Extreme Makeover: City Edition

Dream assignments don't come all the time. The Buchanan Group had the extraordinary opportunity to re-brand a city, we knew we had to do it, we just had to find the city on the map.

We started to do research on the city. We were surprised to realize that this city has become one of the top-rated mid-size cities in America. In October 2005 Entrepreneur magazine ranked it as the No. 1 midsize city in the United States on its Hot Cities for Entrepreneurs list and this is the safest city in Texas: ranked 3rd in the country by FBI data in 2005.

If you live there you've probably already guessed its name. If you don't, sit down. It's El Paso, Texas. Yes, El Paso. El Paso?

So, we wound up in El Paso about a week later. We were in town to start our immersion process which was going to be critical since we were responsible to develop a comprehensive branding and messaging platform that would boost tourism numbers and ratchet up business development opportunities all at the same time. Driving in from the airport I started chatting with the taxi driver, a young guy in his early twenties. I like talking to taxi drivers since I've found them to be a great source on what's going on in any city, great fountains of information of what's right, and what's wrong. "So what's it like living in El Paso?" I asked. His answer knocked me back.

"Why would you come to El Paso of all places?" Wow, I did not expect that. He went on to tell me "he would rather be anywhere else in the world, but El Paso." Over the next few weeks we found he was not alone in his thinking. What did we get ourselves into?

I can't devote enough space here to give you a whirlwind tour of the city. There are plenty of articles and guides that provide that, including the recent article in the New York Times "In El Paso and Juarez, Elegant Surprises on Both Sides of the Rio Grande." However Joyce Wilson, City Manager for the City of El Paso told us "those of us who live in El Paso know how special our city is and we want everyone else to know it, too."

Back to our mission at hand. We started our immersion process, three days of meetings with 37 key stakeholders, city executives, managers and city partners to help us fully understand El Paso. Imagine that approval process. It quickly became clear that we would need to pull out all the consumer insight tools in our arsenal: traditional focus groups in both the US and Mexico, disruptive branding, consumer experience audit, Noiz-E and digital-DNA.

After 12 weeks we completed a brand audit, conducted international research, facilitated in-depth interviews with business decision makers, relocation specialists, talked to ordinary people who vacation within the USA. We were ready to present our strategic positioning plan to the original 37 key stakeholders, the entire city council and the mayor for their approval. Oh yeah did I forget to mention those meetings were open to the public?

What did the team from the city of El Paso learn? "It truly is possible for consumers to change their perception of a brand. Consumers are smart enough to recognize truth and today there is no room for bullshit. When you listen and observe consumers and then deliver truth to them, they will believe." said Bill Blaziek, General Manager, Convention and Visitors Bureau.

What did our team learn? Whether you are branding a product, a service, a city or a country, our truth remains the same. There is no brand engagement without collaborating with the consumers.

We took the lead in briefing our agency partners. Lastly, El Paso would use our insight and branding process to create an identity, develop advertising, insure consistency, deliver a recognizable icon and demonstrate the new vision for the city.

So the assignment is over. We only travel to El Paso for pleasure now. We look back and we know that everyone at tbg is better because of this experience. As a team we continue to have our dream assignments but we all agree- be careful what you ask for!