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Client: Kenai, Alaska
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Talks Focus on Branding the Kenai Peninsula
By: Marta Casey - Homer Tribune
July 5, 2006
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Homer, as well as other communities on the Kenai Peninsula, have contracted with North Star Destination Strategies to come up with a "name brand" for the area. |
Who needs Denali?
It’s a question members of the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council and the Homer Chamber of Commerce hope visitors to Alaska will be asking themselves in the near future as they work to establish a “name brand” for the Kenai Peninsula — a name that Homer will also use.
The marketing council and leaders in four Kenai Peninsula communities have contracted North Star Destination Strategies to develop a brand name and analyze consumers for the Peninsula. The so-called “branding team” met last Friday at the Homer Chamber of Commerce, ending a two-week visit of the Peninsula by representatives from North Star.
“If you brand a region, it impacts more than tourism. All kinds of economic factors are affected,” said Derotha Ferraro, executive director of the Homer Chamber of Commerce.
The idea to create a name brand for the Peninsula through research came last year at a regional tourism conference, according to Shanon Hamrick, executive director of the marketing council and a leader of the brand name project.
“This is the first time we’ve attempted something on this scale. It will probably be our legacy,” Hamrick said.
North Star just finished its initial two-week visit of the entire Kenai Peninsula. Two teams traveled throughout different towns, including the four stakeholders and Seldovia. In Homer, North Star teams walked through town and on the Spit, asked residents, business owners and visitors about characteristics that make the city unique.
“There are a lot of people who have put a lot of sweat and tears into this community. We want to get inside their minds,” said Steve Chandler, president of North Star.
“(The brand identity) starts with the residents. It has to be part of their DNA. It is not a tagline. A community brand is an experience,” he said.
One of the main goals in branding the Peninsula is to unite all of the towns to make the Peninsula a destination itself. As a destination, the council hopes tourists will stay longer and visit all of the towns instead of just heading to Anchorage, Mat-Su or Denali.
“Right now, we’re all kind of going in different directions. We’re not selling ourselves as a region enough. We’re selling individual communities,” said Hamrick.
“(Tourists) don’t need to go to Denali — they don’t need to go anywhere else. They can get it all here. And everyone will benefit from the 2 percent borough sales tax,” she said.
Finding the image and brand of the Peninsula will take another year of research and discussion. The next stage of the branding is four months of research, which will not only revolve around the consumer demographic, but also include resident input.
Addresses of visitors will be gathered — without names — from fishing licenses, lodging records, sightseeing tour lists and credit cards. The information on addresses and purchased products will be compiled into a report to determine the type of consumers on the Peninsula. In three weeks, surveys that council members are filling out now will be online at www.kenaipeninsula.org for Peninsula residents. Phone surveys will also be conducted with residents throughout the rest of Alaska.
“It’s just a challenge. We’re going to have to work really hard to make sure everyone buys into this brand Peninsula-wide,” Hamrick said. “People have to believe it and adopt it.”
A mid-point meeting is set for October to give North Star time to present its research findings before moving onto the most visible part of the project — the slogan.
“It will be such a relief to come up with a slogan and brand,” Ferraro said. “Then we can just take the next five years and wear it down.”
Whether the Peninsula’s slogan will focus on fish, art, mountains or friendliness, the goal remains clear.
“We’re trying to capture Alaskan visitors,” Hamrick said.
