On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Karley Cunningham, founder of Big Bold Brand and the Surefire Method, about how branding can help a destination, attraction, or business in the tourism industry stand out from the crowd. Karley breaks it down into three key themes: understanding our fundamental beliefs, knowing the markets we serve, and positioning ourselves around benefits and differentiators. Karley clears up all the noise around branding and marketing and shares actionable steps to help you evolve your brand.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

How understanding fundamental beliefs and truths strengthens a brand’s identity
Why you need to distinguish branding from marketing and how this distinction leads to more effective marketing strategies
Actionable steps for creating a strong brand promise and how it can impact employee recruitment and retention
How the concept of tightening the creative box leads to more innovative solutions and helps a brand differentiate itself in a competitive market
Why aligning a brand’s internal culture with its external promises impacts a company’s overall reputation and employee satisfaction
What role target audience understanding plays in brand differentiation

Differentiating Branding from Marketing

Branding and marketing play distinctly different roles in business success, and Karley shares her philosophy that branding is the backbone that informs and enhances marketing strategies. While marketing focuses on promoting products and services to specific audiences, branding is about creating a compelling narrative that defines what your destination or business stands for.

As Karley puts it, “Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” It’s about building a reputation through consistent, authentic interactions at every customer touchpoint.

Building a strong brand is about taking a good look at who you are as an organization. Start with an inside-out approach—look at your fundamental beliefs and truths. As a destination, you really need to dig into your core purpose, guiding principles, character, and vision. These elements form the DNA of the brand and serve as a blueprint for how a company operates both internally and externally.

Understand Your Audience

After establishing a strong internal identity, your next step should be taking the time to understand the external market. Travel and tourism businesses must identify their target audiences by exploring what problems they solve for these groups. Knowing what draws visitors to your destination is key, whether it’s providing adventure, culinary experiences, or relaxation.

Karley uses the example of aligning the customer experience with expectations: “Are people going to come away from our region raving about what we do because we’ve set them up for success?” Understanding audience expectations allows companies to craft specific value propositions, ensuring that every touchpoint is meaningful and engaging.

Positioning, Messaging, and Telling Your Story

Effective branding requires clear positioning and messaging strategies. This involves identifying the benefits and differentiators your business offers compared to competitors. What makes you unique and why travelers should choose you over others?

Storytelling is a powerful tool because sharing narratives about local culture, history, or the people that make your destination unique can resonate deeply with potential visitors and create a relatable brand image.

Integrating the Brand Promise

The brand promise needs to include employees as well as customers, and as Karley points out, the internal experience has to mirror the external promise. Ensuring employees feel valued and integral to delivering on your destination’s promise boosts morale and improves service quality, which in turn elevates your visitors’ experience.

By integrating the brand promise throughout the organization, businesses improve customer experience and enhance employee recruitment and retention, which is an essential consideration in the tourism industry right now.

Resources:

Website: https://www.bigboldbrand.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karleycunningham/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrandMaven
Surefire Audit: https://www.bigboldbrand.com/surefireaudit/

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