It's not a waste of money
Marina Bay rebranding went beyond choice of name: URA
Friday August 5, 2005
Lee U-Wen
[email protected]
Under fire from the public for a $400,000 branding exercise, the
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is staunchly defending the
planning process for the Marina Bay area.
The branding exercise carried out by North American firm
Interbrand was an extensive one that went beyond name selection,
the statutory board told Today. And the amount spent will be
recouped many times over in investments and tourism spending in the
coming years.
As URA's director of urban planning and design Michael Koh put it:
"This branding project is not a name selection exercise. The scope
of work is far wider and took nine months to complete."
In three phases, the team embarked on a process that involved,
among other things, researching the strategies of competing cities
such as London and Shanghai, interviewing stakeholders, and
market-testing the brand locally and overseas.
Contrary to what some people have said, the views of the "man on
the street" were sought through random street interviews conducted
at places near Marina Bay such as the Esplanade and One
Fullerton.
But why not have a more extensive consultation process?
"We are, after all, identifying a strategy for Singapore to compete
on a global stage and we don't want to give anything away to our
competition," said URA's head of urban design Cheng Hsing
Yao.
"We wanted to keep our plans under wraps until the final product
was ready," he said.
One issue that concerned some of Today's readers was the decision
to stick with the original name "Marina Bay" which they said was
not unique enough at the end of the extensive process.
Addressing the criticism, Mr Cheng argued that the name, picked
from over 400 suggestions, was "favoured by the stakeholders" and
also the most "well-received".
While he declined to give examples of the shortlisted names,
reiterating that the focus of the branding process was not on the
name, he called for the public to "give (them) time" to realise the
dreams of the Marina Bay brand.
This brand, he pointed out, would be used to promote the area
internationally for the next 10 to 15 years.
He admitted that the $400,000 spent was "not a small sum" but he
also called for the public to see the amount as an "investment that
would bring long-term economic benefits".
"The real estate investments will be big, and this will create many
jobs and increase tourism spending. A strong brand needs time to be
built, we can't see the results overnight," he said.
But were the services of Interbrand truly necessary?
Insisting it was so, Mr Cheng said: "We cannot underestimate the
knowledge and expertise needed to develop this core idea.
"Just urban planners and architects are not enough. It's clearer to
engage a third party to come in to assess.
"If you look at many other private companies, they undergo branding
exercises too."
Touted as Singapore's "future downtown", the Marina Bay area is
being planned with the lifestyle of "work, live, play" in
mind.
Modern office spaces will be juxtaposed among residential
apartments in a place where recreational and entertainment
activities will take place round-the-clock. It is also the site for
one of the two integrated resorts that will be up by
2009.
