Civic leaders strategically built up Nashville's brand. Can they tackle its growing pains?

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This story is part of America's Evolving Cities, a USA TODAY Network project that takes a close look at four regions across the country and their unique paths to success — and how residents have benefited or suffered along the way.
Boom town. Now-ville. Red hot. It city.
Nashville boasts many nicknames, including those bestowed by Forbes, GQ, Time Magazine, The New York Times and countless other national news publications. Since the Great Recession, the city has garnered a reputation for its economic resiliency and creative community.
Some of that press attention, including the 2013 New York Times feature story that dubbed Nashville the next "It City," came about thanks to collaboration between the city's power players and well-sourced public relations firms, according to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Stephanie Coleman.
All told, Nashville's song of success is more like a well-rehearsed stage production than a spontaneous open mic performance.
"We were in constant communication with them about, not just local but national media as well ... really marketing Nashville as the low-cost alternative to Los Angeles and New York," said Coleman, who worked at the Chamber for 17 years before her recent ascent to its chief position.
Nashville had tangible strengths to show off to the press. Ten years ago, it was a burgeoning health care hub seeing expansion in the tech industry and boasting a plethora of universities. Tennessee is known as a low-cost, business-friendly state, and Nashville attracted creative workers to its powerhouse music industry.
Since then, Nashville and Tennessee have bet millions on continued success.
The Music City Center cost $623 million, while the TV show "Nashville" collected millions of dollars in incentives from the city and state to continue local production. AllianceBernstein, Amazon and Oracle all zeroed in on Nashville thanks to incentive deals.
All of these moves were communicated to the outside world through marketing and public relations strategies, including capitalizing on the popular show "Nashville," which had billboards all over the world. The city's population has grown accordingly, leading to pressures on the region's infrastructure systems and housing market.
"Everyone was singing from the same song sheet," Coleman said. "I do think that catapulted us to where we are today, but we can't forget that, and we can't lose sight of the importance of that branding for the city and the region. That remains just as important as it ever was."
Nashville may have many nicknames, but it chose one for itself: Music City.
The roots of the name trace back to the legendary travels of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a respectable origin story. At the same time, Music City is a brand, strategically formed to attract tourists and convention and business travelers in droves.
Deana Ivey, now the president and CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp., was a staff liaison for the 150-person citywide branding effort led by the NCVC in 2004. Stakeholders included business executives, higher education leaders and local policymakers.
"We spent months around the table, kind of arguing, to be honest, about what Nashville is known for," Ivey said. Options included "Buckle of the Bible Belt," "Athens of the South" and "Music City, U.S.A."
Ivey and the rest of the naming committee went to Nashville International Airport to role-play as visitors to the city. They got in a taxi and headed downtown.
"We went around town … and we knew where the music was, but it wasn't easy for visitors to figure out," she said.
So the team put together a plan to incorporate the brand into everything the city had to offer, from live music in the airport to music note air fresheners in the taxis.
And Nashville's local businesses know how to put on a good show, so the strategy took off from there.
"We're at 20 years," Ivey said. "But that's what it takes to really build a brand and keep it going."
Under the limelight, Nashville hasn't yet faded. It's now a small town with a population of almost one million people.
Maybe, after all that growth, there would be a sense of arrival. But the curtain call has not yet come.
The city's tourism leaders recognize that the global appetite for both country music and corporate relocations is only growing. Nashville International Airport in April kicked off two new international flights, to Dublin, Ireland, and Reykjavik, Iceland, and the airport could soon build its runway to Asia.
Nashville broadcasts its marquee tourism events, like CMA Fest or the New Year's Eve celebration, to the rest of the world, garnering millions in views in a tradition that traces back to the Grand Ole Opry's place at the heart of country music radio.
When the Predators made a playoff run for the Stanley Cup in 2017, for example, Ivey remembers checking in with her contacts at the NFL, hoping to prove Nashville's worthiness to host an upcoming draft.
"Are you watching? Are you paying attention?" she recalls asking.
"Oh, we're paying attention," was the response. The NFL brought its draft to Nashville in 2019. With a new Nissan Stadium under construction, future events are likely to grow in prominence.
It's as if the city is constantly sending a message around the world: Watch, listen, visit, come back soon.
Nashville performed in unison to earn recognition from the outside world. Now, perhaps, the city can work together well enough to solve its growing pains.
"It's tricky, but it's the next critical step," Coleman said.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Inside the 20-year campaign to build up Nashville's brand