San Francisco’s standing has declined since the pandemic. The city’s problems include homelessness, overt drug use, crime at stores, and homelessness and housing. Speaking of housing, it costs more to build housing in San Francisco than in any other city in California. This definitely impacts relocation and homelessness levels.
These types of issues certainly impact business investment, employment, and tourism. To improve the image, wealthy locals are putting $4 million into a new ad campaign to promote San Francisco’s innovation and creativity. The tag line: “It All Starts Here.” But is this enough to turn around the negative narrative?
One measure to track is tourism. This past August only 69% of the city’s hotel rooms were occupied, compared to 85% during the same period in 2019. Tourism is only one facet though – the campaign also aims to build local support and pride for the city at a time when retailers including Target, Office Depot, and Nordstrom have exited the city as crime at stores has dramatically increased.
Of course advertising and marketing alone can’t save the city. But it can focus the work and remind people of all the great parts of San Francisco and build pride.
What do you think?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Poll students: Who has been to San Francisco? What attributes does it have for travelers? What are the negative aspects?
- Show ad and background video: https://youtu.be/fPqbtCiMEtE?si=abvj4mXJ-IkH-o4X
- Discuss how marketing can impact a city’s brand. What are the needed elements?
- Divide students into teams. Have each team select a town or city for re-branding.
- Discuss the various promotional tactics that can be used for rebranding.
- Have students come up with tactics and list all the tactics on the white board (ex: billboards, print, direct mail, etc.).
- For their town, have each team select three different tactics. For each tactic, explain why it was selected and how it will be used.
Source: Knight, H. (19 October 2023). San Francisco’s brand is in trouble. Can a new ad campaign fix it? New York Times; Knight, H. (27 October 2023). San Francisco has a new slogan, and not everyone is a fan. New York Times; other news sources.
