The important part of the concept of Brand Identity isn’t brand, it’s identity.
A city can’t be as fake as a high school socialite. A city’s reputation is a legacy entrusted from one generation or political regime to the next. Like any brand being managed, a city should stay true to its brand values.
El Paso’s problem is that it changes its values and identity as often as some people change their socks.
During the Troubles in Juarez, City Council, in their capacity as El Paso’s marketing gurus, and on the advice of the professional marketers advising them, abandoned Juarez. That’s just disingenuous. As I’ve said before
[T]he border’s not always pretty. There’s consistently a huge criminal syndicate on the other side, operating with what amounts to impunity. There’s all that poverty and crime, the slums and shantytowns and murder and theft. Poor and dirty are qualities we’ve tried to sweep under the rug. And now Juarez is suffering gang wars, public executions and dead bodies rolled up in blankets like macabre burritos.
But, pretty or not, El Paso is tied to Juarez like she’s our crazy Siamese twin. We can’t just pretend she’s not there.
I guess it’s easy for facile politicians to change identity at the drop of a hat (or a mask), but even as our marketing materials dropped any reference to Juarez, as though El Paso were on the coast of an uncharted ocean, where monsters dwelt, the world continued to link the two cities.
(Actually, that analogy of monsters dwelling there might have been more honest and accurate.)
The buzzword at DestinationElPaso these days is authenticity. How long does one have to feign authenticity before the world believes you?
It reminds me of the quote by French dramatist and diplomat Jean Giraudoux.
“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”
We need to decide who we are and who we want to be. Where are we and where do we want to go? As the Cheshire Cat said, more clumsily, “If you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there.”