Writing about cities
Jennifer Davis of Chicago won the cycling cap contest by coming up with a good slogan, making it into the top 10, and being randomly selected.
Her slogan: “See a whole new world everyday – go by bike.”
It reminds me of the signs in Portland, Oregon, that say “Go by train,” “Go by streetcar,” and “Go by cab.”
Erin of Kozie Prery, a Chicago craftster, has generously donated a custom-made cycling cap to the winning reader of Steven Can Plan.
This hat is mine and you can’t have it. You will get to choose from one that’s already made (for sale on her Etsy Shop) or have one created with a style and color you choose. I wore my hat all winter (from January to May 2011, pretty much) and I liked its warmth and softness. It’s also very small and I can stuff it into my jacket or back pants pocket. Erin’s hats are made of reclaimed textiles (she calls them “upcycled”).
How do you win?
Come up with a catchy or clever slogan that you think will attract people to ride their bikes more often, or, for those who don’t currently ride, encourage them to start riding a bike!
Tips:
Imagine your slogan on billboards, postcards, flyers, t-shirts, etc…
In February I came up with the postcard below featuring my sister and a quote I made up.
“A bike, think about it” comes from Mikael of Copenhagenize.
Rules after the jump.
If you were asked to design a poster, postcard, flyer, or what have you, to promote bicycling, what would you create?
A photo of my sister riding a bicycle in Chicago alongside the text, “I want to get in shape, waste less time, and save money.” Similar to Mikael’s “The bike, think about it.”
No one asked me to design the poster above. Mikael Colville-Anderson of Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic (who I met in January 2011) is constantly reimagining car advertisements and plastering cheeky messages on photos. I created this to expand my creativity, use computer software I rarely try out, as well as promote one of the answers to a lot of problems, be they personal, environmental, or social.
I don’t think there’re enough positive messages about bicycling being spread in media or in our media-filled physical environment – we see the opposite. If you watched the Super Bowl commercials on Sunday (or online today), you’d have seen Audi’s “Green Police” arresting people for not recycling or for driving something other than their “clean diesel” car. Audi advertised the same “clean diesel” car in a different commercial that suggested bicycling was difficult and degrading, and probably only done while it’s raining.
To promote bicycling as the cure to what ails us, Mikael designed this poster of a patch kit and the text, “The bicycle. Fixing broken cities. You’re welcome.”
Mikael and I posing for a shot next to hand and foot rail for cyclists after riding our bikes around Copenhagen after sipping some beer and eating expensive, but tasty, hamburgers.
Promoting bicycling doesn’t always need a narrative message, though. This poster for the great people of San Francisco identifies each neighborhood by a kind of bicycle. The funniest one is the exercise (stationary) bike for Castro. Think about the neighborhoods in your city – which one would a fixie represent and which one would get the cargo bike?
One of my favorite messages is apparently quite old: Put some fun between your legs.
Co-opting Austin’s marketing strategy, Portland also wants you to keep it weird (read the history of this slogan). If you haven’t yet, please peruse my 54 (so far!) photos I’ve uploaded from my trip to Portland, Oregon, in April this year.
A wall in Chinatown (yeah, Portland has a Chinatown) invites citizens and visitors alike.
Bicycling in Portland is so prevalent, you’ll see entire families on the streets riding their bikes to the park, to school, or shopping.
Check out Portland’s unique transportation facilities and improvements in my photoset, “Transportation in Portland.”
Response to “Stick To Your Strengths” on Creo Quality’s blog. Creo Quality assists life sciences organizations in, among other areas, product development.
Have you bought a candy bar recently? Let’s just look at Reese’s as an example. It used to be you had one choice: Reese’s peanut butter cups. Now they have several variations of peanut butter cups. They also have several other choices.
And what about soft drinks? How many varieties of Mountain Dew are there?
Why have these brands done this? They offer so many choices and seem to be straying from their strengths. It confuses me.
…Companies should stick to their strengths. Companies should have focus. Companies should try to deliver their products / services better than anyone else. Quit diluting your brand.
I think the answer is quite simple:Â Companies want to grow. Make more money. So one route is to make new products, and then see if it works. A “strength” wasn’t known as such until it was designed, introduced, marketed, and evaluated.
The McDonald’s Big Mac wasn’t always the most popular burger (or “strongest” sales leader) – it didn’t come out out 1967 and the first McDonald’s opened in 1940 (the corporation started 1955). Would you consider adding coffee or McCafé diluting the brand? McDonald’s is trying out new products. For all we know, Starbucks’ popularity could decline and coffee will be recognized as the fast food company’s second strength, behind cheap hamburgers.
I think brand dilution arises when companies don’t fully test their products before their release, or they don’t follow good marketing strategies. The brand isn’t diluted because they introduced new products. The failure of New Coke could have been averted if Coca Cola either A) paid closer attention to the results of the focus groups, or B) released New Coke as an additional product in the lineup. But Coca Cola has so many other “strengths” because it decided to stray from its main product line.
A different Coca Cola product tells an extremely different story: Fanta, the fruit-flavored soft drink. It was invented to deal with sales complications because of World War II and Nazi Germany. You can buy Fanta now in tens of flavors in almost 200 countries.
My advice: Companies should innovate and evaluate. The act of selling curly fries won’t weaken your good name.
There’s a connection to cities in all of this. Cities can’t always “stick to their strengths.” This year, Chicago lost two major conventions to Las Vegas and Orlando. Hosting conventions is still a strength of Chicago, Illinois, but it’s even more so true of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Orlando, Florida. If the Chicago tourism, special events, and marketing arms decided to stick with conventions, it may have never attempted a bid for the summer Olympics. Smaller cities who decide to increase incoming, regional tourism might create a restaurant district centered around their passenger train station. Detroit stuck with the automobile and look at it now.