City branding through increased literacy

Can you read this character?

It can be difficult to attract investment to your city when no one can read its name.

Suining (睢宁), a county within the city of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, is written using a relatively obscure character that few people know how to pronounce. Looking at related characters is little help: is it pronounced qiáo as in 瞧 (“look”)? Maybe it’s similar to huái 淮, which is present in a few well-known place names? Or could it be a misprint of jū 雎 (“osprey”)?

Suining decided to launch a branding campaign to imprint “睢=suī” in the minds of investors. After runs in Wenzhou, Taizhou, and Fuzhou, the campaign arrived in Beijing last Friday when the first of four full-page ads ran on the back cover of The Beijing News. The ad, which presented the character in isolation, incorporated a contest that invited readers to call a hot-line with answers to questions about pronunciation, geography, and notable historical events related to the character.

The campaign ended on Monday with a page that revealed the character’s pronunciation and supplied government hot-lines for interested investors. As a lagniappe, The Beijing News ran a full-page article today that analyzed Suining’s unusual approach to image-building:

Yesterday, professor Mao Shoulong of the Department of Public Administration at Renmin University said that the advertisement would be very effective in increasing awareness of the county and attracting investment. He said that the series of ads were not about image, but were actually dissemination of information: “They are much better than large-scale formalities like treating experts and investors to dinner and a good time.”

However, Yu Guoming, head Renmin University’s Public Opinion Research Institute, believes that the advertisement is not fundamentally different from government image advertising that often runs in party newspapers. “The technique does show a bit more skill by taking into account the functions of business and the marketplace rather than simply running an ‘honor roll’ of their own achievements.”

Yu said that because this form of advertising is relatively uncommon, it may be effective. However, “if this kind of advertisement becomes a trend, with different regions vying to copy each other, then there’ll most likely be problems.”

Yu has a point when he says the ads aren’t all that revolutionary. Despite the clever packaging, the language used to describe Suining’s goals is all too familiar. Take a look at the text of Sunday’s ad:

Here, officials will say from their hearts:

Officials have it hard so the public can have it good!

Here, ordinary people will tell you,

The people have it easy, but it’s rough being an official!

The paper interviewed one of those hard-working officials, party secretary Wang Tianqi, who explained how Suining had come up with the idea for the ad and why it chose a commercial newspaper. He also defended the county against accusations that it spent money it doesn’t have on advertising it didn’t need:

The Beijing News: What led you to think of buying four days’ worth of branding ads to promote Suining in Beijing?

Wang Tianqi: We do investment fairs every year, but conventional large-scale investment fairs have not been all that effective.

This led us to alter our approach to seeking investment. If we want to attract people to invest, we first have to get them to understand Suining. We encountered a fair bit of embarrassment in trying to attracting investment: lots of people didn’t know about Suining.

TBN: Because they couldn’t read the character, or they hadn’t heard of the county?

Wang: Some of them had never heard of the county, but others had never seen the character. Some people read it as huai, or wei, or lots of other pronunciations. This was embarrassing. So we thought about placing branding ads to promote our city.

TBN: That’s an interesting idea, talking about a city by starting with a single character. Whose idea was it?

Wang: The overall framework was my idea. I thought that since no one could read the character, why not start from there? Write the character and see if anyone recognizes it, and then move on to Suining in general.

TBN: Before running the ad in Beijing, where else did you go?

Wang: We placed ads in Wenzhou, Taizhou, and Fuzhou prior to the Spring Festival. The results have been good.

TBN: Can you go into more detail about the results?

Wang: Specifically, when our investment bureau sent people to visit companies or investment fairs in those places, they found that the advertisement gave them something to talk about. Launching straight into investment talks when you first meet is a little forced, but an advertisement about how to pronounce the character sui catches the interest of businessmen. They feel that the government is doing something new, so they’re more willing to talk to you.

TBN: What did you have in mind when you decided to place the ads in Beijing during the legislative sessions?

Wang: We placed them during the legislative sessions for two reasons. First, lots of people are gathered at this time, and a significant number of NPC and CPPCC representatives are well-known entrepreneurs. By placing ads in Beijing at this time, we could easily attract their attention. Second, the media is on high alert during this time, so we would very likely see greater results for our efforts.

TBN: Did you ever consider that people might suspect that ads placed during these sessions were designed to be noticed by the leadership? That they were only for show?

Wang: We thought about that at first, but then we decided that nothing in the ads promoted any particular leader. The intent of the ads was to attract investment. Besides, I don’t think that the word “show” should be demonized. A show is a performance, and if our performance brings joy, if it can make our city better understood, then it’s not a bad thing.

TBN: Did the officials in Jiangsu’s delegation say anything about the ads?

Wang: To tell you the truth, we weren’t really paying attention to that. Our focus was on whether the ads had any effect among investors.

TBN: And did they?

Wang: I’ve received lots of messages on my mobile phone. And we have people in talks about partnerships right now. I’m quite pleased.

TBN: For quite some time, when governments have wanted to promote themselves, they’ve generally placed ads in party newspapers hailing their accomplishments. But your method is practically unprecedented. How do you compare the two approaches?

Wang: For this promotion, we haven’t chosen party newspapers in any region. Not because we don’t trust party newspapers, but because we’ve studied the reading habits of entrepreneurs. We did surveys before choosing media outlets. We’re spending money here, so we definitely want to get our money’s worth.

TBN: In your view, who’s the target market for this city branding ad campaign? Entrepreneurs?

Wang: Our starting point was to attract investment. Entrepreneurs were the focus. But we believe that more than just entrepreneurs read The Beijing News, and we hope that the ads will spread by word of mouth to let more people know about Suining.

TBN: What was your goal for this advertisement?

Wang: City branding is a long-term project, so it’s hard to set a specific goal for one single advertisement. Suining is like a beautiful young woman growing up in her boudoir. We’ve now we’ve let everyone know that there is a beautiful young woman in Jiangsu, and I think that’s good enough. Later on we’ll take further steps to promote the city brand so that people will come to know this beautiful woman even better.

TBN: Suining is one of Jiangsu’s poorer counties. Have you ever considered that an underdeveloped region spending money on an image campaign might be called into question?

Wang: We often face this kind of situation. I believe that a city, like a person, requires self-confidence. You can’t say that simply because we’re underdeveloped, we don’t even have the right to place an ad. Isn’t that’s like saying that since I’m poor, I can’t place an ad seeking a spouse? Advertising isn’t the exclusive right of developed regions. We’re underdeveloped, but we can only develop by attracting people to work with us, and we can only do that through advertising.

TBN: How do the local people view these advertisements of yours?

Wang: Everyone approves of this approach to publicity. We have a whole series of approaches we will use to promote our city in the future.

The ads in The Beijing News asked readers to identify a number of well-known historical events that took place in Suining County. Place names have changed over the years, so these events are not usually connected with the county’s current name.

The ancient city of Xiapi is found in the northern part of the county, near the border Pizhou County. It was at a river near Xiapi that Zhang Liang fetched shoes for an old man in order to obtain the strategy manual that allowed him to assist Liu Bang in establishing the Han Dynasty. And the city was the site of Cao Cao’s victory at the Battle of Xiapi.

Much earlier, during the Spring and Autumn Period, prince Wu Jizha hung his sword over the tomb of the Prince of Xu to fulfill a promise, making him a model of fidelity revered in the centuries that followed. County annals in the Qing Dynasty locate that tomb in Suining.