Meet Metro Phoenix (Again): Now Opportunity Oasis

by Francine on February 23, 2010

Every time the economy goes bad, Phoenix does a re-brand.  It makes up a new story about itself, and tries to sell that story to the masses.  We’ve gone from trying to be the “West’s Most Western Town,” to being the “Solar Oasis,” to being “Copper Square,” to being whatever the latest branding agency thinks will encourage people to move here. This time it is Metro Phoenix DNA, Phoenix as an” opportunity oasis.” The three main “story” messages are Urban Pioneering, Upscale Desert Garden, and Open Space thinking. These are the flip side of our problems: no real urban center, not enough water for ultimate growth, and sprawl. They’re the positive spin. In an age of authenticity, I find them difficult to deal with.

All of these positive messages, of course, are designed to re-ignite growth, the engine that has always driven us. This time the euphemism for growth is “talent.” We’re not looking for retirees, or escapees (our original settlers).  How can we make Phoenix grow again? This time the buzz word is “talent.”

CEOs for Cities is the group helping us this time. We’re listening to a big pep talk from the head of this group, Carol Coletta. I get up to remind her that I’ve been in Phoenix for forty years and have seen multiple re-brands, none of which are kept long enough to stick.  I already know what will happen: the economy will turn around, we will start to grow again, the real estate people will get re-rich (the same people get rich, poor, and re-rich in Phoenix because they are like riverboat gamblers), and the collaborators in the brand strategy for Phoenix will lose interest and retreat into their private gated communities.

Yes, I’m cynical. I know we have a horrible education system, and our state government does not wish to spend one dime on our children. In fact, it is trying to opt out of as much government as it can, from Medicaid to running the prisons.  We have outsourced everything.  If we are going to raise a tax to cover a record budget deficit, we refer it to the voters, so that no legislator has to take the rap for raising taxes.

Yes, Phoenix is a clean canvas.  That’s because people come here, discover they can’t get a good job, and leave again. You don’t stop that with a branding campaign.

Especially if the first plank in that platform is a….print magazine. Yes, that’s what we’re being shown here. Is this what the community thinks will attract talent????? After that comes the web site and the (nearly ready) iPhone app. We are assured that the GeoPhx iphone app will be “viral.” There’s also a social media plan, WhyPhx that will also, he assures, us, be viral.

Across the room are my friends Derek Neighbors from Gangplank and Tyler Hurst from CenPhoCamp. As this speaker explains why social media is viral, I can hardly contain my laughter. I want to believe, but I can’t. I’ve been betrayed by this religion too many times.  My own children have left the community.

Look around you, branders. What about Gangplank? What about the tech community that’s already here, that doesn’t get included in these efforts?  What about the downtown Phoenix people who are already involved? The Local First people? We’re so splintered that we don’t even know each other.

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  • Carol Coletta
    You are confused about CEOs for Cities role. We are not "helping" on the brand platform. We have no role whatsoever on brand development or execution. I was asked to comment on the importance of cities having a brand platform. And because I believe that metro Phoenix has an especially strong one, I went one step further to endorse what others have done. As I told you, I need no reminder that most cities, apparently including Phoenix, are littered with adopted then quickly rejected slogans and logos. I said so in my remarks. The pep talk of which you speak was aimed primarily at saying cities ought to have good, strong brand platforms, but it is rare that they actually get them.

    It is a false choice to say that we either change the reality of Phoenix or that we develop and execute a good brand platform. You can and should do both.
  • I'm sorry Carol. I did misunderstand your role. So you were just brought in to bless this. I apologize.

    Metro Phoenix does not, however, have a strong brand platform. I've been in brand strategy since 1980, and I've watched Phoenix flounder ever since, even though I am supposedly one of the community leaders. I am not, however, a banker or a developer. That's who runs this town. Even my stint at Intel in the 90s, and the 400 entrepreneurs I help on a daily basis through my foundation and our acceleration services, do not give me credibility. I'm always invited in, because I'm known to be smart; but nothing ever happens. And since I spend summers in the Bay Area, I am aware of how different communities address problems.
  • Francine,

    As a general statement, I love your blog and the ability to see your perspective on such a wide variety of topics. I share to some extent your dismay over the number of initiatives underway/competing(/floundering?) with respect to this particular topic. There's just so much time and energy available, and the choices are growing exponentially.

    I wish I knew what the silver bullet was....
  • Sounds pretty funny - marketing spin vs. actually doing something useful and communicating that. What would make someone smart and enterprising actually move to Phoenix? (Or stay here?) It's because there is something actually important is going on and people are talking about it- not because of a print ad or a viral campaign.

    There are the many "old guard" and several "new guard" groups here in town working on parts of the Phoenix growth problem, but when the new and old groups get in the same room they are not capable of speaking the same language to solve anything. Sounds like our AZ govt or US Congress.

    The old timers in business suits are not going to solve the innovation and startup problem in Phoenix. It's the younger crowd creating new and productive enterprises. I would like to see Gangplank and other innovative movements grow beyond a pretty small group of like-minded new thinkers to convert larger groups of new types of people and scale it bigger. I think that's possible, but it isn't appealing to larger groups or scalable yet...
  • WHo do you think I drive from one end of the Valley to the other to hang out at Gangplank, and why I have brought the economic developments directors from three municipalities, and the PCA out there to see it. But then they all go give their money to GPEC and we get campaigns from the suits aimed at attracting the creatives.
  • Andrew
    They don't get invited because they are always acting like outsiders.
  • No, my friend, they (we) don't. I have been a member of the Phoenix Community Alliance Executive Committee since day one, and I'm founded many of the tech organizations in town. I've been screaming about entrepreneurship for at least the last decade after coming out of Intel, and the main stream business organizations proceed according to their plans without asking geeks, creatives, or entrepreneurs. For openers, I knew Steve Betts when he was an zoning attorney, and now he's a developer. I actually like him, so this isn't personal, but that says it all.
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