Digital Media and the Branding of Downtowns: Strategies for New Business Development Using Paid, Owned and Earned Media November, 2013 | Page 7

think about it. That’s why any downtown district first should determine what sets it apart from
its competitors.
While marketing a commercial product brand is certainly different than marketing a downtown area,
there are some similarities. For example, think about your favorite car: Volvo represents safety.
Mercedes’ represents luxury. Honda is known for reliability and high resale value. Product marketers
have used branding for generations to differentiate and position their products.
What Distinguishes Your Downtown Community?
A downtown can determine its brand successfully only after its leadership has carefully considered its
strengths and weakness, captured input from residents and businesses and determined its unique role.
Casey Steinbacher, President and CEO of the
Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce,
empha sizes that branding before communicating
is key. “Take a step back and figure out who you
really are and what it is you really can be,” she
said. “Then use digital media as a way to let
people know that you are the cutting edge of
that thing because you’re using digital media in a
way that relates to the thing you want to be, and
people feel like whatever that is - foodie town,
corporate town, college town, entrepreneur
town - you can use digital media to help you
An old “Lucky Strike” smokestack, once used for tobacco
become the state-of-the-art of that.”
production, overlooks businesses in downtown Durham.

Downtown Durham’s brand is positioned as
entrepreneurial, non-corporate and home to a pipeline of talented workers. The city’s downtown
leadership didn’t create the brand; it recognized and leveraged the community attitude that already
existed and embraced it. Today, its historic downtown buildings are full of residential and business
spaces. Entrepreneur startups are a crucial audience there.
“What (entrepreneurs) liked about Durham was the space was original, it was gritty,” she said. “They
don’t need tricked out office space. They need a building with high speed internet access and something
to put their laptop on.”
Now that the downtown Durham brand has been accepted both by leadership and local merchants,
ambassadors for the district are sharing that brand consistently throughout their paid and owned
media outlets.

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