In an earlier post National Brands: how to engage and market locally in Vermont, I wrote about the importance of national brands understanding local markets. Marketers' messages are always competing for our attention. We all want to know what is going on in the world today, so much so that it sometimes pulls focus from what is happening in our immediate area. But there is a difference between a national organization’s “national” story versus its local story. Successful campaigns connect universal ideas with the personal.