Chicago's
Curious Exercise in Bashing Its Own Brand
Like a lot of urban centers, Chicago has experienced some trouble. The difference is that Paris doesn't advertise it.
BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS@TULLMAN
In an embarrassing and pre-emptively
apologetic presentation by its $1-a-year chief marketing officer, the city of
Chicago presented a new plan to "rebrand" itself -- by highlighting
its past sins of racism and segregation, neglecting its greatest strengths,
and promoting its struggling mayor as a superstar.
Sounds like a surefire winner for attracting
suburbanites and tourists back to town. Maybe the CMO is overpaid.
Yes, we have some issues in Windy City. So do
all the world's big cities. But you don't hear Paris advertising the fact that
there's a demonstration every other day that ties the city in knots or devolves
into violence on the Champs-Élysées. So inviting the world to visit Chicago as
a place with great sports and cultural institutions, fabulous food, and blues
as good as Basin Street seems a lot smarter than asking visitors to
"experience diversity," as the new campaign plans to
do. What's the point? We're a great city that has been inhabited,
proudly if unevenly, by a wide variety of people and cultures for more than a
century.
The current campaign feels a lot like a
forlorn and desperate mixing of messages conceived by a committee of tone deaf
and highly defensive folks without a clue as to how to overcome the public's
anger and fear following massive unrest, as well as a surge in murders and
non-stop shootings of children by crazy teenage gangbangers. Here's
a hint: you can't apologize for the criminals.
In a way, you have to feel sorry for the team
taking on the campaign. It feels like a turkey accepting an invitation to
Thanksgiving dinner. Chicago's marketing agency is trying to serve an unknown
and largely unknowable mayor in Lori Lightfoot as well as too many other
masters and being asked to address too many issues all at once. Not even Superman,
or a tiny mayor dressed as a masked superhero -- as she did recently to promote
safe Halloween protocols -- can leap obstacles this tall in a single bound. And
worse yet, because the city is almost broke, please try to do it as cheaply as
possible using staged "emotional tentpole" events like Halloween and
Christmas amplified by powerful social media that has already allegedly
transformed Mayor Lightweight into a celebrity because millions saw her memes.
But frankly, seeing - even on the web - isn't remotely like believing. Calling
this mayor a celebrity is like calling Trump a statesman, which may be one of
the few things our mayor hasn't called him.
Mayor Lightfoot will be the cornerstone of the campaign because
she's so "authentic" and intriguing. Yet she comes
across as cold and callous, without any particular personality, sense of humor
or empathy. Snobbish, stilted and superior are common adjectives for this
novice politician, who's managed to make the memory of Rahm Emanuel's reign
seem like a good time in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. It's gonna be quite
a heavy lift all right.
Authenticity is a lot like sincerity. Once you
can fake that, you've got it made. It's not easy, and it doesn't help that this
mayor, with neither business nor much government experience (she's a corporate
lawyer by trade), was elected in a contest where basically nobody came to the polls. But the
most colossal mistake is the underlying assumption that anyone cares about her.
In politics, as in business, people don't care about you; they care about what
you can do for them.
There are so many lessons here for startups
and entrepreneurs that it's actually hard to know where to start. But be sure
to watch this sad adventure roll out because even if it's not a good example,
it can always serve as a horrible warning.
Lesson One - A Hashtag Can Become a Bashtag
Overnight.
Basing a branding campaign on the prospect of
obtaining broad and favorable social media - especially in today's world of
trolls and deep fakes - is simply naïve and a little nuts. There are
no more critical and fickle places to try to tell your new story and no more
precarious places to be when the wind shifts against you for no good reason
than the messy world of the web. Viral isn't
always virtuous and traffic means next to nothing compared with real connection
and active engagement with the right audience. Authenticity and
celebrity almost never mix successfully.
Lesson Two - Don't Try to Do Something Cheaply
You Shouldn't Do at All.
Relying on free branding efforts is like
eating cheap food - there are always hidden costs and unforeseen consequences.
A far better and more effective approach is to focus your efforts on a finite
number of known channels, an identified population of target consumers
(visitors, voters, volunteers, etc.), and a unified and single message rather
than trying to be all things to all people, doing a little and mediocre bit for
everyone. You get what you pay for, but even more importantly, you demonstrate
that you'd rather do a few important things well than a lot of things poorly.
This message is far broader and more important than any ad or banner -- it's a
statement and a demonstration of your philosophy that permeates your entire
business.
Lesson Three - A Brand is a Promise - Not What
You Say, But What You Do.
Maybe it's always a mistake to announce that
you are setting out to create a new brand or rebrand a place or a product.
(Hello, Wells Fargo.) Maybe there's a problem when the place you've decided to
rebrand is more than 180 years old and has a proud history and a persistent
past and shared stories of remarkable accomplishments that many residents
aren't prepared to casually discard in the haste to move forward.
Sure, there are warts, but it feels a bit
abrupt to summarily talk about tossing out the old before this mayor has done
much of anything concrete for the people of this city other than offer herself
as the personification of the new Chicago. Praise without purpose and worthless
attempts at admiration have more to do with politics and personality quirks
than with promises made and kept. Authentic brands aren't bought or
manufactured. They're built through hard-earned trust and collaborative efforts
rather than fits, foul language or fiats. They have delivered and demonstrable
results.
The brand called Chicago needs real leadership
and real change. This is not an easy fix-- it certainly can't be a cosmetic
one. And the fix won't happen overnight for sure. But if it doesn't start out
from a smart place with a solid foundation, the whole exercise will only end in
further tears. As unhappy as the tourists in New York City who buy knockoff
Gucci handbags from street vendors. The handbags are original and real. It's
just the brand that's fake.
OCT 27, 2020
