42 / Branding American cities / with Ryan Short

Ryan Short — cofounder of CivicBrand — joins good traffic to emphasize why cities and towns of all sizes should care more about branding. We talk the need for civic pride and intentional urban design, qualitative and quantitative data collection, and using community perspective to refine strong, holistic, evergreen messaging.

From Dallas, to suburban North Carolina, to mountain town Colorado, Ryan's perspective is forged from work in communities of all stripes. He's truly of wealth of successful precedents for proper placemaking.

We discuss:

00:00 On CivicBrand, and branding cities.

04:29 On community engagement.

05:30 Car-centric design has ruined civic identity.

08:12 How to approach community engagement and placemaking.

16:37 Collecting data at community meetings.

25:23 Qualitative data in branding.

26:03 Personal taste versus city identity.

27:18 Toyota's branding as a model for cities.

30:44 Civic pride and economic growth.

34:13 Case study: High Point, North Carolina.

40:18 Learning from small towns.

45:16 Wrapping up.

Further context:

CivicBrand.

Connect with Ryan:

On LinkedIn.

Connect with me, Brad:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On Instagram.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On TikTok⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠On LinkedIn⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠