Brand Control for a City

During my time in the Memphis Mayor's office I have done some work for Mary Cashiola. She was hired by the mayor to be the "brand manager" for the the mayor's office and for the City of Memphis. This is clearly a fancy name for a media manager of some type but I kind of like it. It makes it sound a little more like a business position. Now of course their are business positions called media representatives, but Brand Manager seems a little more official and important in my mind. The city should also be run like a business anyways, a non-profit one that is. Not only is Mary supposed to field some questions by the media about what the Mayor's office is doing and what the Mayor has to say about certain things, but she is also supposed to help with creating ways to sell the city to potential residents. Ms. Cashiola wants to find ways that puts the City of Memphis is the best light so that others will appreciate the city, think highly of it, and potentially move there. It is always important to keep the look of a city up and Mary helps do this.

This involves adding new features to the city website. One thing that I have helped her with is a section called "Memphian By Choice." In this section of the city website Mary has posted profiles of different citizens of Memphis that work and live within the city. They all have different backgrounds, different jobs, and live in different parts of the city. The point of this is to highlight the different types of people who live in the city and the different opportunities to work in the city. It also shows how people enjoy living in Memphis. All of this is propaganda in order to entice others into wanting to live in Memphis. I have done two profiles for the website so far and the interviews have been very interesting. Another idea that Mary has proposed to me is section of the website that gives ideas for what people could do in a day to enjoy different parts of Memphis. It would include places to visit, places to eat, and even places to shop. Small ideas like this that celebrate different parts of the city are what is needed in order to entice people to come visit. If people don't know about the city, why would they visit? By getting people excited about he city, she is increasing the brand value of the city. How about that?