State of Durham’s Image Report

For the majority of readers, who don’t live in Durham, this is the current example of the annual report benchmarking the State of Durham’s Image.  It is produced by the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, which as the community’s official marketing agency is of course also the guardian and defender as well as promoter of its image, identity and brand.

The report focuses on perception as the foundation of image and the results of scientific survey updates conduced by DCVB and its partner organizations.  There are other reports that focus on strategies and related benchmarks including DCVB’s marketing but also legions of effort across every aspect of the community, dedicated to Durham continuing and never ending improvement.

This report is provided to the community as information but but also to empower residents who may hear some crazy anecdotal stuff around the water cooler (remember 3 out of 5 people working in Durham are non-residents) and prefer to use generalizable information in addition to their own personal experiences to provide balance.

The report is also grist  to inform and coalesce action among the 20 member organizations of the the Durham Public Information & Communications Council, another best practice innovation (see a chart of the organizations in the report.)

It took a few years after DCVB first began scientifically unwrapping perceptions of Durham in 1993 for community leaders and other organizations to get their heads around the issue of image and there is still some confusion about about what it is and isn’t as well as sources and solutions.

But it is definitely now a top of mind concern.

Everyone likes good stories and there are legions of anecdotal stories behind each of the generalizable findings in the report.  But coalescing action and deploying resources is much more efficient and effective if it is based on more than opinions and anecdotes.

And the information is not only useful to those willing to do the heavy lifting.  It is also useful to those more disposed to either bricks and mortar or even to those prone as they say to a more Pollyanna or Kumbayah.

Congratulations to DCVB’s CEO Shelly Green and her staff for a great report and continuing to set the standard nationwide.