Branding Destinations: What's In a Name?

When officials at the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland decided in 2006 that they wanted to do something to set their city's marketing arm apart from others, they didn't decide on the new name, Positively Cleveland, right away.

Even more than creating a unique identity, said Dennis Roche, president of Positively Cleveland, he and his colleagues wanted a name that would convey the attitude and energy of the city.

They considered other options – Travel Cleveland, Genuine Cleveland and Visit Cleveland – before settling on Positively Cleveland, which launched last September.

“We're trying to communicate a message that's hard to get across when you call yourself a bureau,” he added. “We wanted a name change – not necessarily this one – and researched it for a year.”

Cleveland isn't alone. Destination management organizations across the country and world are changing their names from the conventional designation (“City Name” Convention & Visitors Bureau) to ones with some more pizazz.

The convention and visitors bureau in New York City may have been the first, at least among large U.S. cities. It underwent a name change in 1999, becoming NYC & Company.

Three years later, the old Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau became LA Inc. and, just to be safe, added The Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau at the end. Then along came the others, among them: Meet Minneapolis, Choose Chicago, Meet Aruba and Visit Charlotte.

“It's fitting that New York would be the first,” said Christopher Heywood, spokesman for NYC & Company. “The name works for the organization that we are today, but we're much more than a name.”

When the New York City CVB changed its name, its activities were limited to the city's tourism business. Then in June 2006, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg integrated NYC & Company, NYC Big Events and NYC Marketing – three separate entities – under the single NYC & Company banner.

“For now, the name is still fitting,” Heywood added.

“The basic thing is to avoid the temptation to just pick a name,” Roche said. “You have to do some due diligence.”

Cleveland polled visitors about the new moniker and tested it with more than 11,000 meeting planners before deciding Positively Cleveland truly represented the northern Ohio city.

“I didn't have a strong feeling about any particular name going into this, but I did hope that … we would come up with something unique,” Roche said.

After officials landed on the Cleveland bureau's new name, they still had many other details to address.

The CVB changed its Web site to www.positivelycleveland.com, and saw a drop in Web traffic during the first couple months afterward, Roche said.

“Not unexpectedly, it takes a while to gain some traction,” he added. “(However) in January and February, the numbers are incredible.”

CVB officials also wanted the name change to take place when the cost – for things like a new letterhead, business cards and logos – would have the least impact. So, the name change was also timed to happen when the previous inventory of business cards and stationary ran out, Roche said.

“Coincidentally, we were going to have to do this anyway,” he added.

In total, the change cost about $65,000, including $15,000 to redo the city's tradeshow booth and $15,000 for the research.

“This change for us has really been very helpful,” Roche said. “As a marketing tool, it really sets us apart.”

Sometimes CVB executives decide it's not the name that needs to change; it's the thinking behind the name.

That will be the case for the Shreveport-Bossier City (La.) Convention & Visitors Bureau when it reveals its community branding efforts April 3, said Brandy Claiborne, spokeswoman for the CVB. The organization is currently in the soft launch phase of its new branding effort, Louisiana's Other Side, she added.

“It allowed us to geographically claim the other side of the state,” Claiborne said, describing its attempts to distinguish Shreveport-Bossier City from New Orleans.

Although it's a smaller city than Cleveland, Shreveport-Bossier City has incurred substantially higher costs in changing its brand. Advertising in the community and region took about $200,000, not including the uncalculated cost of new envelopes, letterhead, banners, business cards, marketing materials, visitors guides, Powerpoint presentations, e-mail templates and billboards, Claiborne said.

“We're redoing just about everything that we have,” she added. “It has been crazy the number of projects that we've been working on at one time.”

If it works, they will be just as happy as those who came up with NYC & Company, Positively Cleveland or Visit Charlotte.

“We hope this will give us an edge over our competitors,” Claiborne said.