Sunday, October 22, 2017

Municipal Branding: It defines for visitors, investors, and consumers WHAT and WHERE that “unique place” IS.


Whilst on the subject of business, consumers, and municipal branding, when was the last time you visited the exciting bagel store serving “bialys, eggs, pancakes, jumbo muffins and more” in Lake Worth?

First, for those of you who really enjoy reading regional news, specifically about western Palm Beach County, would strongly suggest you begin reading The Town-Crier. They’ve recently updated their website with an entirely new look.

Back on the subject of “municipal branding”, below is an excerpt from an article by reporter Ron Bukley at the Town-Crier titled, “Marketing/Branding Among Top Goals For Wellington Officials”:

     One of the reasons for doing community marketing is because the village needs to make sure that people are aware of the things the village does well, which include schools and parks, Schofield [Village Manager Paul Schofield] said.
     “We’re looking for a program that communicates our family lifestyle, the things that are unique about Wellington and our willingness to respond to the changing needs of our residents,” Schofield said. “I don’t think we need to put up billboards. We don’t have to say, ‘We’re great.’ What we have to do is exactly what this council said, which is determine what is great and unique about Wellington and make sure that the people we want to move here know that. I’m not suggesting by any means that we need to start taking out full-page ads in publications across the nation to say, ‘Move to Wellington.’ ”

By the way, the Village of Wellington and their city officials are not at all thrilled about a new “master-planned” community called “Arden” that is “in Wellington” but it’s not IN Wellington.

If you’ve been following this blog you know Yours Truly is none too happy with the City of Lake Worth’s efforts at “branding”. Yes. The City has done a lot of incredible work explaining why this place called “Lake Worth” is unique. The problem is too few know or understand where exactly that unique place IS.

Back in 2012 was the last serious attempt to fix this problem, so many in the public, visitors, tourists, press, and news media misunderstanding the difference between the actual City of Lake Worth from those vast areas west of the City, some even as far west as the Everglades.

The idea was to change the name of our City to “Lake Worth Beach”. Then some residents suggested other names like Jewel or Jewell, Not Delray, Kokomo, Mango, and Miranda Beach.

“In a memo to the commission about the name change, [now Vice Mayor Scott] Maxwell notes that crimes committed west of the city in unincorporated parts of Palm Beach County are sometimes reported by the media as happening in Lake Worth. Residents with Lake Worth mailing addresses who live west of the city mistakenly come to city hall seeking solutions to their problems.”

Have you visited the new bagel store
in Lake Worth?

Enough about old history, you want to learn more about “Bagels &” right? 

“Bagels & offers an extensive breakfast menu featuring its famed bagels, along with other breakfast staples such as bialys, eggs, pancakes, jumbo muffins and more.”
Directions: Drive west on Lake Worth Rd. and go south on Congress Ave. Once you pass the Great Walled City of Atlantis go west on Lantana Rd. to S. Military Trail. Go south on Military to Hypoluxo Rd. and then go west. Once you pass Jog Rd. the bagel store will be on the south side of the road.

This bagel store isn’t in the City of Lake Worth.
It just has a ‘Lake Worth’ zip code.
Bagels & is located in the southwestern corner (bottom left) in this map, courtesy of your
Palm Beach County government.

“Lake Worth Beach” sounds like a good idea,
doesn’t it? Or do you prefer “Jewell”?