Philadelphia Brand is Inside-Out

Philadelphia has a new branding campaign, designed to inspire citizens and win over tourists. It's "Spread the Love". A play on Philadelphia being the so-called "City of Brotherly Love". That has never really been the city's key attribute, but it is the Latin translation of the name Philadelphia.

I have a real problem with brand campaigns of this type. Brands should be about the consumer and be built outside-in. The focus should be on the benefits to the consumer of the brand. Philadelphia's campaign, like many other cities and states, is inside-out--all about features that the city wants people to associate with the city but which have no real benefit to the visitor or developer of commerce. Maybe the campaign is designed to have the citizens of Philadelphia be nicer and more "loving" toward one another and toward visitors? Well, that hasn't quite happened. In every Travel and Leisure poll in recent years, Philadelphia has ranked near the bottom of the 25 cities rated on "kindness and friendliness". The benefit to visitors seems to be to visit the history and culture. Dealings with locals seems not to have impressed too many, if the Travel and Leisure poll is to be believed.
So, with that background, perhaps the city wanted citizens to be nicer.

"Share the Love" seems to suggest that the city has some to spare. Walk the streets of Philadelphia and one will notice that love is in short supply. The streets are not friendly or loving toward citizen or visitor alike. Trying to suggest that a city that is viewed by outsiders as snarly and tough is loving just through a campaign is wasted money.

In all seriousness, the campaign in Philadelphia is backward. It should have started with the benefits that visitors will received by visiting the city and should have been designed in that way. "I Love NY" is all about me--I can find so many ways to love NY and the campaign gives everyone an opportunity to see themselves in the ad.

Philadelphia's campaign is not much better or worse than Baltimore declaring itself "Charm City" or Cincinnati claiming to be the "Queen City" or Pittsburgh trying to reposition itself as "City of Bridges" rather than "Steel City". Philadelphia's snarly attitude and toughness could have actually been turned into a trait that people would want to see and experience--the city built its character over a long time--it is America personified. It could be positioned that it has always been the heart and soul of America. It is the toughness that gave rise to the revolution. Well, hopefully you can see where I am going with this.

Cities are behind the times in terms of branding. They continue to believe that they can spin a brand and image rather than trying to see themselves from the outside-in and sell the benefits of coming. The worst offender is Delaware, which states "It's Good Being First", as if anyone outside of Delaware knew that it refers to Delaware being the first to ratify the Constitution. Talk about insular thinking!!

It's time that cities start working with brand agencies that understand the new world of branding and begin looking at benefits. Philadelphia has one campaign that is right on the mark. It was one of the first cities to embark on a campaign to attract gay men and women as tourists. The theme: "Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay". Now that's a reason to visit Philadelphia! Great campaign. If they could only come up with something for other segments of the tourist population equally as good.