Rutland seeks new marketing tagline

July 27, 2008
By Brent Curtis Staff Writer

Over the years, Rutland has been known as "The Crossroads," the heart of the "Marble Valley," a "City for Weddings" and, to the locals anyway, as "Rut Vegas."

Those nicknames have all been based on some part of the city's past or present – although a failed marketing plan and wishful thinking have been blamed for the wedding tagline. That slogan, trotted out in the early 1990s, never took hold and survives only in marketing studies.

Now city officials, regional development officials and an assortment of people interested in elevating the city and region to a prominent place on the tourism map are trying to come up with new word associations for Rutland.

The effort will eventually yield a new slogan that sums up the finest qualities of the city, its economic potential and the tourist attractions within easy driving distance.

And it will sum up those qualities in a statement short enough to fit on a bumper sticker.

That's the magic of branding.Branding shouldn't be confused with marketing, which looks for the right markets in which to sell a product. Nor is branding the equivalent of advertising which aggressively sells a product or service.

Branding aims to capture the heart and soul of a product and reduce it to something succinct and, hopefully, unforgettable.

The idea is that like designer jeans, Mercedes-Benz vehicles and Apple computers, whole communities, regions and even states can be summed up in a tagline and logo. It helps, of course, if that one-liner brings to mind the top selling points of a place. Think: "What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" or "I love New York.

"When it comes to branding, small cities like Rutland are automatically beind the eight ball because unlike Las Vegas and other major cities, they're relatively unknown to the world at large and lack enormous marketing and advertising budgets.

But the consultants who are helping Rutland with its re-branding efforts say the city has a lot going for it. More here.