Executive Summary

This “How to Develop a Locally-Made Brand Platform” toolkit provides a step-by-step guide for cities interested in leveraging their place-based identity to grow sales and develop export markets for their local manufacturers. This toolkit largely draws on the experience of SFMade, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, that in three short years has developed a successful business-to-consumer locally-made brand platform that has elevated awareness and sales for San Francisco’s local manufacturers.

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Purpose of this ToolKit

Formed in 2011, the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA) is a national collaborative of non-profit, for-profit and governmental stakeholders across major US cities, working together to grow manufacturing businesses, create living wage jobs and catalyze sustainable localized economies. A core activity of the UMA is to develop and share practical, implementable strategies for growing the manufacturing sector in urban communities – referred to as “toolkits.” Each toolkit proposes specific approaches that cities can use to catalyze their own urban manufacturing sectors, based on what is already working in other areas. The “How to Develop a Locally-Made Brand Platform Toolkit” is the UMA’s first in an anticipated series of practical implementation guides. This toolkit focuses on how cities, and their local manufacturers, can develop and leverage place-based identity, branding and communication strategies, and major retail distribution partnerships to grow sales and develop export markets. A locally-made brand is a logo, name, term or design that creates a distinct place-based identity for a good manufactured in a given city, and a locally-made brand platform includes the brand and any programs, processes, strategies and organizations which promote and market the brand. This toolkit largely draws on the experience of SFMade, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that in three short years has developed a successful business-to-consumer locally-made brand platform that has elevated awareness and sales for San Francisco’s local manufacturers. SFMade serves over 450 member manufacturers employing over 4,000 individuals. SFMade has created a nationally-recognized brand platform, supported by a logo and a range of services and activities to promote the brand throughout the marketplace. The toolkit will be periodically updated with additional experiences from Urban Manufacturing Alliance members.