The process of developing an identity and marketing plan for a company is no easy task. It involves delving into the very heart and soul of the company and creating an image that has to speak volumes about its inner workings, missions and intentions to its potential clients. Taking this into consideration, how do you create a logo for an entire country? But not just any country, how do you create a logo and marketing strategy for the United States of America? Other countries such as Peru and Mexico have successfully developed identities giving homage to their centuries old cultures. The United States is a noted melting pot of all cultures. How would you define that?

The Corporation for Travel Promotion (CTP) was given this lovely task. Saddled with a not-so-modest marketing budget of up to $200 million* annually, CTP looked to create the first unified marketing strategy aimed to promote tourism in the United States to international vacationers. What they came up with was <a href="http://www.thebrandusa.com/" target="_blank">Brand USA, Inc.</a> with the tagline, “The United States of Awesome Possibilities.”

<img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1329" title="Brand USA" src="http://www.brandiron.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/USA_1720_vert_p5-300x157.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="157" />

According to Brand USA’s website, the identity is meant “to capture the American spirit and create a fresh new brand identity that welcomes the world to come experience the boundless possibilities in America.” The marketing campaign includes a consumer website, <a href="http://www.discoveramerica.com/">DiscoverAmerica.com</a>, meant to offer a user-friendly experience of planning and traveling the U.S. It offers general guides for major cities, a deal finder (coming soon), and U.S. travel tips. The campaign, scheduled to launch in the spring of next year, ultimately looks to generate more American jobs through the boost it hopes to gain in international tourism.

*Rest assured taxpayers, no tax dollars were spent to fund the Brand USA. As stated on the website, half of the budget will be funded by private investment and the rest comes from a $14 visitor fee from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) when traveling to the US from countries that do not require a visa.

<strong>Thoughts from the BI Team</strong>

<strong><em>Justin- Art Director</em></strong>

I definitely have mixed feeling about the brand. At first sight, the logo left me unimpressed. It's just a bunch of dots, right? Hasn't this been played out by the telecom industry? However, after I stopped to think about the direction I would have taken, it started to make sense. Even though most people would agree that the logo is generic, doesn't it <em>have</em> to be? Due to the extreme diversity found in our country, this is probably one of the few cases where something as generic as this is actually a good solution. I even like the tagline. "The United States of Awesome Possibilities" is the new "The Land of Opportunity". Although new, the tagline feels like it has roots. <strong>+1</strong>.

The website, on the other hand, is undeniably a disaster. Keep in mind that the budget is <em>200 million dollars a year.</em> Aesthetically, it's embarrassing. The <a href="http://www.discoveramerica.com/ca/" target="_blank">landing page</a> looks like a bad knock-off of a <a href="http://livingsocial.com/escapes" target="_blank">flash sale site</a>. The <a href="http://www.discoveramerica.com/ca/home.html" target="_blank">home page</a> is busier than Wall Street. Is the strategy to barrage the viewer with photos? They get it, there's a lot of variety, there's no need to let it govern the design. The background photo ends abruptly at the bottom, yet scales to fill the browser window horizontally— a half-assed attempt at a common technique. If <a href="http://ringvemedia.com/" target="_blank">China</a> can do it, we can do it... can't we? The <a href="http://b.oss.im//3a/hlhetaxy2ookk.png" target="_blank">border</a> around the content area isn't even aligned properly for crying out loud. I'll stop there— but really? For <em>200 million dollars a year</em>, I would expect a site that didn't look like an outdated, broken template. <strong>-10</strong>.

Final thoughts:
Instead of taking the obvious direction using any combination of red/white/blue/stars/stripes/guns, they've come up with a good concept. As far execution goes— I can't help but picture those over at the The Brand Union cutting corners so they can get back to their  <a href="http://www.lindsaybrothers.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/scrooge-mcduck.jpg" target="_blank">Scrooge-McDuck-style pool party</a>.

Leilani- Graphic Designer

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