Ryan Spain and the Heartland Partnership are cooking up a new idea:
The idea behind the project is to brand the Peoria region with a tag line and, perhaps, another logo.
It would be a comprehensive approach to selling the region to tourism groups and those who could come to Peoria on business, Spain said.
“I would argue we don’t have anything now,” he said. “The timing and the urgency for creating a brand for our region … if we don’t have one, we run the risk of someone doing it for us. It may or may not be what we want to be known for.”
You gotta love marketing people. Urgency? Risk? Peoria County was established in 1825; Tazewell County followed in 1827, and Woodford in 1841. From that time to the present we’ve never had a regional brand. But now, suddenly it’s urgent to brand the region, and we’re at risk if we don’t!
This kind of exaggeration reminds me of someone… a salesman I heard once. Ah yes, I can just hear Mr. Spain explaining this dire situation to the town leaders now:
“Either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the absence of regional branding in your community. Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City, with a capital T that rhymes with B that stands for Brand!
“Leaders of River City! Heed the warning before it’s too late! Watch for the tell-tale signs of having no regional brand! When you talk to out-of-town clients and say you’re from Peoria, do they ask ‘Where’s that’? Do the bloggers in your community make their own sarcastic logos of the region? Does Rocco Landesman not know that there is a Civic Center in your town?
“If so, ya got trouble, my friends. Yes, ya got lots and lots of trouble — with a capital T that rhymes with B that stands for Brand!”
Perhaps he can institute The Think System, where he gets everyone to just think that “it’s better here” in Peoria and they start to believe it. Oh wait, someone’s already tried that one…..