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.