Selling the Essence of California

By Ed Moosbrugger

May 15 -- Tourism leaders may want your help in imprinting the city’s new destination branding program on the fabric of Santa Monica.

And just what is the promise to visitors that they want the community to embrace and bring to life?

Here it is, developed after more than of year of research and analysis:

“Santa Monica...the best way to discover LA; an unforgettable beach city experience filled with eye-catching people, cutting edge culture and bold innovations. It is the essence of the California lifestyle.”

If you’re like me, it will require a little translation to put this into practice. And that is the phase the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau has entered following a Santa Monica Destination Brand Summit on March 24 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

Many of the planned programs, including training opportunities, will be aimed at businesses, but City leaders want the whole community involved.

As the Santa Monica Destination Brand Blueprint says, “This is a community wide initiative that will involve city leaders and residents, the business community, and all others that depend on a vibrant and healthy economic flow to Santa Monica.”

It’s not just about jobs, said Duane Knapp, president of BrandStrategy Inc., which helped the SMCVB develop the branding program.

It’s also about the lifestyle of Santa Monica residents, because a strong tourism industry supports many things, including restaurants, that local people also enjoy, he told the brand summit.

No part of the city has more at stake than Downtown, because its hotels, restaurants, shops, arts and entertainment are key parts of the product Santa Monica offers to visitors.

“It’s all about perception,” Knapp said. “How you want people to feel... It’s delivering the experience people want.”

Although Santa Monica has a strong tourism industry, the city can do more.

There are significant latent positive perceptions about Santa Monica, but the city is not really well known in some key markets, such as Chicago, New York and London, Knapp told the brand summit meeting.

Both strengths and weaknesses emerged in interviews and focus groups conducted as part of the brand development process. Many of these will be no surprise to Downtown residents, employees and business owners.

The top ten strengths are friendly/healthy people, the beach, shopping, the experience/atmosphere, cleanliness/safety, attraction/ sightseeing, the weather, location, transportation and visitor services.

The top ten perceived weaknesses are homeless/solicitors/teen dropouts, traffic, expense, lack of experience/atmosphere, lack of public transportation, cleanliness/safety, need of more restaurants, grumpy or mean locals, weather and grocery stores.

As you can see, perception is in the eye of each individual visitor. Some say the locals are friendly, others say they are grumpy. It probably depends on who they dealt with. And that is why programs to encourage the community to welcome visitors are important. It can be as simple as cheerfully helping visitors find their way around Downtown.

Several programs are planned this year to make the promise of the Santa Monica brand a reality. They include guest contact service training, sales staff training, a training guide, SMCVB staff brand training and beach summit.

The goal of “being better at the beach’’ is a big one, said Gary Sherwin, president of Believable Brands, a consultant to the SMCVB.

The people in attendance at the brand summit seem to agree because when Sherwin called for ideas to improve the beach experience, numerous attendees spoke up.

Just a few of the many ideas given were a beach concierge concept, festivals on the beach, a sand tram and beach tours and eliminating eyesores such as the city dumpsters that spoil the view when emerging from the McClure Tunnel.

Other ideas were better signs to help pedestrians know where they are and how to get where they want to go, cheaper beach parking rates and more short-term parking.

The active participation of the people who attended the brand summit was encouraging, since an effective branding program will require that.

“A Brand Promise...should be a focal point for everyone in the community so it is clearly understood by both visitors and residents, what defines the unique Santa Monica experience,” Sherwin wrote in a recent SMCVB newsletter.

The stakes are high.

The high room rates that hotel visitors pay in Santa Monica means they have high expectations of what they will experience, said hotel consultant Bruce Baltin, senior vice president of PKF Consulting in Los Angeles.

“It is important to deliver,’” he said.

That is the essence of the brand campaign in which Santa Monica will be sold as a destination with unique and distinctive attributes.