Building a Brand for West Mesa: Pt II of VII

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"The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - Albert Einstein

Branding at the Cultural Level
For West Mesa, Cultural Branding leverages unique strategies to invite distinctly value-driven individuals into our community. It seeks to share a compelling vision of a developing grassroots community that is diverse and vibrant.
It works in two core ways:
a). Strategic relationships with independent social organizations, online communities, and existing subcultures of idealists, pioneers, and individualists.
b). Targeted marketing messages, using a unique voice and compelling metaphors and imagery, connecting West Mesa with specific shared cultural values.

West Mesa has unique challenges and requires unique solutions. More than just advertising to suburban shoppers, we need to reach people- inviting them to live, work, and invest. Unlike traditional top down development efforts, branding at the cultural level works at the grass roots to stimulate revitalization and investment from the bottom up.

The Message
West Mesa has developed alongside of neighboring communities in unique ways, and offers special intrinsic qualities and undiscovered possibilities. Marketing messages for West Mesa should compel people to recognize the Value within our community, by stimulating them to:
Understand it's unique qualities
Explore it's potentials- both existing and virtual
Share in our aspirational vision

Success for West Mesa will not come from whitewashing it's history, or from giving it a suburban make-over. We do not need to become more like Scottsdale, nor will we be saved by corporate retail. West Mesa will see it's potential in positioning its self as an intuitive destination for modern pioneers and value-driven individualists.

West Mesa : From Opportunism to Idealism
West Mesa needs individuals who are sold upon our community's unique potential and are willing to share in the revitalization cause- directly or indirectly.

A Cultural Brand development process seeks to shift the investment climate in West Mesa from one of opportunism to one of idealism. It stimulates an awareness of the intrinsic values of West Mesa, and invites key individuals to invest within our community and it's assets, not to exploit them.
Instead of laws, ordinances, and zoning, Cultural Branding elicits people's best intentions by appealing to their core values.

West Mesa: Our Brand Now
Public perception is neither fair nor objective.
No other community in the east Valley faces the same marketing complications that our community does. Working positively against a prevailing emotive consensus in the East Valley is a core challenge for West Mesa.[1] Branding, marketing, and design speak to people at this level- and work to stimulate an alternate narrative about what's possible in West Mesa.

[1]. Tempe's 85281 zip code and Mesa's adjacent 85201 possess remarkably similar crime statistics. Temp's 85281 is known as a place for shopping, nightlife, and the university experience, while a few miles away in 85201 it is considered “dangerous”.

[1] Our city's image dramatically influences what journalistic tone is considered consumable by the public, and provokes educated and experienced individuals to repeat things about Mesa that are inaccurate. It's common to hear statements based within assumptions that East Tempe is "too run down to be Tempe", so it must be Mesa- And that Southwest Mesa is "too nice to be Mesa", so it must be Chandler.