indienash

How do you create a grassroots brand that encourages a movement? Easy. You just build a team of top-notch, award-winning brand strategists and marketers to help you do it.

The Nashville Independent Business Alliance was a group of Nashville-based independent business owners that used their collective voice to monitor, protect and advocate for the cultural and economic environment in which we do business.

Rapid development inevitably creates anxiety around corporate takeover and the need to protect ourselves from negative change. So how do we make this transformation work for us and not simply happen to us? And protect the independent spirit that got us this far?

We started with trying to gain insight into the struggles indie business owners were facing. We facilitated a few focus groups to allow for open conversation and to better understand their pain points. Through this activity, we realized that there were two different sets of problems here. The main issue was that the business owners were dealing with a city that wasn’t promoting them, but instead using them to entice corporate brands to come set up shop in Nashville, essentially forcing out the Nashville owned and operated counterparts that helped create buzz for this city to begin with.

The other issue was the need to create awareness of the problem within the general public and promote the Nashville independent businesses. This is especially important now that large chain brands have figured out how to appear as if they’re “local.” What was needed was essentially two brands: a B2B brand that could communicate directly with the business owners, and another brand that was more consumer facing that could speak the language the consumer would understand.

What we came up with was NIBA stands for the base brand that unites the business owners and equips them with the universal, consumer message brand. And that consumer brand that we named is now known as IndieNash.

We wrote compelling messaging, designed graphics and built a robust social following through earned and owned marketing channels. The problem had been communicated and now we needed businesses to join.

I knew from the start that a brand is hollow and ineffective if it doesn't have a strong purpose and solid strategy, but I also knew I couldn’t create it alone. I brought in a brand strategist and marketing pro to help craft the perfect message for this movement.

MISSION
Through our collective voice and actions we will inspire, empower and champion a movement to keep Nashville’s independent spirit thriving.

The power is in the people.

ELEVATOR PITCH
We are a group of Nashville independent business owners that use their collective voice to monitor, protect and advocate for the cultural and economic environment in which we do business.

VALUE PROPOSITION
NIBA is a stamp of local independence. It is a network that provides a platform to express your opinions and challenges, garner the wisdom and knowledge of fellow entrepreneurs, and identify your business with the IndieNash movement.