It’s because they have a brand. It’s Bull City…a gritty city for makers and creatives. Down to earth yet innovative. Home to weirdos and believers…blah blah.
Like an Apple product, it’s just the packaging
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But IMO, Raleigh is just as much that, if not more, considering how much bigger of a city we are. We just don’t brand ourselves that way, which is a lot of missed potential.
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I’ve been saying this very thing for years until I’m almost blue in the face. Raleigh needs to find its brand, or it will continue to have others define the brand for it.
The lack of a brand opens up all sorts of false narratives and misinformation campaigns that flourish in the absence of our own story.
This is most evident by Durham, whose “haughty meets gritty” brand yields a smugness towards Raleigh that you can actually feel. Everything that they want associated with them is paired with an opposite-World narrative that they cast upon Raleigh with nearly no push back.
If half the cool things that Raleigh has were in Durham, they’d be touted like they are the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, Raleigh has the James Beard national chef of the year, two food halls, the nationally vaunted Brewery Bhavana, and High Horse: literally by a celebrity chef, yet “Durham’s the foodie city”. Raleigh’s city council has been and continues to be run by Democrats, now including two young gay men, yet “Durham’s progressive and Raleigh’s conservative”. “Durham’s urban while Raleigh’s suburban” despite Raleigh having the larger urban footprint, more development happening, & in the pipeline, more people, etc. Durham’s also less densely populated by a big clip compared to Raleigh.
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Seriously, who are you all talking to in these other North Carolina cities that have these negative attitudes toward Raleigh?
Within the fairly limited universe of people who care about this stuff, Raleigh is usually ranked very highly as a foodie city. It was #12 on Zagat’s list of the best foodie cities in America, for instance. This is probably not a widely known fact about the city, but that’s probably because the vast majority of city residents are normies who prefer to eat at chain restaurants and couldn’t name a single one of the hip, cool restaurants in Durham.
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Boy I don’t know, I never been out of town and see a Visit Raleigh ad, the tourism bureau needs to strengthen. Raleigh has a lot to offer and is growing a rising market c’mon tourism bureau.
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(reply to Bull City or Bill City 
? Interesting! by Justen on Development at W cabarrus… topic)
Named for Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco
per [Wikipedia
Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco," was a world-famous brand of loose-leaf tobacco manufactured by W.T. Blackwell and Company in Durham , North Carolina. that originated around the 1850s and remained in production until August 15, 1988. Over the years, the brand often changed ownership, yet continued to be one of the most successful tobacco …
That’s a great idea but, I also would like to add I think YouTube bloggers in the future will be big drivers in recruiting tourism for Raleigh anyway it’s a nice idea you have so question ??? How would you brand Raleigh? I have to be honest, I love this city, but I think it’s a challenge right now branding it.
Raleigh : the Multi-Faceted ‘LilBigCity’ Hub of the Triangle…Greater than the sum of its parts.
Come enjoy our metropolitan amenities amidst a burgeoning downtown, active arts and cultural community, bucolic tree lined (friendly) suburban neighborhoods, world class academic and professional opportunities and the state capital to boot. All at a (not yet un-) affordable price…
I like the idea of the Open Source City also - ‘Build your Own Adventure in Raleigh’
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I think you have a future as a condo development promotional literature writer! I love me some bucolic tree lined & friendly suburban neighborhoods!! 
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As a Chapel Hill native who has colleagues in Durham, dated people from Charlotte and Fayetteville, and struggles to find anyone from abroad who know where Raleigh (or North Carolina, in general) is, I can assure you there’re plenty of people who look down on Raleigh at best.
“At best”, because most of the reactions I’ve seen lean closer to “where tf is that, and why should I care???”
It seems to me like the people who are best positioned for it -restaurant/business owners, local politicians, students etc…- tend to be in their own little bubble rather than trying to reach out as a cohesive community. City-organized block parties? Building easier ways for NCSU/Meredith/Peace/St. A/Shaw students to help out with city agencies? A unified marketing campaign to feature local restaurants beyond the national franchises that grow around our recent developments like mushrooms? It seems like Raleigh/Cary’s “family-orientedness”, on the flip side, makes it easier to have an insular, suburban, individualist (read: antisocial) culture; it’s high time we did something about this…
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I get the opposite. When I tell people all over the country and even Europe I’m from Raleigh they say “Wow! I hear that’s a wonderful beautiful place and really growing!” Often they say they’ve visited here to see a friend or for business and say they really liked it. Not saying we couldn’t use some good marketing but I’m not convinced that Charlotte’s marketing has accomplished much in defining their city.
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How about an acorn themed slogan?
Go Nuts for Raleigh
Go Nuts in Raleigh
Raleigh is Nuts
Nutty for Raleigh
Raleigh is for Nuts
Nuttin’ to do? Get Nutty in Raleigh
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Let Raleigh show your their nuts.
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Just make a millennial sequel to One Tree Hill called Raleighwood Hills.
I 
Raleigh
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There are just too many nasty things that you can do with “nut”. It makes me laugh my nuts off.
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Guess who arrived to Raleigh, Dez nutz got em.
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Don’t know where to put this but here it is:
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Can’t wait for 75 deg. slush hockey
Not the temp that’s an issue, it’s the humidity.
As long as there’s no rain, no direct sun and low humidity you can make ice almost anywhere.
Hopefully it’s not too cold for the tailgating. 
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