Development Status and Trend of Urban Brand Communication

1. Grasp the characteristics of the times

For city brand communication, the most important feature of the times is the communication environment, or the change of media ecology.

In the past ten years, due to the rapid development of digitalization and network technology, the world-wide media landscape has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the social influence of traditional media has been continuously lost. First, the print media of newspapers have lost both readers and advertisements; Secondly, the decline and recovery of broadcast media; Now traditional media, including TV media, are worried about how long the red flag will last. In contrast, the influence of network communication platform is increasing day by day. From the massive information bombing in the era of Web 1.0, to the prevalence of interactive communication in the era of Web2.0, and then to the establishment of social network media relations circle, the network communication platform has been "embedded" into all levels of social life.

If we don't have an accurate understanding of the current media communication environment and promote the city brand through the traditional media communication channels that were once readily available, no matter what form, we will be dismayed to find that the means that once won good communication effects are shifting from the center of public concern to the edge, and those once humble online communication platforms are reaching all kinds of people with social influence more and more effectively. Therefore, when the network communication platform with social media as the core becomes an important link in the new communication ecological chain, any communication that ignores its existence is short-sighted.

The same is true of city brand and image promotion. Sticking to traditional media today will definitely not work. Nowadays, the propaganda and tourism departments in many cities have their own official Weibo, which can publish relevant information and interact with netizens and fans in real time, which can effectively improve the communication effect and the emotional dependence of the audience.

Of course, grasping the characteristics of the times does not mean following the trend, nor is it suitable for large-scale image promotion and brand promotion in some forms of communication with uncertain communication effects. The reason is that the social credibility of any kind of media can only be formed and recognized by the public after a long period of accumulation. Due to the unstable communication mode and low public awareness, the public's trust in emerging media or communication platforms is often low. In this case, the concept of integrated marketing is helpful to solve this problem. Through the integration of traditional media and new communication channels, the means of communication and the people they contact complement each other, and finally maximize the communication effect.

2. The timing of communication.

The so-called communication opportunity means that the release time of a certain information corresponds to the hunger and thirst of the audience for the information, and at the right time, it satisfies the hunger and thirst of the audience for information, so as to achieve the best communication effect.

Communication studies show that the audience has never been a passive receiver of information. On the contrary, they often filter and reorganize information through psychological processes such as selective exposure, selective understanding and selective memory. On the positive side, when the audience is in the excited state of receiving some information, it is easier to leave a deep impression on the relevant information and keep a longer memory. This is also an important reason why many cities compete to hold large-scale sports events or international exhibitions: because when people are full of interest in a certain kind of events or exhibitions and maintain a strong demand for information, the relevant information about the venue of this event is inadvertently retained.

As mentioned above, Weibo, the official of the relevant department of gongyi city, launched an invitation to visit Du Fu's hometown in time when the "Du Fu is very busy" incident was hotly debated in Weibo, so that those excited netizens inadvertently came into contact with the information about Du Fu's hometown, which was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Unfortunately, such an activity launched at such a suitable time point was not carefully planned and there was no feasible activity to cooperate with it, which weakened the effect that this communication activity could have achieved.

3. Selection of transmission time point

If we can't choose the factors of the times, we can find or even create the opportunity of communication, and the opportunity of communication depends entirely on the choice of the communicator.

The appropriate communication time point is the time node that can achieve the best communication effect and the favorable opportunity has been formed under the existing communication environment. Because, in different communication environments, the psychological meaning of information to the audience is different. When only one newspaper can be accessed in a month, as long as the information published in a month can constitute effective information, it can be kept in the nearest information base of the audience. However, the information released an hour ago may have been submerged in the information ocean of Wang Yang without subsequent updating measures. Therefore, the city brand and image communication under the new media environment must choose the best opportunity to achieve the most accurate communication.

Follow the trend: strengths, weaknesses and trends

If starting from time is a test of the communicator's time control ability, then following the trend is a measure of the communicator's spatial mobility. For any city, if it wants to spread its brand and image to the target audience accurately and effectively, it must put itself in a more open environment and find its core strength that can impact the audience's heart by comparing with similar cities.

1. Discover the advantages

In the process of spreading the city's brand image, the advantages are found not from the home behind closed doors, but from the comparison between different cities. This discovery was not invented out of thin air for boasting, but should be an advantage that the general public can perceive. For example, the climate is mild and pleasant, the natural landscape is unique and beautiful, and the supporting environment for entrepreneurship is in place. However, it can't be so big, because the memory space of the public is limited. If it can't be the first in their memory, all the homogenized communication content may be abandoned.

Therefore, the process of finding advantages can not only focus on one's own city, but also compare with cities with competitive resources, so as to find differentiated advantages. In this regard, the ancients can learn from the oral comparison that "Huashan does not look at the mountains, and Huangshan does not look at the mountains", and find uniqueness in the comparison, which can highlight the individualized advantages of the place and implant certain characteristic memories in the minds of the audience. In the modern media environment, the information surplus has higher requirements for the unique demands and personalized expression of communicators than ever before, which is something that brand communicators in every city must clearly realize.

Avoid unfavorable factors

Any city will find its own disadvantages when comparing with its competitors. Some of these disadvantages are caused by natural geographical factors, such as inconvenient transportation and relatively closed western regions; Some are caused by historical reasons, such as the unreasonable industrial structure of traditional heavy industry cities; Some of them are formed because the transformation is not in place, such as air or water pollution in some cities in central China. Some of these drawbacks will be improved over time, while others are difficult to fundamentally change. Faced with this situation, we should choose appropriate ways to avoid it in brand and image communication. The ways to avoid it can be to avoid the heavy, to avoid the real and to be empty, to seek benefits from the disadvantages and so on.

Of course, pursuing advantages and avoiding disadvantages is not avoiding disadvantages. As a part of urban management, the creation and promotion of urban brand value is not whitewashing, but the improvement of the overall quality of the city in the process of brand promotion, which turns the unfavorable factors in the process of urban development into favorable factors. For those negative images of the city caused by management reasons, we should be brave enough to correct them and win the public's understanding through sincere apologies in exchange for the public's lost confidence.

For example, during the Spring Festival this year, some tourists "exposed" their experience of being slaughtered in Sanya, Hainan, and the reputation of Hainan International Tourism Island was damaged, so it was dubbed "International Kidnapping Island". Subsequently, the relevant departments of Sanya failed to respond effectively, which caused a strong reaction from netizens. At the beginning of February, the Sanya Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held a media meeting. Jiang Sixian, vice governor of Hainan Province and secretary of Sanya Municipal Party Committee, apologized for the phenomenon of "cheating customers" in seafood stalls, taxis and individual scenic spots reflected by tourists during the Golden Week of the Year of the Loong Spring Festival. Jiang Sixian said that he would take this incident as an opportunity, accept criticism with an open mind, strive to learn from excellent tourist destinations at home and abroad, do a good job in market supervision, and truly make Sanya a high-quality holiday home. In fact, if the negative information appears at the beginning, the relevant departments can sincerely accept the criticism and take effective measures to improve it, and the damage to the city image will be much less.

Follow the trend

The world trend is vast, those who follow it prosper, and those who go against it perish. At that time, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's judgment on the world situation in the era of great change still applies in the context of discussing the spread of city brand image today.

For city managers, brand communication should conform to the trend, that is, we should see that in the era of economic globalization, the flow range, speed and direction of resources are unprecedented. In such a broad, rapid and diversified resource flow environment, the changing trends of people flow, logistics and information flow need to be carefully studied and grasped. At the same time, people's social psychology will change with the times. Therefore, we live in an era in which there are both general trends that define the direction of world development and micro trends that permeate all aspects of people's lives.

The brand communication of a city should not only conform to the general trend of world change, but also discover and utilize the micro trend of change in public life. A vivid example is that some towns in the south of the Yangtze River, in the high-tempo urban life, comply with people's yearning for the slow-paced life in the countryside, deliberately create the artistic conception of small towns with small bridges and flowing water, and finally achieve the ancient towns with amorous feelings.