DMOs: Stop Marketing Your Breweries and Burgers
Attention destination marketing organizations: Beware of cookie cutter content topics for your city or region.
Take a look at your marketing content and ask if your region is really known for breweries, burgers and other attractions currently on trend. Here are four things to keep in mind when marketing your area’s actual draws:
1. Know Your City
Destination marketing is often about celebrating your regional appeal. Travelers can find a decent burger and beer almost anywhere across the country, but there’s a good chance your region has a unique spin on these highly sought-after menu items.
Think about places where visitors may find a great Southwestern-style burger in Santa Fe, Cajun-inspired burgers in New Orleans or even the popular hot chicken sandwiches in Nashville. And of course, there’s no harm in highlighting your city’s local craft craze spots, like Anaheim Brewery in, you guessed it, Anaheim, or Tennessee Brew Works, also in Nashville.
2. Find the Foods True to Your Locale
As we’ve said before, it’s wise to highlight the things that make your destination a can’t-miss. There are almost certainly great restaurants and places to grab a drink, but they don’t necessarily have to be gastronomy hits like burger joints and breweries.
Consider Tucson, the country’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Sure, there’s local beer and good burgers there, but the Old Pueblo is renowned for its incredible Mexican food.
3. Go Beyond the Brewery
You’re free to spotlight local breweries offering a unique or particularly regional experience. But what if your city is better known for other potables?
Niagara Falls USA has some distinct brewery experiences like the New York Beer Project, but the area also boasts a number of cideries including BlackBird Cider Works and Blackman Cider Co. Another idea may be to feature another type of drinking experience beyond the brewery, such as the many speakeasies found in Charlotte.
4. All in All, You Don’t Have to Fit the Mold
If your city isn’t teeming with new restaurants and craft beer, that’s OK. What works well for other metro areas doesn’t have to be a requirement for yours.
If you know your city’s or region’s true attractions, and you know how to measure your marketing’s success, then your DMO will be set up for success.
As you’re drafting your next set of blog posts, leave the breweries and burgers to the real burger and brewery towns. As long as you know your region, know your audience, and know how to measure your outcomes, you don’t have to follow the DMO crowd. Now you can make your own path.