Branding Case Study: Phase I Discovery
Growing Opportunities
A Comprehensive Branding Initiative for the City of Watsonville, California.
The City of Watsonville, California hired Gerardot & Co. to develop a new brand image and design a comprehensive marketing campaign to help jump start its economic development efforts. Watsonville is centrally located on the Monterey Bay in California’s Central Coast region. This fertile valley has a rich history of agriculture that started with acres of apple orchards and eventually became (quite literally) “The strawberry capital of the world”. But city leaders felt that their most valuable resource, could yield an even greater return.
The Situation
Despite its central location on the Monterey bay, Watsonville is often typecast as just a rural, agricultural community. And while the City is the headquarters for several international companies, many in the region overlook Watsonville as a great place to start and grow a business. Instead, business opportunities and jobs routinely go to neighboring cities like Santa Cruz, Seaside and Marina. The lack of outside investment and skilled jobs has greatly affected the morale of many in Watsonville, including a number of youth who act out by defacing public and private property — further deteriorating morale, public perception and the ability to attract new business and outside investment to the City.
The City of Watsonville is also still recovering from the Loma Prieta earthquate that rocked San Francisco and the entire bay area in 1989. Many of the city’s beautiful and historic downtown architecture suffered substantial damage. And while the City has made remarkable progress toward rebuilding its downtown, businesses and retail development continue to struggle in 2010.
Gerardot & Co. was hired to help reposition Watsonville by developing a branding and marketing campaign to change the internal and external perceptions of the City and to put marketing tools in the hands of economic development professionals.
The Challenge
Our biggest challenge was to show that Watsonville was about more than strawberries; that it had the potential and skilled workforce to attract new kinds of industry. Our second and somewhat separate challenge was to help breathe life back into the city’s once vibrant downtown area by showing how the City and local entrepreneurs have started a renaissance through capital improvements and opening new shops.
Discovery Process
As we do with every place branding initiative, we visited the area to soak up its culture and speak with the locals. But before making our way out to the Monterey Bay area, we spent days and weeks of diligent research, preparing questions and mapping out the area.
Our first objective was to gauge perceptions from neighboring communities. We drove 75 miles from San Francisco to Watsonville, stopping along the way for impromptu interviews with average people in and around Silicon Valley. We also toured nearby cities that competed with Watsonville for attracting new businesses and jobs. [flickr photo tour]
Branding a city or any type of destination starts from the inside out. We can develop new brand position, create a theme tagline, design a logo and marketing materials that wrap it all into a nice, pretty package. But if those on the inside (residents, business owners, city staff, etc.) don’t believe it and “live the brand”, then prospective businesses and visitors they hope to attract will never believe it either. Its our job to create a brand image that is attainable, and the job of internal stakeholders to make the image a reality every day.
After five intensive days of focus groups and interviews with Watsonville business leaders, educators and city officials, we noticed a number of conflicting opinions. We observed intense debate and a general sense of angst among the people of Watsonville, which is common with organizations that don’t have a cohesive brand and self-image. But throughout the mountain of research we collected, in interview after interview, one very strong pattern began to appear.
The Solution
Time and time again, we heard about the rich history of migrant workers who came to America and the fertile Valley on the Monterey Bay to make a new beginning. The area was originally settled by the Spanish but later saw waves of people from around the world that brought with them their distinct cultures. First came the Chinese, followed by Japanese and the Filipinos. From Eastern Europe came the generations of Croatians, followed by a steady influx from Latin America and Mexico. Watsonville was a true microcosm of the great American melting pot. And just as generations of Europeans and people from around the world had come to the shores of Ellis Island and New York Harbor, Watsonville was a shining symbol of hope and a chance to work hard and create a better life.
What we discovered was that Watsonville has always been, and is still today, a place of OPPORTUNITY. Like no other city in the area, Watsonville offers a unique list of benefits for entrepreneurs, start-ups and businesses looking to expand. From its central location and beautiful rural setting on the Monterey Bay to its comparatively lower cost of living and doing business, Watsonville is full of opportunities.
Brand Positioning
“Opportunity”, we determined, was this city’s unique selling proposition, and so we made it the central focus of our brand positioning strategy for Watsonville. To support this position, we developed a unique “brand story” about how opportunity was the common thread throughout its history and how it would also be the bridge to the city’s future. We also built on Watsonville’s existing brand image as an agricultural community, and penned the brand tag line “Growing Opportunities.”
Download the Watsonville Brand Positioning Presentation. » (Adobe PDF)
