More fuel to push this conversation along:
What is Raleigh’s story? How do we focus on our people? What makes people here comfortable and happy? How do we further that? What makes people here uncomfortable and unhappy? How do we change that?
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Raleigh’s story starts with…
Raleigh, Welcome…ya’ll!
There is something the I really like about that phrase…
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I really like the signs and the message too.
But why did they stop producing the signs? scarcity can be a good tool for designer bags and luxury cars but not when you try to brand Raleigh some more 
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I work as a designer and by default I do a lot of branding work, so I’ve followed this topic pretty closely and have found it to be really interesting. These are a lot of good points here and a lot of good discussion.
After a lot of lurking, I’m going to weigh in (take it or leave it)
If you’re searching and prying to find something (anything) that will resonate, you’re brand isn’t likely to succeed in catching on (too complicated/too obscure).
On the other side of the coin, if it’s not 100% authentic then people are going to see through it. And it’s not likely to succeed (too fake).
Also, it’s worth noting that while the home grown (or long time) Raleigh-ites know the MOST about their city and their region, we aren’t the ones that get to define it. We just get to frame it.
Like it or not, there is a vague perception of us that exists. To succeed, we’d need to dive into those perceptions to find our outward-facing identity (aka: our brand).
Most of my family is from New Jersey with a group in California. Here is a quick glimpse of the perceptions of Raleigh I’ve heard throughout the years:
– southern, college basketball, technology, racism, slow-moving, warm weather, good colleges, –
So you’d probably want to build out this list a little more (and do it in a more official way), but what you DON’T need to do is argue with this list or try to make excuses of why someone should/shouldn’t have this perception. (because it does no good for this exercise).
Then take that list and look for ways to spin those perceptions to your advantage. For instance:
Southern - This is a weighted term bc some will bring baggage of what ‘southern’ means to them. Sadly, that could include slavery and stale politics for some. But one thing everyone agrees on about the south is how friendly people are down here as opposed to everywhere else. So leaning on the ‘Southern Hospitality’ aspect of things would connect with their initial view of ‘southern’ but give it a positive connotation.
Colleges - People everywhere know this is where you find the best college basketball in the nation, they also know that Duke, UNC and NC State are here. So they know a lot about great colleges being here (whether it be academic or athletics), but they often don’t think a step further, that the kids that go to those colleges graduate and live here. So you lean into the fact that we are an extremely smart’ area which would make sense to them when they remember their initial perception about the great colleges.
Technology - They’ve seen us on the lists. They’ve heard about the budding tech scene here. But that’s where it ends. They don’t’ know why or the story behind it. Parlaying the “we have great colleges” and the extremely smart area notion and paring that with the “Research Triangle Park” …suddenly paints a much more clear picture of who we are and why we’re succeeding.
Slower pace - Use this to our advantage. Frame it like: We’re not slow because we’re dumb or because we push away change, we’re slow because we like to enjoy ourselves and we don’t need the stress. We are so smart that we don’t want to get caught up in the fast-paced, stress machine that SF, LA or NY is dealing with. We can do everything they can do, but we can do it a little more peacfully.
So you see, you are starting to weave a story.
"Raleigh: A place that is super friendly, but also really smart, and that leads to us being great innovators (but we don’t take it all too seriously.)"
What a positive painted picture that is entirely made up of their initial perceptions of us.
Then you start moving that notion into marketing material. Visuals, slogans, etc.
The vibe would be like ‘Like silicon valley with southern hospitality’ (now you wouldn’t use that, but that would be the vibe it gives off). Like super tech smart and innovative, but instead of being tech-bro d-bags, we’re friendly and inviting. If you’re successful, you’ve used their own perceptions to tell the story how you want it told.
Again, take it or leave it. Not trying to tell anyone how to do anything, just weighing in with some thoughts.
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…and I’ll take it with open arms; this is perfect (and almost perfectly captures what some of us have been trying to say here)! I personally felt like it’d be difficult to spin the qualities you mentioned into something that could work, but I think you articulated it just right by framing this as a storytelling problem instead of just a communication/PR issue.
I do have two questions, though.
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is there anything else that should be added to/modified in this list? It looks… pretty comprehensive to me.
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what’s the best way to spin this into marketing materials? Obviously there’s city/regional marketing efforts or grassroots things to end up on the news with… but how can we (people who aren’t marketing agencies) do to spread this message?
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@keita thanks. Let me take a stab at those…
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Oh yes for sure. Coming up with this list should be done in a way more official way. I was justing using words that have been commonly associated with the Raleigh in my experiences. I think the list is ok, but you could definitely add to that. However, you don’t want the list to be too massive. It’s good to get a larger list and parse it down to maybe 3-5 of your most popular perceptions.
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Look at “Keep Austin Weird.” That started as a slogan from the small business alliance, but it became a movement. It became a rallying cry for that city. They had hats, shirts, murals. It bled into nearly everything and the people liked it and adopted it.
Now, something like that doesn’t need to come from a government entity, but it NEEDS community buy-in from some of the more influential brands around town. That’s the key. So without an official entity backing it, how do you get buy-in of one singular vision from all these companies / brands around town?
I think to do that you can’t have this be profit driven. It cant be one creative studio trying to brand the city. People will reject it and other creative studios will try to compete w/ their take and you’ll have a mess on your hands
For something like this to be successful, It needs to be a coming together of the creative community and the local businesses and the residents as sort of a collective project.
Actually, I’m working on a project will go out pretty soon and could be a catalyst for creating something like that and I’ll share it here (when it’s live) for those interested.
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Like Austin, Raleigh needs to differentiate itself from the stereotypcal NC. Austin is not Texas, it’s weird. I like “Welcome to Raleigh, y’all” & welcome in different languages. It sends a message about who we/Raleigh are.
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3 James Beard Award semi-finalist are Raleigh Chefs
Ashley Christensen of Poole’s Diner for Outstanding Chef
Oscar Diaz of Cortez for Best Chef Southeast
Cheetie Kumar of Garland for Best Chef Southeast
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Bravo. Formalize the best of what’s already here without continuously comparing ourselves to larger cities. Durham has successfully become known as the artsier, edgier town in the triangle because, per capita, they are. We can’t contrive anything and expect it to stick. This exercise may help us identify areas we want to improve, but not for the sake of creating a brand. Clearly Raleigh is working for many many people, so we should easily be able to verbalize Raleigh’s “why” statement. You’ve done a good job at it here.
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Strongtowns just did a podcast on this subject. About half way through and pretty good so far. Your Community's Essence is More than Bike Lanes and Edison Bulbs
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For the third year in a row Raleigh ranks in the top 3 for best quality of life in the WORLD.
That seems like a stretch, but I’ll take it.
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“Raleigh: A place that is super friendly, but also really smart, and that leads to us being great innovators (but we don’t take it all too seriously.)”**
Can someone please tell me all the ways in which Raleigh is an innovative place? I honestly have no idea. It’s a common perception that I just don’t see.
Music/Arts/culture? No
Food? We like to think so but really that’s another no. It’s better than it used to be.
Transportation/infrastructure? No
Social Issues? No
Urbanism/Housing? No
Architecture? No
Where is the innovation? To me - an innovative city should be enabling creativity and encouraging disruptive thinking. Raleigh is painfully status quo.
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I mean, have you seen our giant acorn…
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If we want an identity that we can all rally around then lets actually be an innovative place. We can’t just market ourselves into existence. All these corny slogans and branding attempts are dumb.
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I don’t know how well the slogans work with “regular” people anyway. What’s the slogan of Boston, Pittsburgh, DC etc? I get that those things may be important for attracting conventions and businesses but it seems like if you want people to come visit your city or move there it’s probably pretty far down the list of impactful things. Maybe there are studies out there that prove me wrong but I moved here 18 years ago (jebus it’s been that long) without having ever set foot in the city prior to that because that’s where an old girlfriend and I got a job. The one downside of any branding effort is the huge tension between the two Raleigh’s that are slowly forming. There’s the urban minded, progressive ( in terms of development not necessarily politically) cohort and the more suburban, regressive, protectionist folks. I’m not sure if there’s a way to create a brand that satisfies those two groups. But I’m no ad wizard.
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I think by innovation they don’t mean we invented a new dance or something. But airplane autopilot was invented here and the bar code and a lot of pharmaceuticals etc. innovative in a nerdy way
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Add to that the CREE Light emiting diode, SAS, red hat, Quintiles, Duke medicine…
There have been a ton of innovative companies and researchers here. We definitely punch above our weight in this regard…
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Inventions and patents are great and we need innovative companies but the discussion is about what the City is doing. Tax breaks to tech companies are not innovative.
Seems like we talk so bad about Raleign in this blog. It’s kind of depressing. Good to be realistic but seriously we can’t come up with positive things?
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There are actually a lot of great positive things about Raleigh, but it seems like others are trying to find that ONE great big thing that makes Raleigh special and shout it out to the world. There is no such ONE thing, but taking in the totality of all the great little things Raleigh still comes out looking pretty awesome.
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