Longview and Kelso take first steps to hire a firm to develop brand
Friday, January 18, 2008 10:08 AM PST
By Amy M.E. Fischer / The Daily News
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E-mail this articleIf a "tumbleweed junction" like Moses Lake can reinvent itself, so can Longview and Kelso. "I really think now is the time," Longview City Manager Bob Gregory said Thursday night at a joint Longview and Kelso city council workshop on creating a community "brand." Gregory recalled that at last spring’s Longview citizens’ summit, "we heard loud and clear that people are fed up with all this talk about, we’re all about methamphetamines, we’re all about unemployment." Settling on a positive, new identity will require experts to assess the local area with a critical, honest eye, he said. And those experts don’t come cheaply. Hiring the Seattle-based marketing firm Destination Development to conduct a complete branding package will cost $80,000 to $107,000, Gregory said. The Longview City Council already has agreed to pay the consultants $12,000 to visit Longview next month and evaluate it from the eyes of a stranger. By the end of Thursday’s hour-and-a-half workshop, the Kelso City Council seemed convinced that it should get on board, too. Kelso Mayor David Futcher and Kelso councilmen Alan Slater, Dan Myers and Joe Wheeler all said they were in favor of participating in the branding assessment with Longview. Myers, who said he’d felt skeptical coming to the workshop, said the ideas presented were "exciting." "It was much more interesting than I thought it would be," he said. The councils and the audience of 50 grew enthusiastic after listening to Moses Lake’s city manager talk about his city’s recent venture into branding territory with Destination Development’s help. Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski said his city wanted to offer something unique that would draw visitors and boost the economy because "we’re not always the most desirable place to come to." The Eastern Washington city had tried various strategies over the years to improve its image. However, city leaders realized "you can’t do it by yourself," Gavinski said. "It’s not one of those jobs you can get done with a backhoe and a case of beer." Moses Lake hired Destination Development about a year and a half ago. Roger Brooks, the consulting firm’s CEO, quickly dashed the city’s expectations of marketing itself as a fishing and recreation area because "everyone" has those activities, just as "everyone" has a historic downtown, Gavinski said. What’s unique to Moses Lake? It took a lot of head scratching to figure it out. Moses Lake has the warmest lake in the state. It also has a $4 million aquatics center. Now, as a result of working with Brooks, the city plans to eventually market itself as the "Water Sports Capital of the Northwest." That is, after the city builds docks, gets rid of the algae and makes other necessary improvements that will make the slogan more than an empty promise. For now, the slogan is, "Moses Lake: Jump In!" Making those decisions required countless meetings with the business community, the chamber of commerce, the city and the public, Gavinski said. "There’s always a lot of skepticism," Gavinski said. "There are a lot of ideas. Some people’s feelings were hurt because their idea wasn’t accepted. ... I think the biggest obstacle was lack of support. Everyone has to be interested in doing this. Otherwise, it’s not going to work." Now, there’s a sense of excitement in Moses Lake as the community waits to see the full outcome of the branding work, which was completed last fall. "It creates a bit of pride when it’s all done," Gavinski said.
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