Meetings galore – not just the regularly scheduled meetings, but cooperative meetings alive with the energy of new faces and fresh ideas – the kind of meetings you don’t want to take a break from because you’ll miss something.
Recently, I attended a meeting about “branding” – a way to distill the essence of our community to tell the world about “us” in a few memorable words. “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” is an example which I can comfortably say you’ll immediately recognize unless your idea of getting a clear TV picture is still grabbing a handful of antennae.
We kind of had a slogan. It’s “Gateway to the Central Coast”. It was created for a specific purpose that has since passed, thank God. Apparently there was an older one that went “The Dam End of the Valley”. I bet it got a big knee slap and a wink back in its day (’60s or ’70s?). Pretty provocative, huh? Maybe that’s what it was supposed to be, provocative enough to lure people to the captivating dams around us and have a picnic. Don’t feel like the target market of either of those? Me neither. Both are from another time. We need one for the Morgan Hill of today and the future we want to see.
A local design firm that specializes in branding and logos led the meeting that included representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association, hotels, wineries, Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, restaurants, several key city staff members and Mayor Steve Tate. Economic Development Director Edith Ramirez, who recently led the Community Forum on Tourism, put it together. with the goal to get the wheels turning on developing a brand for Morgan Hill.
Don’t you love terms like “branding”? Very cool and Don Draperish. One topic really got me thinking.
Who are we? What can you confidently use to identify yourself and have a legitimate claim to your brand? Our first task was to identify ourselves as a community – what makes us uniquely Morgan Hill? I heard some of the expected, but also some new thoughts that just go to show you that no one person should be in charge of something like this branding thing. A few really stuck with me.
We are centrally located. I really liked that because I never thought of us that way before. The toy merchant who could have lived anywhere he wanted, reminded us that we are close to the Silicon Valley, but not mired in it. San Francisco and real culture and entertainment are a nice day trip away. Close to Monterey and things coastal like Santa Cruz. Head east through the next valley over (where it gets really hot) and we have the Sierras. We have excellent freeway access which is why companies like Shoe Palace, Del Monico Foods, and Young’s Market have recently located here.
Diverse was also used. At first controversial, it was meant to be used in an expanded sense that included the different types of business being conducted and the intellectual resources we have in town along with the cultural aspect.
Not many other communities in the Bay Area can claim to have the range of industry we have in these modest 12 square miles – from agriculture to anaerobe systems (so what do they really do there?), bicycles to bakeries, fine dining to gourmet dog snacks, outdoor sporting events centers to off-road vehicle apparel, spirits and wine warehousing to fine wine production, and so much more. We are the home to many captains of industry while we still have transient farmworkers in our midst. We live with the heritage of so many cultures that have made us what we are. We are diverse in unexpected ways the well-read man stated and I agree.
Sophisticated. I had to look up how to spell that one so I’m leaving that one alone. We just are. Done.
Then we have all of the usual things that make us what we are that we seem to tout every day and recite like a well-rehearsed chorus.
We have a community that is rich in city amenities. We have the Community and Cultural Center, the Centennial Recreation Center, library (ranked top 10 in the country), aquatics center, Outdoor Sports Center, Community Playhouse, and the Third Street Promenade (I include that last one because of the intent … don’t get me started).
We have a small-town atmosphere with a charming downtown that is close to some of the state’s finest wineries (I’m bold) and recreation offerings. We are only miles from the second largest population center in the state, but a world away when it comes to our rural quality of life. We will grow in a planned and managed manner that will make sure we have all of the stuff like schools, water, sewer, streets, police, etc. we need, when we need them.
I know a lot of this is starting to sound trite, but it’s all true. We have just gotten used to it. We know that this little city isn’t perfect, just read the infrequent headlines, but I just ask you to remember that every time you see a negative headline think about how unusual it is to happen in our community and that is why it is headline news. No city is perfectly safe but the residents made it clear in a recent survey that we feel safer than most.
The branding meeting served its purpose and then some. It got some of us thinking about our familiar community in unfamiliar ways. It got many of our community leaders in the same room to talk about what makes us unique from their varied perspectives.
So what makes us unique and what can we rightfully claim? All of those things above. We have what you usually find across several cities and we have it in a beautiful rural setting. We just have to find the right way to say it to the rest of the world.
For me it’s just simply “Happy to Be Here”. No slogan, just how I feel. Hope you do, too.
John McKay is a 13-year Morgan Hill resident who managed commercial construction until community became more important. His column appears every other week. Reach him at ta*****@ya***.com.
