Tourism Consultant VII - Roger Brooks Rejiggers Helena's "Brand" - Locals Not Impressed

The September 5, 2008 edition of Helena's Independent Record has reported that Roger Brooks, the Seattle-based tourism and community "branding" consultant, who has been paid some $75,000 to cook up a "brand" for Helena, has revised his original proposal (see past entries on this blog for the full story).

Mr. Brooks, the CEO of Destination Development, Inc., suggested in February of 2008 that Helena should brand and promote itself as "The West's Learning Center for the Arts". Comments in the Helena press about Mr. Brooks' proposal were less than enthusiastic, not only because it simply isn't true, but also because Mr. Brooks had not especially endeared himself to Helenans during his previous visits to the city. His suggestion that Helena scrap the historic moniker "Last Chance Gulch" because it reminded him of "ditch", had fallen especially flat with locals.

In April of 2008, a minor scandal at Helena High School, involving a staff member's hysterical reaction to a student's artwork which featured nude Barbie dolls, somewhat humorously pointed out that Helena is far from being a "learning center for the arts". As unfortunate as the Barbie kerfuffle was, it was hoped by some in Helena that it would be the end of Mr. Brook's ludicrous branding plan. Some hoped that Helena would never hear from him again, but, like a bad penny, Mr. Brooks turned up yet again.

As reported in the Independent Record, Mr. Brooks has now revised his original "The West's Learning Center for the Arts" brand into the even more preposterous "The West's Learning Center". Period. The resulting comments posted to the Independent Record's website were all negative, most of them ridiculing Mr. Brook's latest suggestion.

(Following up, the IR asked readers, via their online "Question of the Week" poll, if Helena should adopt Mr. Brook's latest brand suggeston; response to the unscientific survey came back 787 opposed and only 76 in favor of the idea.)

So, is this finally the end of the Helena branding debacle? Weary Helenans hope that those paying off Mr. Brooks have gotten the message.

If you'd like to see and hear Roger Brooks in action, there is an online video of him recently pitching his "branding" concepts to some unsuspecting folks in Angel's Camp, California. You may watch it here. If you can tolerate Mr. Brook's somewhat shrill presentation for the entire hour, you may notice that he uses some of the same catch-phrases that he used in the latest Independent Record article. It's also worth noting that he jokes with the Angel's Camp audience about his recent attempts to "brand" Stockton, California; remarkably, he puts down the city of Stockton with a sarcastic aside. If the people of Stockton should see that, I wonder how they'd feel about having given Brooks $125,000 to build up their city in the eyes of others, not tear it down? One can only imagine what Mr. Brooks says about Helena to other groups in other cities.

Tourism Consultant VI - Uh, how about art?

In October of 2007, Tourism and community "branding" shill Roger Brooks of Tacoma, Washington-based Desintation Development delivered his latest assessment of how Helena should market itself nationally. That assessment, as reported in the Independent Record, was less than inspiring.

As detailed in previous posts to this blog, Brooks began his process of deciding a "brand" for Helena in January of 2007. After collecting a $75,000 fee and making several visits to the city, Brooks has now decided that, "Helena has no obvious single resource or raw material that would lend itself into leveraging into a brand."

Imagine that.

But fear not, Helena, for Brooks went on to say that the city might consider promoting itself as an art-education center -- "The West’s Learning Center for the Arts".

As Brooks explained: "The one thing that struck us was the breadth but not the depth of the art and artisan activity in town, and the intellectual bent of the residents. If there ever was a town with a foundation, you’ve got it. So how do you leverage it so you’re different? Can this be a place people learn? We had to put a spin on it so you’re unique."

Spin is Brooks' stock-in-trade, but his implication that Helena is a city of dilettantes might not resonate so favorably in some circles. Let us not forget that this is the same man who opined that Helena should scrap the name "Last Chance Gulch", because to him it sounded a lot like "ditch"

At the October meeting, Brooks showed several potential logos and slogans with "Helena: Your Creative Place" being the early favorite. He is very fond of logos, slogans and signs.

So, what of Brooks' idea of marketing Helena as a center of art education? Sure, it sounds good; who could be against Art and Education? Granted, It sounds better than Brook's recent lame proposal to brand the city of Stockton, California as "The Event City". He got paid $125,000 to come up with that one.

Taking Brooks' proposal for Helena seriously brings numerous questions to mind:
-- Who foots the bill for bringing into Helena qualified art instructors?
-- Who foots the bill for the physical spaces required?
-- Who foots the bill for production and promotion?
-- Who really stands to gain?
-- Who decides which art gets promoted and which art doesn't?
-- And the uncomfortable but necessary question: Is Helena, as a whole, socially tolerant enough to be hospitable to a big influx of "artistic" types and their lifestyles?

It helps me to look at it this way: if Brooks' scheme to brand Helena as "The West’s Learning Center for the Arts" was itself a piece of art, it would be of the Conceptual kind -- basically a big nothing, accompanied by a ream of babble written to make people think otherwise.

Brooks stated last October that he was roughly halfway through his "branding" process for Helena. For somebody with such a long way to go, he seems to be running pretty close to empty already.