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Regional Branding

09.17.2010

George Erickcek, a senior regional analyst at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, takes on regional branding for economic development:

“I would spend that last economic development dollar on customized training programs, a business retention call or a business leadership or innovation program, long before I would consider spending it on a branding campaign targeted at a specific industry. In short, let’s put economics back into economic development and leave branding and targeting to the hawkers of consumer goods.”

Full article: Economic development shouldn’t be about branding Michigan

While his target is regional branding, Erickcek is making an argument for economic gardening, or the idea that scarce economic development resources should be focused on high-growth, high-impact firms (some use Stage 2 to describe these firms), rather than broadly-defined industries or clusters. See GrowFL as an example of a statewide initiative.

It’s not surprising that an academic would criticize regional branding, and I wouldn’t argue a bit about the uselessness of trite slogans like “open for business” or “live, work, and play.” But the practitioner in me knows that regional branding can be useful for building community awareness and support for economic development. So does the process justify the investment?

I struggle with this dilemma all the time. Consultants are hired to design and execute a process that culminates in a plan, leaving regions with the responsibility of doing the work and getting results. And perhaps that’s as it should be—regions should have ownership over their own futures. But the entrepreneur in me thinks there may be a better way.