Sense of Place.

City branding is nothing new, but leveraging cities as branding elements in and of themselves has recently become in vogue.

• Take Shinola, American-made maker of bicycles, watches, leather goods, and more. The company has taken Detroit, where it is based, and leveraged the city’s equity as a U.S. manufacturing center and made it core to its brand identity. It’s paying equity back, as well, by focusing on, committing to, and emphasizing the quality of its goods.
• Hellman Chang, the luxury furniture brand based in Brooklyn, New York takes a page from Apple’s “Made in California” descriptor. The company places its brand by noting that its products are “Imported from Brooklyn.” This compared to its likely competitors who might instead say, “Imported from Italy.”
• Fiercely Made is another company honoring Brooklyn artisans and makers, of which Hellman Chang was a contributor to the movement. Fierecly Made’s brand line is “Handcrafted in Brooklyn” with full intent of creating a focus to the talents that reside in the borough.

Consumer Forecast: Help me connect with and create transparency to where my products are made.

Photo Credit:

“Shinola” by Mike Petrucci is licensed under CC by 2.0