Recent Press
Dreaming up ways to brand Kelso-Longview
By Amy M.E. Fischer
Longview Daily News
April 10, 2008
To attract tourists, first impressions count — and the Longview-Kelso area needs to make a better one on visitors, according to the marketing consultants hired to evaluate the cities in March through the eyes of a stranger.
The two consultants from Destination Development, a nationally recognized Seattle firm that’s helped roughly 460 cities reinvent themselves, said they were turned off by the county’s shabby visitor center at Exit 39 and Longview’s unkempt, stark downtown. Navigating the two cities was confusing and frustrating because the way-finding signs didn’t connect with each other, they said.
But Destination Development CEO Roger Brooks and his business partner, Dr. Monica Dixon, also raved about the cities’ golf courses, Lake Sacajawea Park, the Columbia Theatre and Teague’s Interiors during their two-and-a-half-hour presentation to local leaders March 17 at the Expo Center.
If the community wants to become a destination for visitors, it needs to play up the unique experiences it offers because it’s not enough anymore to claim you’re the “Gateway to Mount St. Helens,” said Brooks, who focused his discussion on Longview and will return in mid-April to talk about his impressions of Kelso.
The cities of Longview and Kelso each paid $10,000 for the evaluation, which is the first stage of a comprehensive “branding” project to create a distinctive, desirable image for the communities. According to Destination Development, building a brand requires a community effort. The private sector, not the government, will take the biggest risks, make the biggest investment and reap the biggest rewards.
Brooks said nothing jumped out at him during his initial visit that could be marketed as Longview’s “brand.” However, he’ll soon quiz citizens about what they think the town should be known for and evaluate whether that would make a feasible brand, he said.
Brooks, author of the book “The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism,” told local leaders people will visit a place if it has activities to keep them busy four times longer than it took them to travel there. Under the “Four Times Rule,” someone from Olympia would be unlikely to drive an hour to Longview for a visit of less than four hours, for example, which is why cities should offer information about specific activities and attractions on the Internet and in tourism brochures, Brooks said.
Because the community is on the Interstate 5 corridor, on which 50 million vehicles travel per year, and because more than five million people live within a 150-mile radius of the Longview, the city has great tourism potential, Brooks said. The trick is to offer visitors something they can’t get closer to home — and post signs about food, lodging and attractions that give them a reason to turn off the freeway, he said.
But the beat up, single-wide trailer that serves as the county’s Tourist and Volcano Information Center at Exit 39 doesn’t give drivers much incentive to stop, he said.
“This gives me no reason to spend any money or any time in Longview or Kelso. As a matter of fact, this tells us this is a run-down community that’s hurting,” said Brooks, adding that the helpful, knowledgeable employees inside the visitor center belied its outward appearance.
The community should consider installing prominent signs and bill- boards that point visitors to Lake Sacajawea Park, Mint Valley Golf Course and Three Rivers Golf Course in Kelso, he said.
Improving the area’s way-finding signs should be local cities’ No. 1 priority, Brooks said.
“There’s nothing that says which town is which,” Brooks said, complaining that the signs don’t connect. “This is the age of convenience, and if people cannot find what you have to offer ... they say, ‘Next!’ and they’re gone.”
He and Dixon said they were frustrated by the area’s lack of useful signage from the minute they left the interstate. Following the “Kelso” sign on I-5, they took Exit 40, which put them in residential North Kelso. Following the signs pointing to the train depot, they took North Pacific Avenue to the Cowlitz Way Bridge and didn’t know which way to turn to find downtown Longview. Seeing a sign that said “Downtown,” they went straight. Which is how they wound up at Three Rivers Golf Course.
Although signs for downtown Longview proved elusive, the consultants did see a slew of “Cruising Control Area” signs posted around town.
“There were so many signs for the cruising control area that we could find out the entire cruising route,” Brooks said. “If you could put up one wayfinding sign for every 10 of those, you’d be in business.”
Brooks and Dixon said they stumbled upon Lake Sacajawea by accident and had no idea where the walking trails led. The city should erect a “you are here” map of the lake that shows the network of trails, they said. Distance markers should be clearly posted on the trails, said the consultants, who apparently missed the brick mileposts set into the ground beside the paths. The city also might want to build a visitor information kiosk stocked with brochures near the bathrooms in the Hemlock Plaza area of the lake, they said.
The consultants hammered on the importance of having a beautiful, inviting streetscape downtown. A downtown is the litmus test for a town’s community development efforts, Brooks said.
In his slideshow at the Expo Center, Brooks clicked through photos of downtown Longview that showed planters full of dead, brown weeds. There was “no excuse” for not keeping planters pretty year round, he said. Tourist hot-spots such as the cities of Leavenworth, Wash., Sisters and Cannon Beach, Ore., Carmel, Calif., and Banff, Canada manage to keep their downtowns looking lush and beautiful 12 months a year, Brooks said as photos of those towns flashed across the screen.
“This isn’t that difficult to do,” he said. “It is an investment with an incredible return. ... You gotta bring downtown to life.”
But anything beautiful that isn’t nailed down in Longview gets stolen, a woman in the audience told Brooks.
“That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he replied. “That’s the impression we got, that you gave up.”
Yes, outdoor planters and displays get vandalized and things are stolen. But if merchants stop trying to make their shops appealing, “You’re not gonna get me to come in,” Brooks said. “Don’t give up because all you’ll do is drain it away even more.”
Longview City Manager Bob Gregory called the presentation “a real eye opener.” Gregory said before the city tries to market itself to outsiders, he thinks the city should correct the problems Brooks pointed out.
“It’s always painful to see those types of things,” he said, adding, “Was there anything I didn’t agree with? Probably not.”
Mark Plotkin, Cowlitz County Tourism Director, said he was glad the community heard from an outsider how bad the visitor center looks, because maybe now a new visitor center will become a financial priority.
“It’s a 30-year-old trailer that needs to be bulldozed and something else built,” Plotkin said. “How many people don’t even come in?”
Cowlitz County Commissioner Axel Swanson said it was helpful to see the community through fresh eyes because “there’s a lot of things as locals that we get conditioned to.”
Improving the community’s image will require pessimistic residents to adopt a positive attitude, Swanson said.
“At some point we need to come together as a community and say, ‘Other people succeed — why can’t we?’” he said.
Destination Development’s suggestions for making the Longview/Kelso area more appealing
• Install signs at city limits that tell visitors the distance to food, lodging and attractions. For instance, “Historic downtown ahead 1.5 miles.” Signs should be where they’ll make the first, best impression, and they should be clean and easy to read.
• Get rid of “closed” signs on businesses. Tell people when you’ll be open again; make it sound like an invitation.
• Downtown shopkeepers should take down unwelcoming signs that say, “Restrooms are for customers only.” Signs should point visitors to public bathrooms instead. “Relieved customers spend money,” Brooks said.
• Give downtown Longview a name to make it sound like a destination, along the lines of Pioneer Square in Seattle, the Pearl District in Portland, Bricktown in Oklahoma City, Bourbon Street and the French Quarter in New Orleans, and Gastown in Vancouver, B.C.
• Clean up downtown, create enticing storefront merchandise displays, plant flowers, and add benches, outdoor tables and umbrellas.
• Make downtown a place the locals want to hang out, and then visitors will follow. A busy downtown will drive away criminals and vagrants.
• Hang “blade” signs perpendicular to the street under storefront awnings so pedestrians and drivers can easily read the businesses’ names.
• Keep downtown businesses open at night, which is when 70 percent of consumer spending occurs, Brooks said.
• Create a downtown block with businesses catering to locals, such as insurance and real estate companies and alterations shops. Fun, unique stores and restaurants should be on a separate block.
• Promote the city’s “anchor tenants” in tourism brochures. Other businesses will benefit, too.
• Thrift stores aren’t going to draw tourists, but high-end shops will. Tourists can thrift shop in their own towns.
• Follow the “10-by-10-by-10” rule. In three lineal blocks downtown, there should be 10 places that sell food, 10 destination retail shops (not second-hand stores, which visitors can find in their own hometowns) and 10 places that stay open after 6 p.m. (entertainment, theaters, bars, bistros, specialty shops, dining, open-air markets).
Tourism facts
• 83 percent of tourism spending is by visitors with annual household incomes of $70,000 or more
• Washington is among the top 15 states in the country in tourism spending
• Tourism is an $11 billion industry in Washington, making it the state’s third-largest industry
• An overnight visitor spends three times more than a daytime visitor
