Amazon's 2nd Headquarters Search Amounted To Destination Branding

DALLAS, TX -- While the wound of not being selected for Amazon's second headquarters continues to heal, one advertising expert believes Dallas should be proud of making it as far as it did in a process she considers a destination branding concept. At the heart of this process involved Amazon fielding offers from 230 cities eager to lure the company's $5 billion and 50,000 jobs. Amazon ultimately chose to split its new headquarters between New York City and Arlington, Virginia.

Cities like Dallas essentially created and marketed a brand in an effort to differentiate and insulate themselves "from the threat of competition by reducing substitutability, and in a marketplace saturated with many similar destinations differentiation becomes the only way to survive," University of Wisconsin's Rebecca Schaar wrote in a research paper.

Angeline Close Scheinbaum, an associate professor at the University of Texas' Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations, believes that Amazon was being inclusive by considering a wide net of places. As part of its offer, Dallas created a password protected website and a 253-page spiral book showcasing 60 sites in 23 cities across the area, the Dallas Morning News reported. Tax incentives were also offered to the company, the Morning News added. In the end, it was well worth the work, Scheinbaum told Patch.

"While for many it comes as a disappointment, overall thinking long-term, just having Dallas in the top tier does help with the city and the state from an image and a public relations perspective," Scheinbaum said over email. "It is similar in some respects to ad agencies pitching to prospective cilents; many times the pitches go well, but for some reasons we may never know why, the account goes to another agency. While it can feel heartbreaking, it was not a waste of time or resources because with every opportunity to pitch (or in this case, show off the greatness of Dallas and Texas) positive impressions are made."

(For more news and information like this, subscribe to Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Staff writer Noah Manskar contributed to this report
Photo by Rick T. Wilking/Getty Images