are exposed to the elements of your brand, the more familiar they will be with it and the more likely they are to be effective ambassadors for your brand.”
President and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership John Sampson explained that northeast Indiana’s vast opportunities and quality of life are often unfamiliar to or misperceived by both people outside the region and many current residents.
In the global war for talent, he notes, the region must do more to attract business and talent.
“A strong branding strategy will increase our region’s positive brand awareness,” Sampson says. “By leveraging our momentum, sense of regional identity and pride, the branding will encourage our own residents to act as ambassadors to promote northeast Indiana. We believe that reaching talent and businesses outside of Indiana and showcasing the strength of our regional brand will increase the size and quality of the regional labor force. This will positively affect business attraction efforts and result in a skilled, more credentialed workforce and increased per capita personal income.”
In the months following the initial research phase, DCI, Britton, and the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership will work closely together to develop a branding and marketing strategy for the region. The strategy will be complete in early 2019.