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Our new brand identity didn't just happen.
It was guided and informed by months of market research and consumer testing. Here's some of what we learned during the discovery phase of our brand development efforts and how we went about conducting that research.
External objectivity.
We love Baltimore. We live here. Which means we're biased and maybe just a little too close to the city to see it as outsiders do. So we retained the services of two experts in travel research, branding and destination repositioning - Longwoods International and Landor Associates - to objectively evaluate what visitors think about Baltimore. The research included 1,000 mail surveys to our target audience of leisure and business travelers and meeting planners, more than 1,000 surveys and more than 30 one-on-one management interviews with key stakeholders and community partners in the city, and focus groups in three "feeder" markets (Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Northern New Jersey).
Four key findings.
Research found that the top reasons why tourists love coming to Baltimore are:
- The easy, breezy, "open harbor" feeling
- Baltimore's many world-class attractions are easily accessible
- Baltimore has a fun, casual atmosphere that prizes spontaneity over planning
- Baltimore offers big city fun and excitement without big city hassle and stress
Testing, concepting and more testing.
Based on the research findings, we developed several brand positioning platforms, which we presented to tourist and meeting planner focus groups for analysis and critique. Based on focus group comments, we then developed several logo and themeline concepts. These concepts were presented in another round of focus groups to test their relevance, uniqueness, credibility and attention-getting appeal. After 10 months of careful research, thinking, testing and tweaking, our wonderful logo and a memorable themeline emerged.
The organization behind all this.
The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association (BACVA) was established in 1982 as a member-based, nonprofit trade association. BACVA is the official destination development and marketing leader for Greater Baltimore, responsible for generating economic benefits to the community by attracting more convention and leisure travelers to Baltimore.
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