New Geography

Tag: branding

  • A New Brand for Houston

    "We’ve probably spent in excess of $75 million in the past 30 years on image campaigns, and we keep coming back and saying, ‘Well, that didn’t work.’"

     – Former GHCVB CEO Jordy Tollett in the Houston Business Journal

    A list of many of those can be found here, including the old standbys "Bayou City", "Space City", and "Energy Capital of the World" (Wikipedia has more here).  And despite many of my own previous attempts on this blog, inspiration has struck me again, especially after reading this recent article at Salon.com on why every city needs a brand (and more on that here).

    A good city brand works on four different levels:

    1. It attracts tourists.
    2. It attracts new residents, especially highly talented and educated ones.
    3. It attracts expanding businesses.
    4. It inspires the citizens and creates a local identity.

    But it’s very hard to come up with a single brand that does all four.  Even some of the most successful brands don’t necessarily hit them all.  Two of the most famous city brands are New York’s "I {heart} NY" and Las Vegas’ "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."  And in Texas we’re all familiar with "Keep Austin Weird."  In this case, I think I’ve stumbled upon something that can work across all four.

    Before I reveal it, I need everybody to drop their cynicism shields.  I don’t think the most successful city brand in history, "I {heart} NY" could get off the ground today with our snarky cynical culture.  Just like new songs, sometimes ideas need time to grow on you.  So open up your mind, hold back judgment, and let me  reveal some context-setting definitions and the brand first followed by the supporting reasons.

    Hospitality 

    Noun: The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

    Hospitable 

    Adjective: 1) Friendly and welcoming to strangers or guests.  2) (of an environment) Pleasant and favorable for living in.

    It started with me thinking of "Houston Hospitality", but then the symmetry jumped out at me it became

    Houspitality

    What the "Aloha Spirit" is to Hawaii, the "Houspitality Spirit" can be to Houston.

    Here are some of the key words and phrases people often use when describing Houston and how they fit:

    • Houspitality for visitors and newcomers: welcoming culture to outsiders, friendliness, hospitality (duh), openness to people from all over the world (diversity), amazing restaurants, museums, arts, and other amenities
    • Houspitality for businesses: business-friendly taxes and regulation (including no zoning), culture supportive of  entrepreneurship, open business culture
    • Houspitality for residents: friendliness, openness, affordability, ease of living, high standard of living, social mobility, opportunity, open-minded, charitable (especially after Hurricane Katrina), "big small town"

    Some additional supporting reasons:

    • Short and sweet, and people "get it" pretty easily.
    • Fits well with the Texas Medical Center helping people from all over the world (and the word "hospital" is right there).  It also fits well with the airports, port, GHCVB, GHP, and others.
    • It differentiates us from other big cities (ever heard anybody talk about the friendly reputations of NYC, DC, Chicago, SF, or LA? I didn’t think so) as well as tourist destination cities (which tend to become jaded towards visitors).
    • UH’s Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management uses the motto "We are hospitality", and is one of the top ranked schools in the country for that specialty.
    • Sounds like "vitality", which is another good brand association.
    • I found a cool, somewhat similar concept here, transforming Humanitarian to Houmanitarian.
    • I think more and more people today are hungry for real community, which is harder and harder to find.  Houspitality is a great brand to convey our real sense of community in Houston.

    Finally, I’d like to end with some supportive excerpts from Ken Hoffman’s recent excellent column on what Forbes got right and wrong about Houston being America’s Coolest City.  I think you’ll easily see the Houspitality Spirit running through them…

    I remember thinking, am I going to have to change? Am I going to have to learn how to write Texan?
    I didn’t change anything. That’s part of what makes Houston cool. You can come here and stay yourself and fit right in.
    …
    Houston is cool because whoever or whatever you are, you’re welcome here. The first two years I lived here, I was burning out the copy machine at Kinko’s applying for jobs anywhere else. Now I wouldn’t leave here for anything. …

    Where better to get better?
    When a congresswoman got her head half blown off, she came to Houston to get better. When Middle East oil sheiks need surgery, they come to Houston. We have the best medical facilities in the world. I didn’t think that was cool until I was run over by a lunatic in a van and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
    I still have no idea what hospital I was taken to. But they fixed me up. That was cool.
    …
    We’re in this together
    And please stop talking about Houston’s "diversity." The only thing the word "diversity" does is separate people. Sure, we have ethnic neighborhoods; those are good for a city. It helps in picking a restaurant.
    I’ve never seen a city where people blend more gracefully than Houston.
    …
    Houston is cool
    I thought it was pretty cool when Houston welcomed Hurricane Katrina victims to ride out the storm’s aftermath here. I spent a couple of days in the Astrodome, handing out supplies and clothes to Katrina refugees. I learned a lot about Houston after Katrina. The experience changed me, too.
    …
    Being cool is a city that makes you feel like you belong. 

    This piece originally appeared at Houston Strategies.

  • Guitar World, Fender Style

    Estimates put the number of guitar players in the world at about 50 million. Something like 20 million of these pickers, strummers and shredders are Americans.

    Fender®, a name synonymous with rock n’ roll dreams, was founded in Fullerton, California by Leo Fender in 1946. Recently Fender began selling the world’s first guitar that is also a Rock Band 3® video game controller. According to Fender’s website, “the Squier Stratocaster blends state-of-the-art gaming and guitar technology with the authenticity of Fender design and engineering, The controller elevates the gaming experience to the level of real music making by letting users play the actual notes and chords of their favorite songs while racking up high gameplay scores.”

    Aligning with the Rock Band phenomenon is not Fender’s first foray into nurturing a new generation of guitar gods wherever they might be around the world.

    Fender’s headquarters are in Scottsdale, Arizona with manufacturing facilities in Corona, California (USA) and Ensenada, Baja California (Mexico). To maintain and control costs over the years, Fender introduced Squier instruments in 1982, which have been produced in several nations, including Japan, Korea, India, China, Indonesia and Mexico.

    The Squier brand’s main focus and most successful approach has been to be the “value brand” alternative to its big brother, Fender. Squier versions of signature models including the Stratocaster®, Telecaster®, Precision Bass® and Jazz Bass® guitars provide an official” cost-conscious alternative that has enabled successive generations of guitar players to pick up an axe at a reasonable cost. In Fender’s words, Stop Dreaming, Start Playing ™

    Squier is considered the launching pad for guitar players and owners who are expected to eventually upgrade to the more expensive Fender guitars. Nonetheless, Squier has established its own fan base over the years. Oftentimes this is because the lower cost emboldens guitar player to customize their guitars in ways that might be unthinkable with their higher priced counterparts. Many famous musicians for whom price is irrelevant cling to the brand.

    The world of Fender sound also includes a history of amplifiers whose distinctive tones and cabinets have defined generations of rock, jazz, country, pop and all combinations thereof.

    Today many of these Fender tones are available to the masses of guitar players on the recently released AmpliTube Fender app for Apple’s iPad. Developed by IK Multimedia and Fender, the iPad app enables guitar players to use their favorite gear anytime and anywhere, including the ’65 Deluxe Reverb™, the Super-Sonic™, the ’65 Twin Reverb™, the ’59 Bassman™ LTD and the Pro Junior™.

    With the AmpliTube Fender for iPad app anytime, anywhere joins stop dreaming, start playing as yet another way that Fender will continue to nurture and grow a new generation of guitar players. It will also rekindle the youthful dreams of an older generation of pickers and strummers who have now begun or are now resuming their guitar playing.

    Pricing for entry-level users through global manufacturing, integrating core capabilities with the latest technologies, creating and leveraging strong brands in multiple ways for multiple generations. Fender’s formula is working and holds valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and large companies alike.