Will Dayton coalition's brand attract business?

By John Nolan
Staff Writer
Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Dayton Development Coalition's new branding campaign for the Dayton region, aimed at target audiences around the nation, is intended to help attract new employers and professionals to support science and technology development.

Marketing specialists not connected with the campaign said it will have to be concerted, consistent and well-funded over time if it is to work.
Several who viewed the "Get Midwest ... We Think of Everything ... Dayton Region" logo also questioned whether people will comprehend it.

"It doesn't mean anything to me," said Jack Trout, principal of Trout & Partners, a Greenwich, Conn., marketing strategy firm that serves Fortune 500 companies. "You put an ad out there and say, 'I want you to come here.' That's obvious ... I'd much rather hear or see important news about what's happening in the area."

Branding campaigns must deliver a focused and comprehensible message to attract consumers, said Shashi Matta, an Ohio State University assistant professor of marketing.

"What's missing for me when I look at this logo is, 'What is it telling me?'" Matta said. "It needs to be specific to Dayton. 'Think Midwest,' 'Be Midwest' or 'Get Midwest' is way too broad for Dayton.'"

The Dayton Development Coalition and firms it hired spent two years developing the brand at a cost of $1.5 million either already spent or committed, their leaders said. Leaders of the effort said the campaign's goal is to attract companies and individuals to build the region's targeted growth industries of aerospace research, information technology, advanced materials and manufacturing, and human sciences and health care.

The promotional campaign is intended to convey the region's Midwestern values of a population that is "hard-working, entrepreneurial, open, humble, hospitable," said J.P. Nauseef, the coalition's president and chief executive officer. More here.