Words to Describe a Community

A friend of mine recently shared with me some passages from a book she’s reading. The characters ruminate on “one” word associations for various cities. Words that characterize a community are truly the core elements of its brand. But to be valid in that sense, they need to be words associated with a community by both its internal constituents and its external audiences.

Here are some of the word/city associations in the book:

Rome	Sex
Vatican	Power
Los Angeles	Succeed
Stockholm	Conform
New York	Achieve
Naples	Fight

It is an understatement to say Raleigh and Durham have very different cultural identities. A NYT writer once told me one of these places just as well be Tulsa and the other Kuala Lumpur.

Folks in Raleigh always seem to have a lot to say about what they think of Durham. Well, here is what Durham thinks of itself and them. The Durham traits come right out of interviews, focus groups and surveys of both Durham residents and external audiences.

Raleigh	Durham
Conservative	Progressive
Adaptive	Innovative
Smooth	Gritty
Conventional	Original
Big League	Ivy League
Centric	Unpretentious
Comparable	Diverse
Government	Colorful
Extrinsic	Real
Exclusive	Accepting
Judge	Research
Moderate	Activist