About The Rockville ‘Brand’

I have been following the progress of Rockville’s “branding effort” since it began, for a number of reasons. First, I’m interested because I was asked to serve on the citizen’s committee that did an initial review of the consultant proposals for the work. This is something I was grateful and proud to be asked to do.

But, much more important to me are the other two reasons. In the first place, I love Rockville and it’s my home. In the second place, my career is focused on the intersection of public life and communications. I’ve been curious about how the branding initiative would play out.

Now that the consulting firm (a partnership, actually, of two firms: Return On Investment and Community Retail Catalysts) has made its report and delivered its suggestions for a brand and tagline, I feel it is appropriate to speak up. This is just one person’s opinion, so I hope you will take it with a grain of salt. It’s also important to know that I did vote for ROI/CRC as a finalist in the original committee I served on. I am not just airing longstanding gripes or sour grapes or anything like that.

But, having watched both the initial report on the research in August and the final presentation this week, I confess to being underwhelmed.

What’s A Place Brand?

First, it’s useful to understand what we mean when we say we are going to “brand” a place.

“Branding” doesn’t just mean slapping a logo on things and taking out a few ads and sending some press releases – though that is what many people imagine when they hear about it. Done well, a branding effort tries to find and articulate what makes a place unique in a way that is engaging to decision makers.

My wife does branding for a living and since she’s not in the room, I can brag on her. She’s one of the top consultants in branding schools and colleges in the nation. She makes a point to clients that is probably the most important thing to know about a brand. A brand is not just a collection of good things. It is a unique collection of good things that intersects with what the market is looking for. My wife calls this the “sweet spot.”

What is the “market” for a place brand? Who is the audience? Well, simply put, it’s everybody. It’s established businesses considering whether to move here, and businesses considering whether to leave here. It’s families moving to the area, trying to decide where to live (as my family did in 2002, when we moved here from Maine). It’s entrepreneurs trying to decide where to put their start-up. It’s government agencies trying to decide where to put that new lab. It’s the people who live and work in Rockville, seeking support for the strong allegiance they feel for hometown.

Because the audience is so broad, place branding brings with it special challenges. It is easy to try to please too many people and so please nobody. It also has added political challenges. Everyone deserves a say, and it is easy for people to wind up feeling excluded.

Place branding can be a real bear. I have great respect for the firms who tackle it.

What Goes Into A Brand

Typically, when developing a brand, there are three aspects to what is delivered.

First is the research. Whoever is doing the work should look deeply, and broadly, finding that collection of good things that at the same time distinguish the client from other good things. What’s uniquely good about the client (in this instance, Our Fair City)? In some cases, that thing that is unique is actually a collection of things, any one of which alone might actually not be unique. But, together, they add up to a distinguishing set of characteristics.

The capstone of the research – the main, most important, product – is the brand statement. This is the distillation of all the research and is the blueprint for everything that follows. It’s the most important product of a branding process.

With the brand statement in hand, the client has a map for what kinds of things to emphasize and play off of in its communications. That includes what is said as well as what is shown. For instance, think of a large university that nevertheless has been able to foster an intimate, individual feel for students. Its basic brand position might include that interesting juxtaposition. Many prospective students might be worried about getting lost at a large research institution, but here you’ll find a home. In its materials, the school is not going to show aerial photos of large campus events or huge auditoriums with massive lectures – it will instead show close ups of individuals in one-on-one meetings with professors. That’s just an example of how the brand statement or blueprint can inform how an institution talks about itself.

It’s not “marketing” or “pr.” It’s finding what matters and making it clear.

The second thing that is delivered is a tagline. A brief statement. Sometimes a fragment. A tagline typically is what people see right next to whatever logo there is. It conveys and reinforces an impression. Once an institution has figured out what its “sweet spot” is, it is worth repeating this. Why? Because that helps people to articulate what they know about a place. The tagline should reinforce the brand statement.

The third thing that the client gets is what’s called the “creative.” This is usually a range of ideas for what that brand blueprint might look like in reality.These visuals should also reinforce the brand statement and tagline. For instance, a long-established bank whose unique strength is its longevity and tradition does not want bright purple and whimsical colors.

So the keys are:

• Brand statement rooted in research
• Tagline connected to brand statement
• Visuals that reinforce the above

What Was Delivered

Brand Statement

The brand statement that ROI/CRC developed is:

“Rockville is justifiably regarded as one of America’s top, small cities for work, for play and for life. It is the upscale and highly educated, business-friendly home to some of the nation’s and the world’s most prominent biomed and technology companies and blessed by proximity to the resources of the world’s most powerful city, Washington, D.C. And Rockville is a city that remembers and reveres its roots, its commitment to citizen-centric public service, to the planet and to the connectivity of its neighborhoods and residents.”

Let me make sure it is clear, first of all, that I think ROI/CRC did an effective bit of research. They did an environmental scan, used the myriad and comprehensive databases available to them, and made attempts at gathering public input through a handful of small community meetings, and through a branding survey. With more resources at their disposal, they might well have mounted a more visible public campaign to gather broader-based input, but the contract to do the work was relatively modest ($75,000 — I am not saying that is a small sum, but it is in the midrange of what things like this cost).

With all that in mind, the branding statement is accurate enough. However, I agree with Councilmember John Britton who reacted at Monday night’s meeting that it felt “limiting.” Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio also felt that it was not quite there, a sentiment with which I agree.

To me, it felt like it only scratched the surface. And, more important, it missed key pieces that drive the very points it is trying to make. (For instance, one reason Rockville is such a biotech powerhouse is how close we are to the major federal labs. That is relevant to the brand statement as it is a distinguishing characteristic.)

In August, reacting to the initial research that was presented, Councilmember Bridget Donnell Newton said, “It took the communications task force six months to tell us for free what you just told us. I think there is a whole segment of the population that would take umbrage at what you just told us.” That’s a good point. I don’t know if folks would necessarily be angry, but I do know there are a lot of people who simply would not see themselves reflected in the brand position statement.

And, if the brand statement does not reflect reality — everyone’s reality — it can’t do its job.

Taglines

ROI/CRC delivered three possible taglines:

• “The World Class City That Feels Like Home”
• “Find The Good Life In A Great City”
• “Get Into It”

To work the way they should, the taglines need to connect to the brand statement. The first one sort of does, though it is boringly phrased. (Sorry, I’m just sayin’.)

The second might work if the audience were only upscale residents looking to relocate but it holds out little for someone who is deciding where to put their new company.

I agree with Councilmember Mark Pierzchala’s observation on Monday that these taglines seem “too wordy.”

The third just feels like a generic phrase that could apply to any city any where. In fact, it could almost apply to any thing. Knowing how these things go, I assumed that it was just the third option the consultants presented because they had to present three. I can’t see any way that the “get into it” tagline connects to the brand statement. (If any decision makers are reading this, I beg of you, please do not go with tagline #3.)

Visuals

Finally, there were three visuals presented:

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Click for full size

Click for full size

The first two are OK, in my book. But just OK. They look sort of like what you think of when you think “city logo.”

The first has a somewhat archaic typeface that gives a nice sense of history. The second is overly official. The third is the most appealing from the standpoint of accessibility and visual appeal. As Mayor Marcuccio pointed out on Monday, it nicely uses the little red cross from the Maryland flag (and Rockville flag) over the “i.”

However, I also agree with her that the three-color “R” leaves something to be desired. It looks too much like corporate logos you see every day. The problem with this is that it is supposed to become an identifiable element – so when you see the “R” you think “Rockville.” However, to develop that impression, we would have to put lots and lots of money behind using it in ads and other communications. (Think of the Facebook “f” logo. Would you know what it was if it was not ubiquitous? Me neither.) I think the “R” is too generic, though I may be wrong.

Worse in #3, and something I feel on more solid ground about, is that squiggly swoosh underneath. While it currently is in vogue and has been for a few years (Amazon, Nike, Northrop Grumman), the squiggle will eventually be as dated as avocado-colored appliances. As I make this critique, I am mindful of Councilmember Piotr Gajewski’s point Monday that “We’re not getting into this exercise every three years. I am looking to get 20 years of life out of this.”

But a bigger problem with the squiggle in #3 is that other places are using it. Look at Fort Collins, Colorado:

Look at the little hillside under the tree on McKinney, Texas’ logo:

How did I pick these places to show you? They have each gone through branding processes that resulted in their current logos.

My point here is that we should avoid dating ourselves and from looking like just any other town.

Some Possibly Constructive Ideas

I don’t just like to criticize things. I feel like if you are going to criticized, you can be most helpful if you have a better idea to offer. Or at least another idea. While I felt it important to present as clear a critique as I could, I did not want to just leave it at that. That would not be fair.

I am no visual artist, so I cannot present alternative logos. Besides, overall I like the visual for #3 only without the squiggle and probably without the “R.”

However, I can make suggestions for the brand statement and tagline.

So I went ahead and took my own crack at a “brand statement” for Rockville. I rooted it in ROI/CRC’s research, in REDI’s information, in what I have heard people say in public meetings and private gatherings – and my own sense of why I am proud to be here. I know it is too long, but what the hey.

Once I had the statement, I decided to go ahead and suggest a tagline too.

I am not putting this forward to start a competition or to create a controversy. If it gets used in any way, that’s great. If it spurs conversation – even better. If it gets rejected and ridiculed – that’s OK too.

But we are trying to develop a 20-year identity for the hometown we love. I think it’s important that as many voices as possible step forward.

And so, here is one possible tagline and brand statement:

Rockville. World Class Home Town.

Rockville can boast multiple national awards placing it among the top cities in which to work and live. With good reason.

Rockville, the third largest city in Maryland, is the county seat of Montgomery County and is just 20 minutes from the nation’s capital. It has a rich history spanning centuries.

While many new residents choose Rockville due to its convenience and excellent amenities, many other families have been here for generations. This mix creates a unique place where world-class lives right alongside neighborly and they thrive together. For both new and established residents, it is their hometown.

Rockville’s public schools are consistently among the top in the nation. Its city services, including public safety as well as parks and recreation, are the envy of the national capital region and beyond. Its city government is open and responsive, and known nationally as a leader in green building and policies.

The people and neighborhoods of Rockville are highly diverse, highly connected, and highly educated. Its adult population is among the most-educated in the region and the nation. Its Internet connection rate is among the highest in the nation. Its median income is over $86,000.

Four higher education institutions have significant campuses in Rockville including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and Montgomery College.

Rockville’s business climate benefits from its proximity to the key federal research labs. With 10 of the top 25 biosciences companies headquartered in Rockville, it has one of the greatest concentrations of biomedical and technology firms in the world. Rockville is committed to policies that provide the infrastructure business needs, from business incubators, fiber optic connectivity, workforce education, housing, and resources.

What do you think? I hope you will reply in the comments!

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