This site is vanilla, but not for long!

By Katie Brenckle

Hearing what others say about you is not always easy to swallow. There is perception, an idea or general feeling about you. This is your brand. The good news that you always have an opportunity to guide that brand by utilizing effective marketing efforts with tools like a logo, tagline, ads, and signage. As a new Convention and Visitors Bureau, we have a unique opportunity to establish tools that will help position the City as a place to be.

Many citizens may be wondering why Dunwoody needs a Convention and Visitors Bureau. Why would people want to visit our little piece of Metro Atlanta?  The truth is that tourism is big business in Dunwoody and the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Dunwoody (CVBD) is charged with bringing people to visit by promoting and marketing Dunwoody as a premier destination. In doing so, Dunwoody’s local economy is impacted and tax dollars are generated for the City.

Did you know that there are 1,552 hotel rooms in Dunwoody? Or that Perimeter Mall is the South’s second largest mall, welcoming more than 18 million (yes, million) people through its doors every year?  It’s hard to believe that thousands come into our city limits every day to work, shop, dine and stay, but it’s the absolute truth.

The challenge becomes this: the CVBD must continue to draw people into our area for meeting, events and day trips by setting Dunwoody apart from the other areas of Metro Atlanta.  We all know how easy it is to confuse where one City starts and another begins, so imagine if you’re a visitor to the area.  The CVBD understands that the visitor does not necessarily know where Dunwoody is, which is why we are developing relationships with all of the communities in Metro Atlanta. However, if we’re to fulfill our mission to market as a destination, we must understand what sets us apart from the other communities.

Why would someone choose Dunwoody over other Metro Atlanta cities? Because, Dunwoody is where people want to be and developing a distinguishing brand will help us promote that very message. Working together, Sky Design, the City, CVBD, Chamber and PCID, we will develop tools – logos, taglines, ads and signage – that aid in promoting our City. Sky Design had been working very closely with us over the last 6 months in creating a unified brand that will set us apart from other Metro Atlanta cities, attracting even more people to choose Dunwoody, stay at our hotels, shop at our mall and dine in our restaurants.

As a new city, Dunwoody is looking to create a unique brand and identity. This will be in the form of a logo and tagline that will help define the City’s uniqueness for many years to come. As a part of creating this identity, the City of Dunwoody conducted a survey of Dunwoody and Metro-Atlanta residents to gain additional insights into what people know and how they feel about the City of Dunwoody.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in this survey. We had an overwhelming response with over 1100 surveys submitted either over the web or mailed in. The results from this survey can be viewed by following the link below.

COD Research Results 2010_05_05 Final