Defining Rhody essence key to brand success

STREAM OF THOUGHT: Visitors canoe along the Blackstone River in Cumberland in 2013. The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council is one of six districts in the state eager to add statewide branding, as proposed by the governor, to its regional messaging. / COURTESY BLACKSTONE VALLEY TOURISM COUNCIL
STREAM OF THOUGHT: Visitors canoe along the Blackstone River in Cumberland in 2013. The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council is one of six districts in the state eager to add statewide branding, as proposed by the governor, to its regional messaging. / COURTESY BLACKSTONE VALLEY TOURISM COUNCIL

The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council calls its region the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Warwick’s slogan is “Stay in Warwick. See Rhode Island.”

Then there’s the Newport mansions, Providence’s culinary culture and identification as the “creative capital,” and South County’s and Block Island’s harbors and beaches.

Branding Rhode Island as a state, in addition to six tourism districts to attract visitors, is part of Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s budget plan and vision for the state. What that brand should look, sound and feel like, leaders for these tourism districts say, is one that lasts and reflects Rhode Island’s DNA and a state of mind that encompasses the state’s many assets.

Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, cites the staying power of Virginia’s branding, which uses a slogan that has been around for 25 years or more: “Virginia is for lovers.”

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“A brand is far more than a phrase,” said Smith. “It speaks to the soul and fabric of a place. I have seen a lot of catchy phrases come and go. A phrase and tag line is not a brand. Whatever the Rhode Island brand becomes, it should be the essence of what we as Rhode Islanders believe Rhode Island should be.”

Raimondo has proposed redistributing the state’s hotel tax, which funds the six districts, to help provide about $4 million for a coordinated, statewide marketing campaign for tourism, beginning in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said a December 2014 study on tourism marketing has served as the basis for planning.

That study, “Tourism Marketing and Branding Investment Plan” compiled by the Nichols Tourism Group and Radcliffe Company, cites some 2010 data that found the perception among tourists that Rhode Island was the second-most-boring state in New England.

Besides being an outdated perception, “it’s an inaccurate one,” said Pryor, “so one of the objectives needs to be marketing the reality, which is so positive.”

The study indicates that if the state embarked on such an endeavor, it could begin to recapture some of the $1.78 billion in tourism revenue it has lost between 2007 and 2013. Statewide branding, the report’s authors say, could generate up to 670,000 new visitors and 3,300 jobs, with those visitors spending up to $280 million and paying $12 million in state sales and occupancy taxes.

As the recession recedes, says one of the authors, now is the time to pursue statewide branding in Rhode Island.

“The U.S. visitor market has regained and is exceeding the level of spending [since] recessionary times,” Mitch Nichols, president of the Nichols Tourism Group, told Providence Business News.

“It’s one of those sectors that has completely recovered and is experiencing ongoing growth. For Rhode Island to capitalize and build on that expanding segment, I believe … is key: That there’s both a strong statewide identity as well as individual regional identities.”

Representatives of the six tourism districts say they would like to be consulted as the state begins to build its brand, even though some, like South County and Blackstone Valley, are slated to get hit with funding cuts from the redistribution of the hotel tax money.

“The local tourism bureaus have a wealth of knowledge that will be important to draw upon in building an effective statewide brand,” Pryor said, when asked if the districts will be involved.

Bob Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, says his district has the smallest budget in the state, collecting $363,000 in 2014 through the state room tax.

“We need a statewide brand,” Billington said. “We just feel it could be funded out of existing resources. … We’re not the big seller in the state, but we just achieved national park status: We’ve got something to sell.”

And, Billington added, that statewide brand needs to embrace the regions and be applicable to them as well as to businesses, in order to attract people nationwide and worldwide – an approach Pryor said the state would use.

“We think Rhode Island is much more than a sailboat or a lighthouse,” Billington said of the brand potential. “There’s other great iconography. But not a potpourri of imagery. … That’s not good branding.”

Consistent messaging will also be key, said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Pure Michigan,” a state brand launched during the height of the recession, has managed to capture a broad message successfully for that state, and Rhode Island should pursue something that does the same thing, she said.

“That is a perfect example of a brand adopted across a variety of target markets,” she said. “They do use it for tourism and business-development purposes. Michigan is a much bigger state but allows regions to attach to that brand.” •

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