Authenticity and luxury branding in a renewing Detroit landscape

ABSTRACT

Emerging and establishing brands in Detroit regularly capitalize on the narrative of the city’s “comeback.” Many of these brands promote artisanal craftsmanship, nostalgia for an industrial past, and the repurposing of discarded materials as “authentic,” while others recast Detroit’s image as a place of subsistence and survival and as one of “grit” and “hustle.” Thus, the emerging image of a gentrifying Detroit is somewhat reliant on narratives of poverty and abandonment. These narratives are evident in the marketing materials used to sell luxury goods, services, and experiences. This article examines examples of digital and print marketing materials for Detroit-based product design and real estate development entities that illustrate how copywriting, imagery, and graphic design are brought together to deliver these messages.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban renewal
• place branding
• design
• marketing
• gentrification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In 2010, census data estimated that there were 40 square miles of vacant land in the 138 square miles that make up the city. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010b) A population of 1.8 million in 1950, had an estimated population of roughly 706,500 as of 2011 which was down from roughly 713,700 in 2010. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010a) In July 2016, that number was estimated at roughly 672,800 but demographics of race or ethnicity have not been published. (U.S. Census Bureau 2016) In 2010 it was estimated that roughly 83% of the people in the City of Detroit were Black and roughly 11% were White. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010b) 50% of Detroit families were making less than $25,000, 15.5% of the population unemployed, and 35.5% of families living below the poverty line. (U.S. Census Bureau 2010c)

2 The Detroit Future City Plan is a 50-year strategic framework for the city that includes a strategy of expansive green and blue infrastructure, promoting sustainability and greening, improvement of parks and the riverfront, urban farms and storm-water retention, along with a revitalized downtown (Detroit Works Project Long Term Planning Committee 2012, Montgomery 2015, Kirkpatrick 2015, Clement and Kanai 2015).

3 Much of this promotion can be attributed to Bedrock Detroit, a developer with a growing portfolio of properties in Detroit—94 as of February 2017. They are the largest real estate developer in downtown Detroit (Bedrock Detroit Acquisition Map, Bedrock Detroit). Bedrock is one entity in the portfolio of companies of Rock Ventures, the holding company for businessman Dan Gilbert, who is also the founder and CEO of Quicken Loans (Rock Ventures, Forbes n.d.).

4 This location closed in March of 2018 and is now located at the TechTown building in the Midtown neighborhood (Frank 2018).