Branding Converges on the National Mall

After reading a special insert into the Washington Business Journal last week, I was heartened to see that…alas!...five federal agencies and a private trust are working together to refurbish the National Mall. Now, if you are not from the DC area, you will probably be thrown off by that term “mall.” To us, it means something along the lines of “long strip of grass downtown with lots of monuments and museums.”

This is interesting considering the recent branding efforts commissioned by The DC Convention and Tourism Corporation. According to them, this town is about power, illustrated with their new tagline of “take a power trip.” The Washington DC Examiner reports how they arrived at this conclusion: “The new campaign is the result of more than a year’s worth of research that showed people most associated D.C. with the word “power.” They also thought of it as inspiring, beautiful, a place for learning, and a place to make and experience history (April 3, 2008, Examiner.com).

With the branding of cities in mind—New York did it, why not DC?—one would want to know what the customers (in this case, residents, workers, and visitors) want, prior to deciding what to deliver to them, both in kind and in deed. So one would deduce that these agencies are taking on the responsibility for the second identified interest, “[an] inspiring, beautiful, a place for learning, and a place to make and experience history.”

It is inspiring to hear this fine example of how branding works, right in the heart of our nation’s capital. It works because the brand responds to the consumer, rather than the other way around. All too often, brands emanate without regard for what is desired from their constituencies, a common mistake.

Post contributed by Catherine Shaw.