Background:
Since 2003, Hua & Hua has been serving China Fortune Land Development for more than 19 years, witnessing the entire development process of China Fortune Land Development. Over the 19 years, the scope and content of cooperation between Hua & Hua and China Fortune Land Development have continuously expanded with their growth in business, from the initial services for the group's branding and industrial parks, and real estate business, to comprehensive and in-depth participation in systematic work of China Fortune Land Development in its affiliated industrial new cities, industrial development, residential real estate, as well as emerging innovation incubation, elderly care industries' development strategies, brand strategies, and in creative communication.
In 2002, Gu'an Industrial Park started construction. In 2003, Hua & Hua got involved in in the city branding work of Gu'an. At that time, Gu'an was a traditional agricultural county with weak industrial foundations. Today, its total economic output has achieved a geometric growth of 40 times. In July 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the first batch of "PPP Project Library Column," with Gu'an Industrial Park as the only new urbanization project selected, receiving commendation from the State Council, becoming a model nationwide!
Strategic Direction:
For the marketing of a city, the first thing is to let people know the city’s location. We were marketing a city, so we found a "landmark symbol" of the city, using a symbol and a sentence to let people know about the city.
Brand Slogan:
Through research, Gu'an is located in the center of three cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding, just across the Yongding River from Daxing, Beijing. After analyzing Gu'an's location advantages, we chose China's largest super landmark - Beijing's Tiananmen Square as Gu’an’s "landmark symbol". Gu'an is 50 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square, so we extracted the phrase "50 kilometers south of Tiananmen" as the slogan. With this, when people hear "50 kilometers south of Tiananmen," they immediately know where Gu'an is, and its investment value is also revealed. We also got our complete slogan from the song "I Love Beijing Tiananmen" - "I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther South". This slogan gave the city a pair of wings, and let the brand “fly”.
Super Sign (Figure 1-2):
Advertising is the encoding of signs. We chose a Western man in a suit and a pair of leather shoes as the symbol of investors and entrepreneurs, holding a sign with the same format and font as the slogan on Tiananmen Square.
Super Song:
"I Love Beijing Tiananmen" is a children's song that almost everyone in China knows. Adding this sentence and song brought tremendous momentum to the brand of Gu'an Industrial Park. Gu'an Industrial Park also obtained the copyright of this song and adapted it to the Gu'an version of "I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers farther south":
"I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther south, small city with great ambition, Gu'an people welcome you! I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther south, Gu'an people welcome you, the future city is here!"
City Brand Marketing Experience System (Figure 3-10)
After establishing the memorable slogan of "I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther south" we launched a comprehensive city branding and experience design in three stages: "before you come, during your visit, after you leave".
Before You Come
How can we make people be aware and excited about Gu'an, especially for potential investors before they arrive? We placed advertisements in the media they most frequently see, such as inflight magazines, state media, and at Beijing highway intersections. These ads played a crucial role in attracting investment and promoting the city brand during the early stage of park construction (Figure 3-5).
During Your Visit
As mentioned earlier, every visitor comes with expectations, so how can we create a great experience and increase the success rate of cooperation and signing contracts? This requires a complete experience management system that exceeds guests' expectations and surprises them!
(1) City Experience Packaging System
From the first moment you see Gu’an, you can feel the neat and tidy city brand image of Gu’an. From the entrance, to the packaging, to the signage of parks and squares in the city, the "I love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers farther south" Super Sign is used for main recognition. We created a comprehensive city experience packaging system for Gu'an Industrial Park in the region (Figure 6-10).
(2) City Festival Product Development
"Gu’an plays what the world plays". We planned four categories of city festivals for Gu'an, including ecological protection, holiday celebrations, sports vitality, and pop culture. We turned city festivals into products for Gu'an and created attractive reasons for people to visit (Figures 11-16)!
(3) City planning and investment promotion exhibition halls guided by urban brand marketing
For cities, media channels are not just limited to newspapers, television, outdoor advertising, and mobile devices. Exhibition halls and planning centers are also important communication channels. When planning exhibition halls, the first thing to consider is the target audience. Taking Gu'an Planning Center as an example, it is designed to attract government officials who care about the city, businesses who are interested in investing, and other cities who come to learn (figure 17).
Secondly, what do we want our guests to remember after visiting? We should set up content and conclusive viewpoints in the exhibition layout that we want them to remember. These conclusive viewpoints are also the content that we hope visitors will introduce and report to others and their leaders after leaving.
The entire Gu'an Planning Center revolves around the theme song "I Love Beijing Tiananmen Square, 50 kilometers farther south" and all visitors take photos with the slogan "I Love Beijing Tiananmen Square, 50 KILOMETERS farther south" after their visit.
After leaving, we want visitors to take something that represents our city and brand, which can be continuously mentioned and discussed. We have developed a product called "Gu'an Gift" that is based on Gu'an's cultural, folk, historical, and industrial characteristics, which are integrated into the creative design of the gift, creating new media to promote and advertise Gu'an (figures 18-23).
Marketing Campaigns (figures 24-28)
Since 2015, we have planned urban festivals and events for Gu'an Industrial New City, such as the Gu'an Christmas Run and Gu'an Bicycle Sports, which have been held continuously for several years.
Gu'an - Innovation City (figures 29-30)
Based on the completion and operation of Beijing Daxing International Airport, the planning of Xiongan New Area, and the gradual development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area into the Beijing-Tianjin-Xiongan metropolitan area, Gu'an needs a new urban strategic positioning plan to clearly define the city's industrial planning and brand strategic direction for the next 10 years. Therefore, we conducted comprehensive policy research and brand creativity.
Brand Slogan (figure 31)
1. Super Slogan
On the basis of the original slogan, we proposed the super slogan "I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther South, Gu'an - Innovation City".
2. Discourse System
"I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther South; Gu'an is a science and technology innovation city; 10 kilometers from the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, a key city in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region; all scientists should live in Gu'an; a city for parent-child leisure and vacation; the city of Chinese volunteers, 75,000 volunteers building the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei volunteer community together; Beijing is developing southward, Gu'an is now in the spotlight."
Super Sign (Figure 32)
Gu'an's Super Sign is still "I Love Beijing Tiananmen, 50 kilometers Farther South". Based on Gu'an's strategic positioning as a science and technology innovation city, we found that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will become a world-class metropolitan area in the future, and Gu'an will be an important node. This will be a huge advantage for Gu'an's location. Therefore, we graphically expressed the location map of the three major cities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, as well as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei science and technology innovation industry belt, forming a new equity for Gu'an's brand symbol. With just one picture, we can clearly convey the urban location value and advantages of Gu'an.
