Speaking Topics
Why City and Tourism Brands Fail (and Yours Doesn't Have To)
In this thought-provoking session, Bill demonstrates why so many city brands unnecessarily fail, become mired in controversy or just run out of steam. Bill contends that many are on the wrong track from the start and are therefore doomed to mediocrity. Some were predestined to fail before the planning process even started. He presents valuable tips and ideas that any city can employ to keep its brand planning and implementation on the right track.
Bill addresses the pitfalls and mistakes that cities make every week in branding, and suggests practical ideas, time-tested techniques and solutions that he has developed over decades of successfully branding places of all sizes. Attendees will learn:
- The seven deadly sins that cause city brands to fail.
- The essentials for successful brand planning and implementation.
- How to keep the brand customer-focused and not distracted by vocal locals.
- How to optimize stakeholder buy-in, encourage brand adoption and minimize controversy.
- Which places are getting it right - and which aren’t?
City Branding: The Rx for Stronger Tourism and Economic Development
The global recession and its recovery are bumpy rides for all city marketers and call for carefully considered strategic responses that go well beyond simply cutting costs and simply improving service.
There’s a clarion call for ambitious cities to highlight their competitive advantages to make themselves more relevant, meaningful and valued than ever before – or lose market share and slip further behind.
Bill spotlights how cities can use the focus and discipline of a brand strategy to boost tourism and economic development performance.
This session answers:
- Why does a brand management strategy make even more sense when times are tough?
- What are the five brand pillars that all city marketers should adopt for the recovery?
- What’s the best way to unify stakeholders and marketing efforts to strengthen the city’s marketing ROI?
- Which eight rules will shape the next generation of city marketing?
- Which places are getting it right?
The Nuts and Bolts of Branding and Marketing Cities
Branding is one of today’s hottest and most misunderstood business subjects. This session is based on Bill’s internationally acclaimed book, Destination Branding for Small Cities – The Essentials for Successful Place Branding and explains why it takes much more than a snappy new logo and catchy tagline to create a city brand. This is a great primer and demystifies the concept of branding. He shows how a city can develop durable competitive advantage, and provides real world examples, as well as affordable, proven tools and checklists to launch and manage a small city brand.
This session answers the questions:
- What is essential before you start the branding process?
- Why is branding important to ambitious small cities?
- What should you do today to stand out from the ordinary?
- What are the leading pitfalls in city branding and how can you avoid them?
- What are the critical questions to test your positioning, logo and tagline?
- Why do lists of city attributes miss their mark?
- Which places are getting it right?
The Fifteen Ground Rules for Small City Tourism Success
They may be no-brainers, but it’s amazing how many communities spend scarce resources on advertising to attract tourism and economic development customers, yet at the same time are leaking income and marketing dollars out the “back door”. There are probably twenty, thirty or forty low cost (and no cost) solutions that most small communities can immediately implement.
During this session, Bill shares a lifetime of practical experience and explains how communities can use simple, cost-effective techniques and ideas to attract more income, halt leaking dollars, boost customer satisfaction, and increase local prosperity, yet still conserve their valuable marketing funds. This session is specifically designed for communities with small budgets wanting to build their reputation, visitor spending, economic well-being and a better ROI.
- How can small cities stop leaking tourism dollars – this weekend?
- What is the easiest way for most communities to attract more visitors?
- What are the three greatest threats to small city tourism?
- Why are most small cities wasting money on advertising?
- What is the best source of future visitors for most communities?
- What are the rules of thumb for tourism success?
Branding: Ten Small Cities That Are Getting It Right
Size has very little to do with building a great reputations. Bill showcases the ideas, techniques and solutions that ten small cities are using to stand out from the ordinary. What do these cities have in common?
- What can we learn from their brand planning and implementation?
- How have they defined their strongest positioning without alienating stakeholders?
- How did they unify stakeholders and generate community wide support?
- What has made them successful?
Branding: The New Power Tool for Cities
Without intervention, the costs of an outdated or inaccurate city image can be lost jobs, income and new investment – and this leads to less tax revenues, less government services, and diminished credibility and respect with key audiences. For ambitious and forward-thinking cities, establishing a positive brand reputation is not an option, it’s a necessity.
This session reveals the answer to creating successful city brands lies in making and delivering on a valued promise. This means that your reality must match or exceed what you say about yourself.
Bill takes participants on an illuminating journey through seven easy-to-follow steps for designing a winning brand that can consistently delivers on its promise. He outlines the potential pitfalls, opportunities, and rules of thumb that ambitious small cities can use to keep their branding efforts on the right track.
Attendees will learn:
- What is (and isn’t) a brand.
- Why branding is important
- What’s absolutely essential before you start the branding process.
- The fundamental steps needed for successful city branding.
- How to engage local stakeholders and make them evangelists for the brand.
- How to define your competitive advantage and laser-point positioning.
- The critical checklists for testing various aspects of the brand strategy.
- Which cities have done it well, and which haven’t.
The TDM Brand Discovery Workshop
A great way to fast track your brand planning is to engage Bill Baker to facilitate a Brand Discovery Workshop. This energizing 3 to 4 hour workshop for Boards and marketing committees features a presentation on the essentials of city branding and an interactive strategic planning session which highlights many of TDM’s proprietary systems and includes practical exercises to jump start your brand planning, avoid pitfalls and address the issues that are critical for you to build a distinctive and sustainable competitive advantage.
How To Schedule Bill for Your Conference
If you would like Bill Baker to speak at your conference or seminar, simply email or call (503) 692 4603 (9AM - 5PM Pacific Time). We can then discuss the nature of your event and explore how he can make the best contribution.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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