Showing sixth form students from Kent around
Birmingham recently was an eye opener. Many of them were a
little wary at first, having only media-inspired depictions
of the UK's second city to go by. Once we'd walked along
New Street, through Bullring and into both the open air and indoor
markets, their perceptions were challenged.
'We never knew a big city could be this friendly,' the students
commented as they bought themselves iPhone covers, bags of fruit
and fresh cockles and oysters from the markets.
Branding places is big business, not least in the UK where our
major cities have transformed themselves in the past two decades.
Birmingham has shrugged off its poor image with a huge tranche
of investment which continues at a pace even now. The £600 million
redevelopment of New Street Station is a third of the way into its
build time and will do much to counter first impressions of the
city centre being a concrete jungle.
For students thinking about further education, a tour of
the University of Birmingham and around one of the world's largest
hospitals next door at the Queen Elizabeth site was
rounded off with a trip to Sparkbrook for a curry. All of these
places represent the 'real' Birmingham - not just a city of glitzy
new shopping malls but also a place at the cutting edge of medical
research and genuine, multicultural neighbourhoods.
The real value for correctly branding and positioning a
geographical entity comes with attracting not just visitors but
inward investment. Stakes are high - as Birmingham, Manchester,
Liverpool and Glasgow will all agree. Many of our great cities are
still, even after centuries of growth 'works in progress'. But
Birmingham's branding has some things right - the city is largely
safe, down to earth, hard-working and friendly.
The students agreed: their prior perceptions of the place were
very different to the reality they found as they walked the
city's streets. Good branding is more than just promotion. It
involves developing a product or destination in tandem with
repositioning it in the eyes of its audiences.
