Santa Monica News Living the Santa Monica BrandPromise®

So said city boosters who urged locals to “embrace and live the Santa Monica brand” at the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s first annual Destination Brand Summit Friday morning at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.

And from the moment Mayor Bob Holbrook segwayed into a banquet room done up to look like a set for a cruise ship commercial, the mood among the 100 smartly-dressed movers and shakers was one of lighthearted boosterism.

(From left) John Thacker, regional vice president of operations and managing director of Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel; Misti Kerns, president/CEO, Convention & Visitors Bureau; Gary Sherwin, president, Believable Brands; Bruce Baltin, vice president, PKF Consulting; Councilmember Kevin McKeown; Mayor Bob Holbrook; Duane Knapp, president, BrandStrategy, Inc., Debbie Lee-Nguyen, vice president of business development, Convention & Visitors Bureau. (Photo by Greg Peterson

The Santa Monica Destination BrandPromise® has the “potential for catapulting Santa Monica into the forefront of brand marketing,” Holbrook told his audience after he figured out how to stop his “mayormobile”.

The mayor’s unconventional entrance on the gyroscopic scooter was “a uniquely Santa Monica-type experience,” said Gary C. Sherwin, President and CEO of BelievableBrands, one of the bureau’s consultants.

“I don’t know how many mayors would be willing to ride a segway for the first time in a ballroom in front of a crowd of constituents,” Sherwin said approvingly. (Apparently he wasn’t around when former mayor Mike Feinstein wearing lime green shorts rollerbladed the streets around City Hall.)

It’s that kind of “cutting edge culture” and “bold innovation” hospitality industry consultants hope will entice international tourists to the beachside city.

“It’s all about perception,” Duane Knapp, President of BrandStrategy™ explained. “It’s about how you want people to feel. It’s not about hype.”

Successful “Brand Culturalization” will work to everyone’s advantage, Knapp said.

“It’s about your future,” he said. “Tourism means jobs. Tourism supports the lifestyle you desire.”

Calling his field a science, not an art, Knapp distanced himself from ad executives who dream up taglines like “South Dakota – At least we’re not North Dakota” and “Tobacco is a Vegetable” while sitting “in a room with a couple of bottles of chardonnay.”

Knapp said he interviewed hundreds of stakeholders and participants in focus groups from Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London, to gather the data that was used to craft the BrandPromise:

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

It will take a partnership, consultants said, to generate a buzz among vacation hunters -- an experience that will keep them coming back and bring their friends too.

“From valets at upscale hotels and city police officers to owners of art galleries, restaurants and boutique shops, everyone, and that means everyone, has an important role to play in the vitality of the Santa Monica brand,” Sherwin said.

The good news, according to Knapp, is that a partnership between civic leaders and business owners already exists.

But the partnership will face challenges, consultants said. Focus groups outside Santa Monica identified large numbers of homeless people, poor transportation, expensive services and “not a lot to do” as reasons to vacation elsewhere.

Local “stakeholders” complained about “City Council actions,” the lack of a “master plan for the city as a destination,” and “homeless/solicitors/teen drop-outs” who drive away tourists.

Even the beach, generally recognized as the city’s main draw, needs improvement, stakeholders said.

“Santa Monica’s beach is not clean, safe, or easily accessible,” according to the Destination Brand Blueprint.

So, in addition to training hospitality workers and others in the new “paradigm,” the Bureau will host one or more “Beach Summits” where local leaders can brainstorm ways to become “best in beach,” as Knapp put it.

And, as the “beach experience” improves, Santa Monica’s “friendly, healthy people” and great shopping and restaurants, coupled with a 15-minute commute from LAX, should lift the city to “the top of visitors’ must-see lists,” as Holbrook put it.