The Challenge of City Branding

Branding a city, writes Scott Doyon, isn't as easy as creating a product brand. Cities already have identities, so a new brand can ring false if it isn't in harmony with reality. Case in point: Dunwoody, Georgia.

1 minute read

October 18, 2011, 12:00 PM PDT

By Tim Halbur

Dunwoody recently released a new logo and slogan, which looks remarkably like the Walmart logo and has received "less than flattering" feedback, according to Doyon:

"Like any organization, cities yearn to present themselves. To embody their complex wholeness in snappy visual shorthand. To brand themselves."

The problem is that the desire to present an image can often be aspirational and conflict with the actual image of the city:

"...cities are living organisms, built upon evolving visions with a legacy of past behaviors and no shortage of current, on-the-ground realities, which means-like it or not-they already have a brand."

FULL STORY: Defining the City: On Being and Becoming

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 in Terrain.org

Community / Economic Development Georgia City Branding

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