A municipal brand is often influenced and overshadowed by their tourism brand. The problem is that a destination brand is aimed at visitors, ignoring the community and importantly, key investment markets. A strong destination brand brings tourism revenue into a region but the town, city or region becomes known for one thing.
“At Weskus, we run the destination and strategic investment brands separately. When you try to shoehorn both into one entity, the risk is that you don’t do justice to either. Destination brands tend to be cyclical and campaign-driven whereas a strategic brand is continuous”.
Weskus Distrik’s strategic brand architecture has been constructed to appeal to investors, funders and businesses. This audience looks for enablers such as governance, sustainability, innovation, infrastructure and opportunities. While there are some natural overlaps, tourists look for different values in a brand.
“We do include ‘destination attractions’ in strategic brand messaging which are presented in a creative way. These ‘shout outs’ add some colour in between deliberate investment messaging. And we’re also aware that the same strategic audience we’re messaging to – especially the upcountry audience –take holidays in the Western Cape and are prime semigration prospects”.
Weskus Distrik’s strategic brand strengthens civic pride; opens economic development opportunities; provides a consistent and recognisable message and differentiates the region beyond tourism by defining the whole.
Dr Johan Tesselaar
Weskus Distrik
Program Manager
Office of the Municipal Manager
