2025 NATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN MARKETING & PROMOTION FINALIST
BEYOND THE LOGO: HOW PLACE BRANDING BECAME KIMBA ' S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ENGINE
A CASE STUDY IN TRANSFORMING COMMUNITY IDENTITY INTO STRATEGIC COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
By Mel Garibaldi
Small regional councils face an increasingly complex challenge. We compete for investment dollars against metropolitan centres with larger budgets and greater market visibility. We work to attract skilled workers in an era of metropolitan migration. We seek to build tourism economies while our towns may lack " hero " attractions. And we do all of this with constrained resources and capacity.
The traditional economic development toolkit, like grants, incentives, and infrastructure investment, remains important. But in an attention economy where perception drives decision-making, there ' s a strategic lever many councils underutilise: place branding. This article examines how the District Council of Kimba transformed place branding from a marketing exercise into a strategic economic development framework that has fundamentally shifted how we attract investment, grow tourism, build cohesion, and shape policy.
UNDERSTANDING PLACE BRANDING AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Place branding is frequently misunderstood and dismissed as superficial: new logos, feel-good slogans, or expensive consultancy projects that deliver little tangible return. This scepticism often comes from councils that have invested in branding exercises that produced beautiful brand books but failed to drive measurable outcomes.
The difference lies in approach. Authentic place branding is not about creating an image; it ' s about revealing and amplifying the authentic story that already exists within a community.
When executed well, place branding becomes a decision-making framework that provides clarity about what opportunities to pursue, how to communicate with investors and visitors, what infrastructure investments support the brand promise, and how to measure success. It answers the fundamental question every economic development strategy must address: " Why here?"
Place branding is particularly powerful for regional councils because it levels the playing field. We may not have the population base or funding of capital cities, but we can compete on story, authenticity, and identity- assets metropolitan centres often struggle to articulate.
THE I ' M KIMBA JOURNEY Kimba is a town of approximately 1,100 people located at the gateway to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. In 2023, Council recognised that while we were investing in infrastructure and services, we lacked a coherent narrative about who we are and where we ' re going. Conversations
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL VOL 19 NO 1 2026 11