Richmond International Airport uses the brand on all of its marketing and promotions.

Easy to Love

Using the "Easy to Love" Brand

The "Historic Richmond Region Easy to Love" brand was developed in 2001 through a partnership among nine local organizations - Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, Greater Richmond Partnership, Retail Merchants Association, Richmond International Airport, Richmond Renaissance, Richmond Riverfront Development Corporation, Richmond Sports Backers, RMCVB and Virginia Biotechnology Research Park. Many of these organizations, including RMCVB, have already incorporated the Easy to Love brand into their marketing and advertising. Read on for information about how you can include the brand in your organization's marketing efforts.

What's a brand?

A brand is more than a name or a slogan. A brand is that one thing that makes a product or service different, even remarkable. A brand is based on what people believe because of their experience with a product, service, person or place. It's based on the benefit they've had or expect to get. And that benefit has to be real. In the marketplace, a brand identifies a unique position. The Richmond Region competes in that marketplace every day. We compete for visitors, conventions, new residents and new business.

What is the Richmond Region's brand?

As you already know, there are numerous benefits to living and working in Virginia's Richmond Region. Not surprisingly, the things that residents love about the Region are the very things that appeal to leisure travelers, convention delegates and business prospects. We've boiled down these benefits into three key messages. If everyone uses these messages consistently, we'll start to raise a tide of interest and support for the brand - and the Richmond Region. Our messages are:

• Polished by culture, the Richmond Region is full of progressive areas and endless pockets of discovery.
• The Richmond Region spans five centuries of history and reminds us of who we are as Americans.
• The quality of life here is unmatched; the Richmond Region is easy, fun, accessible and affordable.

How are some existing businesses and organizations using the brand?

The way we figure it, each of us can use these messages to promote the Richmond Region to both visitors and residents. Check out these four categories to determine which your organization belongs to, and see some examples of how you can put the Richmond Region brand to work.

Regional Brand Marketers
These are the folks whose mission it is to promote the region for visitors, conventions, and business development. RMCVB and the Greater Richmond Partnership have come together and instead of focusing on their individual functions in their marketing, are spotlighting the product, our brand. RMCVB has fully incorporated the brand into its marketing including the Richmond Region Rewards Cards, tradeshows, advertising, newsletters, gift shop merchandise and the web site. It's a fantastic way to put the Richmond Region brand front and center, and if we did nothing else, it would be a home run.

Component Brands
These are the individual localities that comprise the Richmond Region, Va.: Chesterfield County, Hanover County, Henrico County, New Kent County and the City of Richmond. While each has its own unique identity, logo, tagline, economic development and tourism efforts, they are nevertheless interdependent. That's because it's impossible to promote Chesterfield County, for instance, without promoting the City of Richmond and the other locations, and vice versa. So it makes sense to promote the regional brand when promoting a component brand. These entities are helping to raise the tide by maintaining their own identities while incorporating the Richmond Region brand. By using brand elements such as a boilerplate Region description and links to the Richmond Region website, promoting the three key messages, putting the logo on marketing materials, letterheads, websites, advertising, and even adopting a common regional signage design, these component brands can really elevate the brand.

Complementary Brands
These generally are quasi-public entities whose mission it is to improve or promote a segment or niche in our region. Entities like the Greater Richmond Chamber, Richmond Riverfront, Richmond Renaissance, Sports Backers, Chesterfield Business Council; they are the organizations that help make the Richmond Region so Easy to Love! It's easy to fly in and out of our airport. We all benefit from downtown business and residential development. We have first-class venues to attract major sporting events. These groups are on a mission to make the Richmond Region Easy to Love, and their marketing materials and events reflect this to generate civic pride and excitement. There are literally thousands of ways we can promote the Richmond Region brand within the Region.

Supporting Brands
If your organization doesn't fit into one of the previous categories, you'll likely find yourself here. These are independent entities that may directly support tourism (like hotels, restaurants, museums and attractions) or may simply be in business for business' sake (banks, retailers, corporations, trade associations, commercial real estate brokers, hospitals, universities, etc.). Those that support tourism contribute to and benefit from the Richmond Region brand by incorporating it into their marketing materials and cross-selling other amenities and destinations around the Region. Those that don't directly support tourism use the brand to promote the Region for employee and student recruitment. By including the Richmond Region boilerplate copy in recruitment materials and linking to the Regional website, these entities can easily turn a typical objection into a benefit, and get applicants excited about the prospect of living here.

How can I get involved?

For more information or to request permission to use the brand, contact EasyToLove@RichmondBranding.com or complete our brand request form.