Branding idea is a good start

I was surprised to see Stephanie Carn’s influential voice raised against ‘branding’ Chichester.

Is it because she has a different view of what ‘branding’ means? Chichester is ‘a brand’, whether we like to think of it that way or not, and it has an ‘image’, ie people have a perception of the city. The issue is whether that perception is positive.

Are we seen as a good place to live and work, to set up a business, to raise a family, to visit etc?

Is our image progressive or are we seen as in decline? We would only find out with some regular ‘market research’, to add another bit of jargon.

Any description of the Chichester brand would surely include our trees and green spaces as elements of it being an attractive place to live and any ‘brand plan’ would lay out how exactly we intend to preserve and enhance such features. Stephanie’s concerns would be met by branding!

On our doorstep we have excellent examples of good brands that have been focused for years on excellence and innovation within a strong, clear ‘image’.

I am thinking of Rolls

Royce, Goodwood, the Festival Theatre and the Pallant House Gallery. Everything they do and don’t do is designed to enhance their reputation amongst their chosen clientele.

At the same time we have seen the demise of a couple of ‘brands’, in House of Fraser and Topshop, which failed to keep in touch with the developing marketplace and drifted into irrelevance as far as their potential customers were concerned.

Branding in itself doesn’t bring success, but recognising Chichester as a brand that needs constant attention if it is to retain its attraction is a good start.

Having praised the idea of seeing Chichester as a brand, I must admit qualms about the next step and talk of £60,000. Looking after the wellbeing of the Chichester brand should have been an ongoing exercise and yet, only now with a crisis developing in the high street, are we restoring the measurement of footfall and restoring powers to control the growing number of to-let signs disfiguring the scene.

If we have ignored such

ABC elements of branding and marketing, we have some way to go to catch up.

Our problem is we haven’t got the unified control of the situation as Rolls Royce and shopping centres have. Could an outside consultant achieve consensus among the mishmash of competing forces within the Chichester brand? Well, it’s the usual way forward

in such a situation! KEITHTUNSTALL Shippam Street, Chichester