Think of your favorite big city.
Chances are it has a brand, due in part to history and icons:
- New York (Statue of Liberty)
- London (Big Ben)
- Paris (Eiffel Tower)
- Beijing (Tiananmen Square)
- Prague (The Castle)
- Rio De Janiero (Cristo Redentor)
- Sydney (Opera House).
For each branded destination city, there are dozens of microbrand cities like Bend, Oregon.
Bend draws visitors from Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Spokane and Northern California. It’s a shortened version of “Farewell Bend” ranch, named by settlers in honor of the last view travelers had of the Deschutes River as it bends through the valley.
In the summer, Bend provides Seattle and Portland residents greatly improved odds of seeing the sun, a fact which was not lost on developers of a nearby resort: Sunriver.
If Bend is a microbrand for the Pacific Northwest, Sunriver is one of its sub microbrands. They are intertwined.
Leave a Reply