It has been a while since we've run into one this stubborn and we need Image Watchers to weigh in. The Raleigh MLK group produces an event here in Durham at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center (located in the southeastern part of the City and County of Durham). It is billed as a Triangle and Raleigh event.

But even after clarifications and requests both this year and last, a co-chair for the group insists on misadvertising the location on the world wide web as Raleigh, NC. The response this year was that he didn't care and that no one else had raised a concern. It has also come to our attention that this group mistakenly lists the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke as being located in Raleigh-Wake County.

Fortunately, stubborn or what some call condescending, responses like this are increasingly few as residents of surrounding communities become more familiar with how important Durham's identity is to this community as well as how confusing it is to publish misinformation about locations on the Internet.

Please use the pre-addressed email in the link below to express support for correctly listing these locations in Durham, NC.

Please click below to add your name on a petition that will be submitted to Delta Airlines asking the carrier to add Durham information to the Raleigh-only information that appears on boarding passes passengers print out on their computers and to separate out Durham assets not mixed in under the heading Raleigh Area. (Click Here to See Boarding Pass Example)

Click Here to Sign Petition

Please forward the petition to others who may be interested in addressing this issue.
Have questions or need help? Contact imagewatch@durham-cvb.com.

Durham Image Watch is a grassroots group of volunteers working with Durham's official marketing agency to protect and defend Durham's brand and unique cultural identity. To enlist, visit www.durhamimagewatch.com.

To augment action alerts, DCVB has developed a simple petition process to make it easier to address more stubborn issues threatening Durham's image, brand and identity. The process is simple. Image Watchers will receive an email stating the problem. There will be a box to add your name in favor of the change. You hit submit. And your name is added to a list with other Image Watchers and friends to show how important the issue is to Durham.

As Image Watchers know, periodically since 1995, DCVB employs Opinion Research Corporation to benchmark Durham's image nationwide.

Here are some of the findings from last week's survey:

• Nationwide, by 9 to 1, adults have a positive image of Durham overall. Just 3% are negative, just a point higher than the communities in North Carolina with the best image overall and half that of most.
• Nearly half of those who are aware of Durham are positive or very positive about Durham, including 15% who are very positive, followed by those who are neutral.
• Since polling and marketing began, awareness of Durham has been increased 25%, negatives reduced by 2/3rds and the positive to negative ratio tripled.
• At 16 to 1, Durham's image nationwide is highest as a place with many cultural, educational, and entertainment features, up nearly 8 fold since 1995.
• At 14 to 1, Durham's image as a place with new business and growth potential is second highest, up almost 5 times.

So, the challenge is to continue to create awareness among about 4 out of 10 while:

• Overcoming persistent stereotypes of the South in general,
• Insulating them from confusing things like misattribution of Durham assets to other communities,
• Inferences that Durham is a suburb of Raleigh caused by misuse or misunderstanding of the airport name and,
• The undercurrent of negativity fueled by 10-12% of adults in nearby communities.

Although we're moving from alerts to a petition format, I need Image Watchers to respond to a very crucial alert. It has to do with a revenue stream that will be used in ways that will all impact image.

For 17 years, Durham has worked to shape consensus (see uses) around a 1% prepared food tax and to move to the next step, it comes down to Senate approval next week before the General Assembly adjourns. Otherwise we start over.

Four counties and 1 town already have the tax, several with the assent of the NC Restaurant and Lodging Association. While NCRLA is opposing Durham's the Durham Tourism Development Authority has involved both restaurants and hotels in the conversation leading to Durham's proposal and strongly supports it.

Durham arguably has the most thoughtful proposal…one that benefits residents, visitors and the businesses collecting the tax. Durham's is also unique because it requires a voter referendum.

It has proceeded half way through the General Assembly. But there is a full court press to get the Senate to block it.

Please email these Senators today, over the weekend or at the very latest Monday before noon, asking them to give Durham this opportunity.

If you prefer to email them as a group, click below for pre-addressed email and change the text to your own words.

Linked is the Durham Crime Comparative updated with 2007 numbers. http://www.dcvb-nc.com/cr/07_Crime_Comparative.pdf . This annually compares Durham to 9 other SE communities and 28 nationwide, similar in population and make up.

This is one of a number of tools instrumental in effectively rehabilitating Durham's image and confronting negative word of mouth and water-cooler fables. Durham Image Watchers and member of the 16-organization Durham Public Information & Communications Council are the first to receive it.

Reyn

I'm sharing this post on the blog "Bull City Rising" for two reasons. One, it's a great blog, and Kevin has a good fix on what makes Durham special. But two, in this particular post Kevin provides some links to comments being posted on the Chronicle. As was shared recently with posts on the WRAL site, they are disturbing. Image Watchers can click through and share their own observations.

http://www.bullcityrising.com/2008/01/the-zen-of-durh.html

More great things:

• Duke University was ranked the 13th overall best university in the world by Times Higher Education Supplement and Quacquarelli Symonds, an education research firm.

• 209 N. Gregson will be Durham's first privately-owned "green retrofit into a historic context," making it LEED-certified and adding to the Durham MSA's acclaim as #3 in the nation in LEED projects per capita

• Duke University has been ranked as one of the top 15 best US academic institutions by The Scientist magazine.

• Dr. Randy Jirtle of Duke has been nominated for the 2007 TIME magazine "Person of the Year" for his pioneering work in epigenetics and genomic imprinting.

For more great things, visit www.wheregreatthingshappen.com.

Linked here are details about an event coming to Durham. It is a good book, by the way, as is Crucial Confrontations by the same group. It is being held in Downtown Durham at American Tobacco. But you can see from the link that, while the location under American Tobacco is accurate, the overview uses a URL ending with "raleigh." The photo is of Downtown Raleigh, and the airport name is substituted for Durham as the location.
http://www.dcvb-nc.com/comm/influencerbook.jpg

The event producers have been alerted and given approrpiate information and images. They appeared willing to make the changes. The management of ATC was also alerted since Capitol Broadcasting is a sponsor.

But this is a very typical example of why place branding experts have cautioned against permitting use of the airport name, with either a dash or slash to be used as the name of a city. There simply is no such place, and it is always truncated to just Raleigh, with Durham disappearing entirely or being relegated to suburb status.

We have to mop up about 10 of these a week. Usually the confusion results because the user isn't familiar with the area or assumes the airport is named for a city or because people on the ground here didn't provide clear information. The solution the experts gave us: Never permit the airport name to be used as the name of a city, either in the way it is used here or as gate announcements etc.

D.R. Horton is another national homebuilder that offers homes in Durham and many other communities. Similar to the case of KB Home (last week's alert), vigilant Watch Keepers noted that, on the DR Horton website, the company's residential developments in either the Durham or Raleigh-Cary MSAs are lumped under the name reserved for the airport, "Raleigh Durham." While this approach might work for a centric region, it isn't useful at all for a polycentric region.

Please go to the link below to help ask D.R. Horton to consider modifying its site to be more accurate and also more fair to the communities in this area. Just open the pre-addressed email and modify the first line, and if desired, the entire email to be in your words but with the same objective. Feel free to add or delete copy from the setup. It is only a suggestion to help get you started. Then hit Send Email.