Marketing is the management of expectations
Creating a strategy is like laboratory work: if your experiment is set up correctly, the results flow naturally. Just as every product has a life cycle, so does every place, and understanding where a place is in that cycle is crucial. Each phase requires a different approach, different investments, different development, and different techniques of branding and marketing. We’ll write about this in more detail in an upcoming post.
One thing can be said for certain about Turin: anyone who has never been there will be blown away on their first visit. This is due to two reasons: it is a city with style and flair, boasting a vast cultural offering, and it has been—and still is—a powerhouse in Italy's economic development. Let’s indulge in a bit of name-dropping: who doesn’t know Fiat cars, Lavazza coffee, Kappa clothing, Juventus sports achievements, Gianduja chocolates, Vermouth, and in the surrounding area, Olivetti computers, or Martini aperitifs? Turin is home to the most important Egyptian museum outside of Egypt, the most significant book fair in Europe after Frankfurt, royal palaces and art collections aplenty, writers and thinkers from Natalia Ginzburg and Alessandro Baricco to Friedrich Nietzsche, and a treasure trove of mystical and mythical stories from the Shroud of Christ to Nostradamus.
When Charles Landry wrote "The Creative City" twenty years ago and Richard Florida gained fame with his books on "The Creative Class," it seems they must have had Turin in mind. The capital of Piedmont meets all the conditions that seamlessly connect a culture of entrepreneurship with an enterprising culture. This large city by European standards resembles a living urban laboratory and is a good habitat for urban thinkers (Torino Urban Lab, Utopian Hours), street artists (MAU), and for the transformation of former industrial areas into vibrant places (Barriera di Milano).
Surveys of tourists visiting Turin, who often see the city as a gateway to Piedmont, the Barolo vineyards, and the Alps, show that they all felt they didn’t have enough time. In other words, Turin has much more to offer than expected. This is a dream scenario for anyone looking to position a place in the market to attract the right visitors.
Marketing is nothing more than the management of expectations, and when those expectations are rather low and the offering is overwhelming, it is a very favourable starting position to create a new strategy with residents and stakeholders. During the three years of VivaCITY, we will report on this with great pleasure. You might as well be jealous because a city like Turin is the dream of every city marketeer.
And what about your place? We don’t know where you live or work, but let this be clear: if you can’t find distinctive features, you haven’t looked hard enough. Do you agree or not? Let us know...
