Branding Raleigh to the World

First Citizens are extremely hostile to downtown. I could see them putting a whopper in North Hills though.

(within close proximity to multi-million dollar SHFs) :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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I don’t know if “hostile” is quite the right word, they do have a branch and some offices in a modestly sized building they own on Fayetteville Street - but they of course own 15 acres spanning nearly two full blocks at North Hills. If they build anything, it will be there.

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They were going to build a tower downtown but backed out at some point. I think I learned that on this forum.

What’s weird to me is that FC Bank does have some nice tall buildings in other downtown cities. However I assume that it’s because a developer came to them with an offer to fill space and not build it themselves. :thinking:

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Their tower was propsed around the same time as the other two towers were built. The other two got started, so because of the office space glut, they cancelled their building.

If I remember correctly, it was straight up neo wedding cake architecture too.

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It just needed a bride and groom on top of the columns at the top.

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Do they own those buildings or is it a (former) Wells Fargo situation where they use a small portion of the office space but are paying for the naming rights?

Not before demolishing a block of historic buildings first. Raleigh is like Charlie Brown, missing that football again and again.

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i think i got this in like 07 in Seattle. kinda neat branding of a singular element in downtown. maybe with raleigh the skyline shouldn’t be the main focus.

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This likely is a different thread, and has been discussed a length. Raleigh has no “brand”. What is Raleigh, what makes us unique? I had the TV on for background noise over the weekend on Roku. I swear almost every commercial break had a commercial for Charlotte. Sure, it is all targeted advertising, I get it. But it was almost oversaturation of Charlotte attractions, Charlotte restaurants, Charlotte sports, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love Charlotte and have tried to move there more than once. But What/Who is Raleigh? We’re NOT a sleepy Southern State Capital anymore, we are a rapidly growing mid-sized city. Sure, Charlotte IS bigger, but we’re not that small. Same can be said about Nashville, TN. Their brand is well understood. They are also a Southern State Capital, but far from sleepy, and also a booming mid-sized city. Would an MLB team help get us on the radar? Maybe? Have the Hurricanes helped? I’m guessing yes (but it would be nice to be able to see the local games more than 3 or 4 times a season for the non-cable subscribers. I feel like Raleigh is having an awkward identity crisis and trying to figure out what/who it wants to be when it grows up. But by the time that is understood, I’ll be long gone.

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Our regional brand (Triangle, Research Triangle) has quite a strong national profile, and North Carolina as a state is pretty well recognized and well thought-of for a lot of reasons (economy, growth, purple-state politics, mountains, beaches, golf, NASCAR) but Raleigh itself has very little in terms of a standalone identity. Most people throughout the country have almost no specific knowledge of Raleigh, beyond that it was the “big city” from the Andy Griffith show. There is not much to distinguish us from other sprawling boom towns like OKC, Columbus, Little Rock, etc, and I swear that at least half the people in the country have basically no notion that Raleigh and Durham are separate entities at all.

Like it or not our identity and our brand is strongly tied with our region.

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Bingo! I grew up in Mount Airy. Because of the Andy Griffith Show, little podunk backwoods Mount Airy (“Mayberry”) has more recognition than the state capital. People literally go there as a destination (I still don’t get it, I couldn’t leave fast enough). SMDH

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For what it’s worth, I’m sure the vast majority of people (at least of a travelling age) have no idea what the Andy Griffith show is, much less that it references Raleigh. I’ve actually seen a few episodes as a kid and I never got it until after I moved here and people talked about it on this forum :rofl:

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Sadly, our biggest brand play is the Hurricanes, and it gets attributed to “Carollina” for, you know, regional cooperation reasons. :enraged_face:
We better not make that mistake again, should we be fortunate to land another team.

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…idk man, I’m still HIGH on the idea of an MLB team called the Carolina Copperheads.

Just WORKS.

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Their team colors will be beige and seafoam green. :wink:

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Ideally, if Raleigh is lucky enough to get another team, it would be great for it to be the Raleigh somethings, but if they have to go with the broader Carolina, the Carolina Copperheads would be pretty strong. The team could play Copperhead Road by Steve Earle! :guitar:

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