Episode 174

Building a Regional Brand: Kansas City's Marketing Success with Jonathan Knecht

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May 19th, 2025

31 mins 24 secs

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authentic storytelling in-house agency cross-border collaboration industry targeting place marketing talent attraction collaborative development kc heart logo economic development marketing regional branding economic development econdev eco devo

About this Episode

In this episode of the Econ Dev Show, host Dane Carlson interviews Jonathan Knecht, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Creative Services at the Kansas City Area Development Council, who reveals how his team markets the greater Kansas City region to attract business investment and talent. Jonathan, a self-described "refugee from advertising" who's been with the organization for 21 years, discusses their collaborative approach to regional branding centered around the iconic KC Heart logo, their focus on key industry sectors like digital health and sports architecture, and how Kansas City's central location, affordability, and quality of life create competitive advantages. He also shares insights on building consensus across state lines and how their in-house creative agency supports economic development efforts throughout the region.

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Actionable Takeaways for Economic Developers

  1. Consider adopting organically popular community symbols rather than creating new brands from scratch to ensure authenticity and community buy-in.
  2. Build collaborative relationships across political boundaries to present a unified front when pursuing major projects and investments.
  3. Leverage your region's unique industry clusters (like KC's sports architecture) to create compelling specialization stories for targeted marketing.
  4. Create an in-house creative agency to support marketing needs across your region, especially for partners with limited budgets.
  5. Develop talent attraction initiatives like KC's "Team KC" that connect employers and equip them with shared marketing resources.
  6. Create specialized content for different audiences, such as belonging guides for various cultural communities, to support talent recruitment efforts.
  7. Focus on tracking meaningful metrics tied to actual business attraction and expansion results rather than just marketing activities.
  8. Identify and promote quality of life advantages such as central location, cost of living, and cultural amenities as competitive differentiators.
  9. Establish sector-specific initiatives (like KC's Digital Health and Animal Health Corridor) to target industries where your region has competitive advantages.
  10. End counter-productive incentive competitions between neighboring communities to better focus resources on attracting new businesses to the region.

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