Packaging Cities

American Demographics, Jan 1, 2002

- R.G.

MARKETING CHALLENGE: REPOSITIONING AN OLD BRAND

BRAND: Buffalo-Niagara region

POPULATION: 2 million

THE CLAIM: I Am Buffalo-Niagara. Available. Productive. People.

Being the home of a pro football team has its ups and downs as a marketing tool for Buffalo, says Tom Kucharski, president of the Buffalo-Niagara Enterprise (BNE). On the upside, the area gets lots of free publicity on Sundays during football season. Unfortunately, that publicity always seems to be covered under three feet of snow.

Kucharski, a native of the area, moved back about two years ago - after 15 years working of for other cities' economic development organizations - to help his hometown area find and market its brand. For the first time, the eight-county region of Western New York and the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario are being marketed as one, through the efforts of the BNE, a regional development outfit formed in 1999 with $27 million in public and private sector funds. Its primary goal is to attract businesses in the information technology, medical manufacturing and health-care industries.

"Individually, as very small cities and counties, we never had the resources to effectively distinguish ourselves in the marketplace," says Kucharski. About a year ago, with the help of local ad agency Eric Mower and Associates, Development Counsellors International (DCI) and extensive research and analysis, they found the region's core sellable advantage: people. The area has one of the lowest turnover and absentee rates in the country, says Kucharski. It also has 30 colleges and universities, turning out fresh graduates every year. And according to a study conducted by the state, the region has 125,000 underemployed workers who could be trained for new or more advanced jobs.

One of the first decisions the BNE made was to change the area's brand name from "Western New York," to "Buffalo-Niagara," to give potential consumers a better geographic perspective. "Most people don't know that Buffalo is closer to Niagara Falls than Orlando is to Disneyland, and 15 million people come to see the Falls every year," says Kucharski.

Changing the name also provided consistency with government statistics, which already uses the Buffalo-Niagara designation, further reinforcing the brand. The BNE chose the new tag line, "Buffalo-Niagara: Available. Productive. People," to call attention to the quality work force and build pride among residents. Its national multimedia ad campaign (which features residents and focuses on the region's quality of life assets), ran periodically in 2001 and will start up again in early spring with TV commercials on CNN and CNBC, radio spots on NPR and local stations, and local area billboard ads. Other initiatives include two Web sites, www.buffaloniagara.org, for business prospects and www.iambuffaloniagarajobs.com, for people looking to relocate or return to the area. The latter site received 1.5 million hits in its first six weeks.

The region's leaders decided not to change a thing about its branding campaign following Sept. 11, but they do believe their quality of life message may resonate more strongly with their target audiences. Says Leslie Hornung, BNE's marketing director: "Our 'close knit community' and 'good place to raise a family' type message may have more of an appeal now than it did before Sept. 11." According to Economy.com, of all metro areas with populations greater than 1 million, Buffalo-Niagara's GDP forecast was among the top three least affected by the events of Sept. 11.