Sunland-Tujunga Branding Initiative: Realizing Our Full Potential

Everyone and everything has a brand. We either decide what that brand is or we let others decide it for us. Allowing the latter is dangerous for small business and for communities. Branding isn’t limited to big companies. Branding is important for small business and maybe even more important for communities. A strong brand can bring a wealth of opportunities for a community, helping it define itself, present its value, and become a magnet to draw others (people, businesses, economic investment, government funding, etc.). And while full-blown branding initiatives can be extensive, time-consuming and costly (check out the town of Hardeeville in South Carolina – their branding initiative is costing them $20,000), there are ways to begin branding a community that don’t require major expense or effort. Given that the VP of Community Improvement has a background in and is recognized as an expert in marketing, she is leading the effort; to that end, Sunland-Tujunga branding presentations (available online here) were made to the Neighborhood Council and the Chamber, both of which voted to moved forward on the initiative. A community stakeholder volunteer ad-hoc committee has been formed to further flesh out the plan and its execution options. One of the first steps is to put out for public vote as well as for input and further submissions our first identity element – our logo. When it comes to community branding and associated logos, a great example to review is from a town in Iowa called Grinnell. They’ve branded themselves as the “Jewel of the Prairie.” Why do they brand themselves that? According to their Mayor’s message, it’s because “Some say that this town sparkles. Some say this town has verve! Others say it is called that because the people are so friendly and helpful. Still others say we are the Jewel of the Prairie because we are a handsome and robust community full of life. We are all of these for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is the fact that the folks who live here have a very positive attitude and a desire for an excellent quality of life…” Grinnell determined what they believe makes them unique, and they claimed for themselves a brand with many interpretations, all of which are intangibles…”the town sparkles.” We in Sunland-Tujunga have a very tangible claim to make, one that will serve us well in this “phase one” of our branding initiative. As a matter of fact, back in 1971, a group of Sunland-Tujunga residents calling themselves the “Gateway ‘76” began the branding initiative, making it their mission to seek an identity for this area, and realizing its potential if we were to leverage our community’s proximity to the Angeles National Forest. As told in an article written by Marlene Hitt in the April 2013 edition of the North Valley Reporter, one of the group’s leaders Bob McKee wrote in July, ‘71 (Record Ledger) that Gateway ‘76 “would give the community a chance to adopt a brand new lifestyle, improve property values, enhance local business and, for the first time, give a chance to place direction on where this town is going.” Following through on what the Gateway ’76 group started, we have claimed for ourselves and are in the process of trademarking: Sunland-Tujunga “Gateway to the Angeles National Forest.” (Note: trademark costs as well as initial logo concept costs were 100% paid for by private donations.) To realize Sunland-Tujunga’s full potential, we’re going to leverage the indisputable and immediately recognizable draw of the Angeles National Forest. Doing so affords us the following: • We immediately give the rest of the world a sense of where we are geographically. • We immediately put forth to everyone a visual of the beauty that is our backdrop. • We immediately underscore the importance of our position as a community and become instantly recognizable. • We “piggy back” on all of the branding and promotion and information that exists and attracts in relation to the Angeles National Forest itself. • We bridge our past (Gateway ’76) and what they started with our present and build into our future. • We benefit from instant traction, allowing us to focus our real energies and efforts to bringing our brand to life and using it to get what we need and deserve. There are several questions related to this branding initiative, and some people may even think that it’s a waste to brand a community unless and until we actually have something “major” in our town to offer. After all, some people say, there are so many other things a community in need could focus on. That’s sort of like saying “I’ll eat healthier as soon as I have a heart attack.” Our community may be well on its way to experiencing its own heart attack, or in other words, it may be falling further and further into ruin. The time is now to eat healthier…to act as if you already are a healthy eater. Acting “as if” is a way to more quickly bring to life that which we wish to be a reality. We are creating buzz and making it so, simply by the power of putting our brand out into the universe. By socializing our brand, the essence of our brand will more quickly be adopted, shared, and internalized. And we’ll reap the rewards sooner rather than later. Other questions and concerns as well as informational tidbits regarding the Sunland-Tujunga branding initiative are addressed on its dedicated Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SunlandTujungaGateway. Thoughts – as well as volunteers – are welcome!