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Until a few days ago, I didn't realize what trouble we were in here. So far, we've been spared any serious wildfires, the Arkansas River has enough water for fish and rafts, no rockslides or collapses have blocked the highways -- but still, there was trouble during summer tourist season: Chaffee County was operating with an out-dated brand.
Granted, there are some problems with the Chaffee
name. One is that no one knows how to pronounce it. I've
lived here for 25 years, and I still don't know whether it
should rhyme with daffy,
assonate with gaily,
or sound like coffee
-- I've heard all three.
Another is that not one Coloradan in 20 could tell you
this county's namesake -- Jerome Bonaparte Chaffee, one of
Colorado's first two U.S. senators. Those who do know
anything often call him Boss Chaffee,
as the
Republican was known to the press of 1879, while recounting
tales of mine swindles and insider trading. There was also
the major society wedding of 1881 when his daughter Fannie
married Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.
These days, publicizing Jerome Chaffee's career might be a way to brand Chaffee County -- just as in the Gilded Age, Americans admire wealth and political connections, however gotten.
But that's not what the Chaffee County Visitors Bureau
chose to do. The group hired a consultant because our old
county marketing slogan didn't provide a good brand
identity.
The old slogan, generated about 20 years ago, was Now
THIS is Colorado.
It's not real accurate. Most
Coloradans live in cookie-cutter developments that could be
anywhere. That's Colorado -- and it's also something that
nobody in his right mind would go on vacation to see.
So now we have a new brand: Colorado's Headwaters of
Adventure.
According to the Visitor's Bureau, Each
word was chosen to reflect our core values and key message
points.
Indeed. Our core values must include exaggeration, since the only river with headwaters in Chaffee County is the South Arkansas River -- not exactly a world-class stream. The main Arkansas has its headwaters in Lake County, not Chaffee.
As for adventure, well, that's one way to describe the process of getting a livelihood in this county -- most the millions that Jerome Chaffee made in this state went back to New York with him.
If we were sensible, we'd offer the county's naming
rights
for auction every decade, and the official state
map could reflect Nike County,
Qwest County
or the like. The legislature should co-operate -- it
couldn't be any more confusing than redrawing the
congressional districts every two years, rather than every
ten.
According to the Bureau, though, our core values
include words like humble, genuine, authentic and rugged
independence.
If we were indeed humble, would we be
engaged in a marketing campaign? If we were independent, we
wouldn't care what other people thought of us, and so we
wouldn't be building a brand identity -- we'd just be going
about our lives.
Our Visitor's Bureau did point out that Colorado is
included because it is a strong, globally recognized
brand.
And all these years, I had thought Colorado was just a
political entity bounded by some almost-straight lines and
run by real-estate developers. I never realized our state
was a strong, globally recognized brand
that local
boosters can build on.
So what is this Colorado brand
? Does it mean
cheap, as in mooching off relatives (the primary reason
people visit our state), or exclusive and expensive, as in
where Kobe Bryant was staying? Does it mean we have a
governor who's happy to be governor of Colorado, or one
who's busy hustling for a bigger prize? Is the Colorado
brand
vehicle an old oil-burning pickup with a cracked
windshield on a back road, or a shiny new spewt at a
generic big-box parking lot?
This whole branding
concept gets worse. During
the Jayson Blair scandal earlier this year, we read that
his fraudulent reporting diminished the value of the New
York Times brand.
Somehow, that lacks the moral gravity
of tarnished the newspaper's reputation.
This goes to higher levels. Early on, the Bush Administration wanted to persuade other countries to like the United States more.
However, the Bushites did not attempt this by being a
good neighbor, or by being fair and just and generous.
Instead, they hired one Charlotte Beers as undersecretary
of state for diplomacy and public affairs, She had no
diplomatic experience, but she was an expert on
brand-building.
You can check the foreign press to see how successful
she was -- brand America
is better known than ever.
But it might have more value if the administration had
focused on matters like liberty and justice,
rather
than on brand promotion.
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