“MADE in Leeds”. Catchy, huh? But the slogan, dreamt up by an advertising firm, has been nixed by residents. “Something you might see on a tattoo,” one says, while another dismisses the line as “a bit BNP”.
Rebranding is a tricky business — but that hasn’t stopped cities jumping on the bandwagon, reports Regeneration & Renewal (Feb 10). A new slogan, Leeds: Live It, Love It, has found favour with locals — but will it make a difference? Only 4 per cent of UK residents think that Leeds is a “great city”, compared with 30 per cent who plump for London, says Kate Gray, of the public sector firm Marketing Leeds.
Other cities are more realistic about marketing. “We certainly aren’t going to say we are world class at anything. Because everyone is apparently ‘world class’ at everything,” says John Till, the chief executive of Hull City Image.
But don’t expect the trend to go away any time soon. Towns and cities must market their distinctiveness better to attract international businesses, reports New Start (Feb 10). But the report, commissioned by the Welsh Development Agency, is questioned by David Boyle, of the New Economics Foundation think-tank: “People are suspicious about marketing. It has to be real.”