North Star Place Branding + Marketing

North Star is America’s leading place branding organization. We are passionate about the matchless qualities that define and shape each and every community. Using two decades of experience and perspective, we help client communities uncover and express their authentic story and inspire local action to achieve their preferred future.

We brand and market downtowns, towns, cities, counties, developments of regional impact, regions and states for the purposes of economic development, tourism, citizen engagement and unification of community-wide public entities and partner organizations.

Featured Case Studies

Your community’s story, well told.

In simple terms, your community brand is what people say about you when you’re not around. It is a combination of emotional and rational reactions to all the different experiences, marketing communications and behaviors people have encountered when engaging with or considering your community. Branding is the process a community embarks upon to change, refine or improve what people are saying.

These cases share how the North Star process has helped communities all across America compete for a better future.

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OUR PEOPLE

Looking deeper. Going further.

It’s what we do – because we love our work and because you’re counting on us. Meet the innovators that have created more than 200+ successful community brand outcomes. They are not freelancers. We are a fully integrated organization of multi-disciplinary place branding and marketing professionals.

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OUR PROCESS

A proven process rooted in passion.

North Star pioneered the process for place branding. But that has never been what has made us the leader in community branding. It is our passion that pushes past process and challenges the status quo through creatively driven research, allowing us to understand what is authentic about your community – and allowing you to own a distinct position in the marketplace.

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“We didn’t know what made us different, what made us unique. It wasn’t all about the logo - it was about defining us and what makes us different from other small- to mid-size cities that are out there trying to attract the same businesses, visitors and residents. I think having a firm that understood what other cities were doing across the country made a difference.”
- Erin Bryce, City of North Port, FL
“Our brand has helped us define a distinct sense of place for those who live, visit and do business in Union County. We have brought to life a visual identity that proudly showcases Union County and what makes us unique in the region. Developing the brand with North Star involved a well-organized process that was rooted in research.”
- Liz Cooper, Union County, NC
“This has been the thing that has brought us together. This research element being part of developing the brand is just awesome for us as a community...so we’re working together more closely than we ever have as a community.”
- Anna McKinney, Denison, TX Chamber of Commerce
“It’s really inspired a lot of other businesses, it’s inspired a lot of other projects and so it is really just about building, constantly building...the HUB-BUB brand has spawned other brands that have helped improve economic development in downtown Spartanburg.”
- Stephen Lang & Kate Brandt Ryba, HUB-BUB, Spartanburg, SC
“North Star gave us some really good tools and we still have a thick book of ideas and concepts. It just keeps going and it just keeps perpetuating itself and that’s what exciting about it.”
- Teresa Ramondo, Sebastopol, CA Chamber Of Commerce
“We’ve got a really good message going out throughout the community (and) to the rest of the state and to the country. Washington’s Kiplinger Letter…talked about small cities and mid cities (are) leading this branding initiative throughout the country (like) Hickory, NC. Now that is measurement!”
- Mandi Pitts, City of Hickory, NC
“We were just really impressed with how the things that were important to the people here were reflected back...North Star really got us and that really struck home. We’ve gone from a community that doesn’t really ever think about promotion to the outside world to one that is now constantly thinking about it and doing it.”
- Liz Cabrera, Petersburg, AK Economic Development Council
“In terms of ROI, really the results speak for themselves. Here in the Roanoke Valley, … we had the best results we’ve ever had in history. The first advice that I would give to people that are considering their branding process is to hire North Star.”
- Landon Howard, Roanoke Valley, VA Convention & Visitors Bureau
“Over $4 billion of investment in downtown New Orleans since this brand rolled. The accolades keep rolling in...(the) that one thing North Star helped us with as much if not more than anything else is to understand ourselves.”
- Kurt Weigle, Downtown New Orleans, LA

OUR INSIGHTS

Of course we keep a journal.

As leaders in place branding, North Star visits a lot of places every year. In fact, we have worked with more than 200 communities and organizations in 44 states. Get to know us better with these insights, viewpoints and happenings inspired by our travels. Come back often to see what North Star is doing to help move communities forward.