The Great Lakes Region’s manufacturing community must launch a collaborative, creative campaign to rebrand the region and change its global perception.  Legacy issues make building a new perception challenging but not impossible.  We can change the way the world sees us by reminding people that the future started here and it will restart here.

The campaign must be clear and consistent and establish a basis for trust

The campaign must present a value proposition that differentiates the Great Lakes Region from its competitors

At the Great Lakes Manufacturing Forum, the speakers and participants had several other suggestions for creating a new brand:

• Align the values first. Get a 360 degree look. Get out and talk to people in the region. Engage them. Get their ideas on what the Region's values should be.
• Embrace a global view.
• Emphasize talented workforce today and plans for tomorrow.
• Emphasize sustainability and the environment.
• Don't concentrate on winners and losers.
• Emphasize services such as engineering, financial, health care and the vast network of colleges and universities in the region.
• Emphasize the new union/management relationships - collective understanding, not collective bargaining.
• Use new ways to reach the audience such as Facebook.
  

Rebranding the Great Lakes Region is a long process and could take as long as 10 years.

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