Research reveals local and international perceptions of
Edinburgh City Region
24 November 2004
A key stage in the project to deliver a brand for Edinburgh
and its surrounding region (East Lothian, Midlothian and West
Lothian) was completed this week with the delivery of the initial
research findings.
Interbrand, the consultants appointed by
the Edinburgh City Region Brand project in June 2004, carried out
extensive research to identify perceived strengths and weaknesses
of the city region. The findings provide a clear brief for
developing a brand, which will promote Edinburgh and the
Lothians.
The research covered almost 50 interviews
with stakeholders from across 31 key sectors of the city region,
including education, culture, creative industry, tourism, local
government, voluntary and business. The interviews were used
to gain a local perspective - the pride and frustration as well as
hopes and fears of the interviewees.
In addition, focus groups were held in
London, Madrid, New York and Tokyo and existing research from
various sources, such as Visitscotland, were analysed to gather
international perceptions of the Edinburgh City Region. This
highlighted that beyond the UK, awareness of Edinburgh is low as a
place to visit and do business. The Castle and Festivals are
fairly well known, but are too narrow to form the Brand’s focus and
do not evoke a sense of what the Edinburgh City Region is really
like.
Interviewees, who can be described as
knowing Edinburgh well, showed fairly consistent perceptions of
Edinburgh as a city that is inspiring, magical and beautiful, with
a distinctive atmosphere and dramatic physicality. They
also identified the city’s character as being intelligent and
sophisticated, but in an understated way. Some interviewees
also saw Edinburgh as old, reserved, conservative and
traditional. However, outside Scotland, Edinburgh is simply
seen as traditional but friendly, not cold or reserved.
Strengths were identified as being:
‘accessible and compact’, ‘quality of life’, ‘education’,
‘innovation’ and ‘safety’. The weaknesses were mostly
issues that branding cannot address, but included: ‘transport
infrastructure’, ‘expensive housing’, ‘retail offering’, ‘over
reliance on financial sector’, ‘lack of large venues’ and
‘competing and not collaborating’, for example not working with
Glasgow and the Lothians to our mutual benefit and not being
competitive enough on an international stage.
Geoff Ball, Executive Chairman of Cala Group
and Joint Chair of the Edinburgh City Region Brand Steering Group,
said: “Those of us who know the city region have long enjoyed
the abundant advantages it has to offer. But our research has
shown that it is something of a secret. Millions of people we
would like to attract here, either to live, invest or visit, have
simply never even heard of us. If we want to continue to
enjoy our high quality of life, we can’t allow that to
continue.”
Richard Buchanan, Interbrand Director,
said: “Clearly, brands drive economic value by creating
positive meanings in the minds of their customers. To achieve
this they place a powerful idea at the heart of everything they do
which appeals to, and motivates, their customers. In the case of
the Edinburgh City Region Brand, this means we must develop an idea
that is motivating, not only for people that live and work in the
city, but also those individuals who are planning city breaks or
looking to gain a commercial advantage for their business. The
challenge we face is to create an idea that is not only credible
but is capable of appealing to these distinct customer
groups.”
Councillor Donald Anderson, City of Edinburgh Council Leader and
Joint Chair of the Edinburgh City Region Brand Steering Group,
said: “We are doing a lot to address the challenges the city
faces and a brand, while not being the solution to every issue,
will complement that work. Over time it will play a vital
role in placing Edinburgh and its surrounding region on the world
map as a place to visit, live, work and invest in. We have to
work hard to compete in that global marketplace and work more
closely with our neighbours. Having a consistent approach to
marketing will be essential for securing sustained and stable
growth for our city and its surrounding region.”
A number of cities have been identified
against which the Edinburgh City Region Brand will be
measured. It has been well documented that the vision for
Edinburgh is that by 2015 the city will lead the most successful
and sustainable city region in Northern Europe. The cities
selected are Dublin, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Copenhagen. All
are small, historic, northern European capitals that have similar
business strengths. Comparisons will be made with these
cities in several areas of performance that will be agreed after
further research.
Phase two of the project is now
underway. This is the stage where visual concepts for the
Brand are developed and refined before being market tested in phase
three. To gather further local perceptions of the Edinburgh
City Region, in phase three members of the public will be
invited to an event in central Edinburgh at the end of
November. Details of this will be announced separately.
As part of the £24.7 million allocation from
the Scottish Executive’s Cities Growth Fund, Edinburgh has used
£800,000 to develop and implement a city brand.
Notes to Editor:
1. A copy
of Interbrand’s Executive Summary of Phase One research is
available by contacting the City of Edinburgh Council media
office.
2. The
Edinburgh City Region Brand Project is a public/private
partnership. The group consists of senior representatives of the
major sectors of the Edinburgh economy, including local business,
finance, higher education, local government, festivals, tourism,
voluntary, bio-technology, information technology, retail, creative
industries, local enterprise and other professional sectors. The
public sector partners are the City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh
and Lothians Tourist Board and Scottish Enterprise East.
3.
Interbrand is a leading international brand consultancy, with 40
offices around the world. Its people come from many different skill
backgrounds, including research and strategic consultancy,
multi-media and design, and marketing and communications. They
pioneered the discipline of brand valuation, and they are leading
publishers of all aspects of branding – whether product, service,
corporate or not for profit brands. Their clients include BMW,
Oxfam, Procter & Gamble, John Lewis and Standard Life.
