One Place No. 1

How a place describes itself shapes what people believe it is.

Often there is a gap between how a property talks about itself and the experience you have once you are there. It is a problem more properties have than you would think.

Last year, we worked with a strong team on a large-scale mixed-use project. The vision and story were there, except it was being told in too many ways at once. The website reached for one idea, the leasing materials for another, the social channels for a third. A flood of messaging in one place, narrow and tactical in the next. 

One place, a different voice every time. No through line. 

The team had done an enormous amount of work. They had searched for the angle, layered in perspectives, gathered strong opinions from smart people. There was more than enough to build on. 

What the place was missing was a strategic anchor. One clear idea, or set of ideas, to guide how the project was positioned and covered. The messaging was fragmented, and the confusion didn’t stop with the customer. The team felt it, too.

This is a pattern we see often. Smart people, strong material, and yet, no clear position. Without an anchor and point of view, it does not matter how good the work is, it adds more noise.

We determined that the fix was defining a set of clear pillars that would be used to guide all communication decisions. Once adopted, the pillars became the anchor the place was built around, and finally, the website, the tours, and the programming pointed in the same direction.

Finding the anchor, that one thing a place is organized around, is what we care about most. It’s the one thing we do before we recommend anything else.

Where have you seen a lot of good work that never quite added up to a point of view?