North Carolina can make its mark as a brand name.

• Position: Interview with marketing professor Kevin Keller - Interview

Kevin Keller, a visiting marketing professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, joins Dartmouth College's business school in July. He earned his doctorate in marketing from Duke. The author of Strategic Brand Management, published this year, he discusses how brand equity affects North Carolina.

BNC: How is the state a brand?

A brand is basically when you label something, then give it meaning. Here the question is, what image do people have and what do you want them to have? If I say Pittsburgh, Pa., what comes to mind? The steel has pretty much gone, along with the mills and the smoke. With North Carolina, people don't really understand how dynamic this state is.

BNC: They think rednecks and tobacco?

Yeah. You have to be careful because there are a lot of rednecks and tobacco. Andy Griffith is still on the air - it must be Ted Turner's favorite show - but Charlotte and the Triangle are national, bordering on international. I doubt people understand what's happened to Charlotte with banking.

BRAND AWARENESS In 1990, consumers in the United States and worldwide rated brands both on awareness and esteem. The top ones: United States World 1. Coca-Cola Coca-Cola 2. Campbell's Sony 3. Disney Mercedes-Benz 4. Pepsi Cola Kodak 5. Kodak Disney 6. NBC Nestle 7. Black & Decker Toyota 8. Kellogg's McDonald's 9. McDonald's IBM 10. Hershey's Pepsi Cola 11. Levi's Rolls Royce 12. GE Honda 13. Sears Panasonic 14. Hallmark Levi's 15. Johnson & Johnson Kleenex Source: Landor Associates BNC: How could the state go about correcting misconceptions?

When you say marketing, everyone thinks advertising. That's just part of it. A lot of it will come through PR, as people hear about North Carolina in a positive light - employment growth, educational performance of certain schools. North Carolina will benefit a lot from NationsBank and other PR that will put the spotlight here. If there were a spotlight event, it would help, like the Olympics and Atlanta. A lot of people have never been to North Carolina, so their impressions are formed indirectly. It will be a slow process, and it will change.

BNC: None of the top consumer brands is from North Carolina. Why?

A lot of the strong brands are from New York, Chicago, L.A. R.J. Reynolds has had some strong brands. Also Sara Lee, with Hanes and L'eggs. SAS in its industry is a very strong brand. There is Zantac in pharmaceuticals. But you see a lot of small to medium-size businesses here.

BNC: The banks have...