Despite drafting a television commercial in May and multiple strategies for promoting local shopping, officials in November abandoned their “Buy Glendale” concept and instead turned to a branding plan meant to promote the city as a whole.
The shift to developing a marketable community identity has been welcomed by businesses as a good long-term strategy for the local economy, but some store owners remain concerned that an opportunity to help keep struggling companies afloat could vanish, if it hasn’t already.
“It would have helped me if more people knew,” Rene Karapedian, president of the Kenneth Village Merchants Assn., said of the “Buy Glendale” campaign.
It is not yet clear how prominent the local shopping concept will be in whatever marketing strategy grows out of the current branding effort, but officials would like it to remain a focus, even if it doesn’t come in the same rapid response to the recession that they had hoped for, said Phil Lanzafame, Glendale’s development services director.
“In a sense, the idea is still the same: to help benefit local merchants. But we’re trying to come up with a tool that everybody can use and customize to use it to their own benefit,” Lanzafame said.
Whether that will work to the same effect, or come in time to benefit businesses while they need it most, is uncertain, business leaders say.
Ideas for the brand image are being conceived. Representatives from Tennessee-based marketing firm North Star Destination Strategies completed a week of initial meetings with city officials and community leaders Friday.
