The importance of Place Branding in an increasingly lonely world

Steady on Stu, that’s a pretty deep title. It’s also a pretty long bow too, no? Those were my two initial thoughts when I first penned that opener.

It had however come from a pretty deep place, that being rung three on Maslow’s five rung hierarchy of needs. If you’ll allow me to take you back to high school Psychology for a moment, in the 1940s Mr Abraham Maslow arrived at the conclusion that; after food, water, shelter (Rung 1) and basic safety (Rung 2) were looked after, social connection was the next most important need for us humans.

As someone that works closely with communities and the events they take pride in, the first thing I need to establish a feel for is what the people in those communities value most. From the artists of the upper Blue Mountains, to the mine workers in the coal country of central Queensland, the needs and wants I hear about are many and varied. There is however one common factor that, irrelevant of economic, political or social standing, will bubble to the surface in every discussion I undertake: a desire to feel connected to something bigger. Or in other words, a desire to find a group of like-minded people that provide us with a sense of being a part of a broader collective identity. Bravo Mr Maslow.

Late last year the Australian Psychological Society and Swinburne University of Technology released a study that warned us of an impending “loneliness epidemic”. The headline figure from the study was that one in four Australians are lonely. Further, half of us stated that we felt lonely at least one day a week. When coupled with research like Susan Pinker’s on the profound impact social connectivity has on longevity, it is hard to understate the importance of feeling connected to others around you in a meaningful way. It’s here that, if done well, I reckon Place Branding* can play a powerful role.

Those of us that concern ourselves with the well-being of our communities will often first look to implement initiatives aligned with changing diet and exercise. When considering just how important it is for us to feel meaningfully connected to those around us, perhaps resourcing a Place Branding strategy (and the process that goes with it) is something that needs to be considered first and foremost.

In the end, identifying and articulating what sits at the core of a place’s collective identity is the foundation of great Place Branding. When done well, the people of a place will see themselves in a place brand, feel part of something bigger, and in turn feel a little less lonely than they may have otherwise.

* Still very much in its early days a practice, there are a few different definitions of Place Branding floating around. For mine, in the simplest terms possible, Place Branding is defining a place’s product and telling the world about it.