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I think what bringing together the private sector does is really bring home the commercial value, the straight cut business value, of having a cohesive and powerful destination brand to doing good business.
Andrew Baker, Tika Learning
The importance of place reputation to the private sector
We start this Executive Summary with this quote from Andrew Baker of this study. In short: place reputation is important to private sector leaders. And there’s a risk that place brand and marketing organisations are under-estimating or under-leveraging the support that the private sector could provide to help build and manage the reputation of their city, nation, or place.
A stand -out finding from our survey is that the numberone factor impacting on location choice for multinationals and mid-sized businesses is “A place with a positive reputation that, as a business, we are happy to be associated with when marketing to investors”. 85% of our survey respondents from these larger enterprises agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. Whilst the traditionally promoted factors such as governance, regulations, incentives, and ease of doing business were the most frequently cited factor for our entrepreneurial leaders of startups and early-stage businesses, 62% of these still agreed that it was important for their place of location to have a positive reputation.
Whilst that “ease of doing business” factor is still a prime motivator for location choice, the findings support the evolution in investment promotion communications away from a time when every advertisement or article focused on tax rates and incentives, to one where progressive investment promotion agencies are focusing on quality of life and the assets that make their place attractive. A good quality of life proposition was the second high factor influencing location choicefor start ups and early-stage businesses, and for larger enterprises a strong cultural sector, attractive lifestyle assets, and a good quality of life proposition came in joint third.
Why the private sector are keen to be ambassadors for place
A second stand-out finding from the survey is there is a great deal of untapped willingness amongst private sector leaders to take on the role of ambassador for their place of location [eg: to be quoted on the place promotion website, join trade missions, present at events, advocate for the place to their personal network, participate in media coverage of the place]. When asked, most agree to take on the role – of 34% of multinationals and midsized business leaders who have been asked to take on an ambassador role, 88% had accepted the invitation. Of the just 24% of startups and early-stage business leaders who had been asked, 71% agreed to do so.
More strikingly, of those 66% of business leaders from larger organisations who had not been asked to take on an ambassador role, 90% of them would like to.
So what motivates business leaders to want to take on an ambassador role for their place of location? Place brand and marketing organisations should be appealing to both the personal and the business brain. We asked our respondents how important it is that the place where their business is located has a good reputation and experiences good economic growth - firstly to their business and secondly to them personally.
81% of our business leaders from multinationals and mid-sized businesses agreed or strongly agreed that it was important to their business, but 73% also agreed it was important to them personally. The margin between business importance and personal importance was even narrower for our leaders of startups and earlystage businesses: 73% agreeing or strongly agreeing it was important for their business and 69% saying it was important to them personally.
The personal motivation to help build a better reputation for their place was strongly evident in our interviews with Gill and Will Sherwin of the Best of British Beer [in Staffordshire, UK] and also with Karen Fanger of KD Properties [in Cleveland, USA]. Karen said, “In the past, not marketing ourselves to our true extent hurt us; it’s time to change that”.
The primary business motivation for all of our respondents to become ambassadors for place would be for the partnership and networking opportunities with other businesses in their location. Our interviews with private sector leaders again showed this working well in practice. We Are Staffordshire’s place brand team have built an ambassador network that people want to be part of and which is building momentum for the English county. To quote the Sherwins from the Best of British Beer, “There’s a lot of goodwill so everybody feels committed to making Staffordshire better”.
I think what bringing together the private sector does is really bring home the commercial value, the straight cut business value, of having a cohesive and powerful destination brand to doing good business.
Andrew Baker, Tika Learning
The importance of place reputation to the private sector
We start this Executive Summary with this quote from Andrew Baker of this study. In short: place reputation is important to private sector leaders. And there’s a risk that place brand and marketing organisations are under-estimating or under-leveraging the support that the private sector could provide to help build and manage the reputation of their city, nation, or place.
A stand -out finding from our survey is that the numberone factor impacting on location choice for multinationals and mid-sized businesses is “A place with a positive reputation that, as a business, we are happy to be associated with when marketing to investors”. 85% of our survey respondents from these larger enterprises agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. Whilst the traditionally promoted factors such as governance, regulations, incentives, and ease of doing business were the most frequently cited factor for our entrepreneurial leaders of startups and early-stage businesses, 62% of these still agreed that it was important for their place of location to have a positive reputation.
Whilst that “ease of doing business” factor is still a prime motivator for location choice, the findings support the evolution in investment promotion communications away from a time when every advertisement or article focused on tax rates and incentives, to one where progressive investment promotion agencies are focusing on quality of life and the assets that make their place attractive. A good quality of life proposition was the second high factor influencing location choicefor start ups and early-stage businesses, and for larger enterprises a strong cultural sector, attractive lifestyle assets, and a good quality of life proposition came in joint third.
Why the private sector are keen to be ambassadors for place
A second stand-out finding from the survey is there is a great deal of untapped willingness amongst private sector leaders to take on the role of ambassador for their place of location [eg: to be quoted on the place promotion website, join trade missions, present at events, advocate for the place to their personal network, participate in media coverage of the place]. When asked, most agree to take on the role – of 34% of multinationals and midsized business leaders who have been asked to take on an ambassador role, 88% had accepted the invitation. Of the just 24% of startups and early-stage business leaders who had been asked, 71% agreed to do so.
More strikingly, of those 66% of business leaders from larger organisations who had not been asked to take on an ambassador role, 90% of them would like to.
So what motivates business leaders to want to take on an ambassador role for their place of location? Place brand and marketing organisations should be appealing to both the personal and the business brain. We asked our respondents how important it is that the place where their business is located has a good reputation and experiences good economic growth - firstly to their business and secondly to them personally.
81% of our business leaders from multinationals and mid-sized businesses agreed or strongly agreed that it was important to their business, but 73% also agreed it was important to them personally. The margin between business importance and personal importance was even narrower for our leaders of startups and earlystage businesses: 73% agreeing or strongly agreeing it was important for their business and 69% saying it was important to them personally.
The personal motivation to help build a better reputation for their place was strongly evident in our interviews with Gill and Will Sherwin of the Best of British Beer [in Staffordshire, UK] and also with Karen Fanger of KD Properties [in Cleveland, USA]. Karen said, “In the past, not marketing ourselves to our true extent hurt us; it’s time to change that”.
The primary business motivation for all of our respondents to become ambassadors for place would be for the partnership and networking opportunities with other businesses in their location. Our interviews with private sector leaders again showed this working well in practice. We Are Staffordshire’s place brand team have built an ambassador network that people want to be part of and which is building momentum for the English county. To quote the Sherwins from the Best of British Beer, “There’s a lot of goodwill so everybody feels committed to making Staffordshire better”.
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