How to improve Salinas’ image

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

At the beginning of the 2007-08 fiscal year, the Salinas City Council outlined four areas of focus: peace, prosperity, image and outreach. Mayor Dennis Donohue has discussed these topics regularly since first being elected, and the council convened a citizens committee to strategize on how to best communicate about these topics with the wonderfully demographically varied residents of Salinas, as well as others outside our area, such as potential new residents and businesses.

In the interest of full disclosure: For a year, I chaired this Marketing & Communications (MARCOM) committee, which is composed of four subcommittees, each devoting a majority of its efforts towards either peace, prosperity, image or outreach. Today, I remain involved as a committee member, and I am honored to serve alongside approximately 10 other volunteers and a handful of city staff and council members. I don’t expect most people to know about this committee, nor should they, but I hope the most high-profile work, which was done by the peace subcommittee, has been recognized. I’m referring to the billboard campaign that teaches about the outcomes of choices our young people make when they avoid the gang lifestyle as opposed to getting caught up in it. My favorite is the college ID card juxtaposed alongside the toe tag – choose your identity, indeed. Kudos to the students at Heald College for coming up with the campaign concept and to the peace subcommittee for its cooperation with the students and for their fortitude in getting the campaign funded and produced.

The MARCOM committee also worked with staff on upgrading the city’s Web site to be much more user-friendly, technologically sound and easier to maintain. The committee agreed unanimously that as a communications outreach tool, the Web site was critical and in dire need of being upgraded quickly. The city’s Web master did a fantastic job, not only with the Web site design and programming, but also in the way she was able to address the concerns of a large committee as well as city staff and the various departments the Web site would touch. I’m impressed with how she designed a Web site for a city whose very image was and still is in flux (more about that below). If you haven’t seen the new city of Salinas Web site, please visit www.ci.salinas.ca.us. There’s more to be done as time and budget allow, so if you visit the site and think something is missing, your feedback would surely be welcomed – let your council member or the Web master know.

Many have said Salinas has an image problem, and I agree. I also think it will be impossible to get consensus on how to resolve that problem or whether it’s worth investing in solving. What detractors of investing in solving the image problem may not appreciate is the degree to which peace and prosperity rely on a positive, well-defined and broadly communicated image – and I don’t mean just picking up trash and planting flowers, although both those activities certainly help. I’m speaking of “image” in the marketing sense, and I am suggesting that Salinas needs to operate more like a business that understands the value of its brand. The city of Salinas has allowed its image to be hijacked by organized crime, and it is long overdue that we reclaim that image as an important step toward prosperity and peace.

Cities larger, more complex and more crime-riddled than Salinas have overcome their image problems, and we can, too. A very simple first step is this: Accentuate the positive. There are many, many other, more strategic and complicated steps, and this is not a suggestion that we stick our heads in the sand and ignore our crime and other problem issues. It is a very basic principle of sales and marketing that we all do on a personal level as well – we put our best image forward to attract a significant other, when we go on a job interview, to sell a product or service, and in numerous other situations. Salinas needs to do it, too, and all of us need to participate – including the media.

Certainly our current economic climate will make progress on image issues all the more challenging, but I’ve seen first-hand the dedication, enthusiasm and tireless efforts put forth by so many for our community. I’d like to see the city administration and MARCOM committee work more closely with the Chamber of Commerce and SUBA towards a joint effort to re-brand Salinas and take back our image, so we can have prosperity and peace.