Geographical branding

Branding with KATASIS is:

Branding helps to create a unique and memorable brand (trademark). To stand out among competitors, the brand must have a certain image. In addition to the product, the concept of a brand includes associations of consumers and expectations from it. A brand helps a person to form a certain relationship to a product, service or company and affects perception. Clear positioning is the key to the success of the brand. Thanks to branding, you can create and promote new brands or expand existing ones.

geographic brand development

What does the price of brand creating depend on?

  1. The scope of work. Many elements are needed to create a quality brand. For example, a promotion plan or brand book. The development of every element increases branding cost.
  2. Marketing goals. Creating a brand, you can set yourself one or more goals: increase sales, income and brand awareness. The more marketing goals there are, the higher the cost of branding is.
  3. Competition on the market. A large number of brands in a particular area make it difficult to develop unique positioning. There will be a need to conduct a fundamental analysis, which increases the cost of branding.

geographic branding

Geographic branding definition

Geographic branding is aimed at promoting cities, countries, resorts. This type of branding is gradually becoming popular, especially in the tourism business, allowing you to extract additional income. The most striking examples of existing territorial brands are mineral water resorts.

High-quality geographical branding examples of cities

Helsinki by Werklig (Finland, 2015)

Helsinki is the capital and most populous municipality of Finland, where about 1.4 million people live. This bay plexus, gulfs and islands of the Baltic, the boulevards and streets of Helsinki are flooded with magnificent architecture, interesting places for drinking, dining and stunning design. Helsinki has one of the highest urban living standards in the world. The target audience is residents of Helsinki and other cities in Finland, tourists and immigrants, in one word “everyone”. This task reinforced the need to create a flexible and memorable identity that would be easy to use. The logo has graphic wave motif (and its variations), which was borrowed from the emblem.

develop a geographic brand

Stockholm by Essen International (Sweden, 2014)

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, or even, one can say, Scandinavia is a city that has proved itself very well, with a strong economy, developed public transport, ecological, with an interesting culture and a growing population. In 2014, the city presented an updated and unified identity developed by Essen International.

Read more: Comparative design research

The updated brand is quite flexible, it combines various functions of the city and is based on the font typeface of the Stockholm Type sanserif and the image of St. Eric, the saint patron of Stockholm, borrowed from the city's emblem.

The refusal of blue and yellow color palette that was dominating in the previous logo made it possible to introduce a number of other, brighter colors and the portrait of St. Eric works equally well in his white version and in black against a white background. A unified approach to the font for urban branding is very effective, and when it comes to successful city management, a single style effectively solves its problems.

Geographical branding meaning

Paris by Graphéine (France, 2016)

The mission of the Paris tourist center is to welcome and inform visitors, promote Paris as a popular destination, as well as support the business. The letter “A” hides in itself a graceful decision – a symbol of the Eiffel Tower – it’s difficult to do without a great lady, if we are talking about an international audience. However, the kitsch border is very close, that is why the new identity was based on a minimalist typography game.

geographic branding advantages

Covington by Landor (USA, 2015)

Covington is a city in Kentucky that nobody has heard about. With a population of approximately 43,000, Covington is part of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area. A new city identity was developed by Landor. The new city slogan is “Covington’s Alive!”.

Instead of using standard geographic markers or other local signs that are common to city logos, the new Covington logo features an anthropomorphic letter “C” with a hand showing all kinds of gestures, from the ok sign to the forbidding gesture if you are fined. The new character is very amusing, funny and humanizes the city, offering it to the locals and tourists to communicate with it.

Read more: Co-Branding

geographic branding services

Branding: stages of a geographic brand creating

  1. Market and target audience analysis. To create a brand (unique and marketable) it is necessary to find out the competitive positioning, their strengths, and weaknesses. The process of creating a brand includes a study of consumer preferences and expectations. By offering what competitors do not have, and what customers want, you can increase the brand’s popularity.
  2. Company audit. At this stage, it is necessary to analyze the peculiarities of the ordering company. We examine the existing image of the company and find out how the customer sees it. We also explore everything about the perception of the company by consumers. Next, we identify product features and the main differences from competitors.
  3. Brand building. At this stage, we develop the basic elements of the brand:

Geographic Branding Advantages

  • USP (unique selling proposition);
  • brand legend;
  • brand mission and values;
  • verbal elements (name, slogan, supporting texts);
  • graphic elements (logo and corporate identity);
  • guideline and brand book.
  1. Promotion plan development. To successfully enter the market, it is necessary to develop a market sales strategy. Also, our agency will develop an advertising concept and indicate promotion channels (for a period of one year).
  2. Monitoring the results. Verification of compliance with goals and achieved results.
  3. Support during the brand launch test.

Read more: Infographic design

geographic brand creating

Our algorithm for geographic brand development

  1. We hold a strategy session. We clearly define the goals and objectives, analyze the necessary market segment and target audience, brief the client. We approve the timing and cost of the project and start to develop a geographic brand.
  2. We develop and present sketches. We develop several working sketches by different designers. Several concepts are being developed in outline quality and presented to the client. One of the sketches is approved and taken as a basis.
  3. We produce a clean copy. According to the approved draft version, a clean copy is being developed. The entire list of products approved in the contract is being worked out, approved and transferred to the client.

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