Your 5 iconic US cities (ranking, downtown, market, job)

[busterkeaton]

I've worked with quite a diverse group of folks(Chinese,Singaporean,Russian,Latin Americans), at different resorts around the country, and they'll all had plans to go see the Golden Gate bridge...so I think it's a fairly iconic structure in the U.S.; not to mention one of the most jumped off bridges(not a good thing).

[musicislife.glee]

New York
Chicago
Philadelphia
Boston
San Francisco

Am I the only one who doesn't think of Los Angeles when I first think of U.S. cities?

[Rhymes with Best Coast]

Here's a fun little tool on how individual countries percieve your cities done by Simon-Anholt. Taken from a panel of 20,000 people around the world, it's a pretty good sample size. As good as you will find on here anyways. Not 100% complete because DC and Philly is left out of this 2009 study, among others, which limited to only 50 global cities. But interesting regardless.

Simon Anholt - Research - City Brands Index

[daydreamin71]

I think of New Orleans, not because of the skyline or architecture, but because of the uniqueness of it's culture - it's location, food, music, Mardi Gras, voodoo, etc. NOLA may not be on the same level as New York, but I think those things still make it iconic.

[Fitzrovian]

Originally Posted by Rhymes with Best Coast

Here's a fun little tool on how individual countries percieve your cities done by Simon-Anholt. Taken from a panel of 20,000 people around the world, it's a pretty good sample size. As good as you will find on here anyways. Not 100% complete because DC and Philly is left out of this 2009 study, among others, which limited to only 50 global cities. But interesting regardless.

Simon Anholt - Research - City Brands Index

Fascinating!

[nslander]

Originally Posted by musicislife.glee

New York
Chicago
Philadelphia
Boston
San Francisco

Am I the only one who doesn't think of Los Angeles when I first think of U.S. cities?

I doubt it. Denial on this subject is an East Coast birthright.

[eskercurve]

Just putting down a list, NOT organized in hierarchy or saying who is more influential than another ...

NYC, LA, Orlando (Disney), Chicago, DC

There's a lot more. I'd wager Seattle should fit in there somewhere. After all we had a TON of major Fortune 500 companies come out of here and major scientific breakthroughs happen here. But the OP only wanted 5.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by musicislife.glee

New York
Chicago
Philadelphia
Boston
San Francisco

Am I the only one who doesn't think of Los Angeles when I first think of U.S. cities?

I think you should be the only one.

[jm02]

Originally Posted by Fitzrovian

I tend to agree with that. Except for skyline aficianados that populate these boards Chicago's skyline is not as immediately recognizable as say NY or HK. I think it is true that Las Vegas is probably more "iconic" in that sense. Not sure I would stretch it to Miami and Honolulu but that's debatable.

Edit: remember that Chicago has been featured far more in Hollywood than Miami or Honolulu so that contributes to its recognizability.

Yes, it's debatable. My reasons for selecting Miami and Honolulu have to do with the fact that many South Americans think of Miami as their US gateway and many Asians (particularly Japanese) hold the same view of Honolulu. It's all subjective, of course. Personally, Chicago comes more to my mind than either of these two when I think of iconic cities. I was just trying to think from a global perspective.

[justme02]

Originally Posted by Rhymes with Best Coast

Here's a fun little tool on how individual countries percieve your cities done by Simon-Anholt. Taken from a panel of 20,000 people around the world, it's a pretty good sample size. As good as you will find on here anyways. Not 100% complete because DC and Philly is left out of this 2009 study, among others, which limited to only 50 global cities. But interesting regardless.

Simon Anholt - Research - City Brands Index

I think they picked one city per region to study.