The mention of the City of New Orleans prior to this past week usually conjured up images of Marti Gras, southern hospitality, Old World charm and good times to many of us outsiders. For many of us, New Orleans seemed like a great little escape for a couple of days because the city has marketed itself as--and was to many of us--a great party town, a wonderful jazz town and a great place to attend a convention. Jambalaya. Crawfish. Hurricanes at Pat-O’s. The balcony at The Cat’s Meow. Bourbon Street and the River Walk.
That has all changed.
Brand “New Orleans” as we all knew it is dead.
After the absolute devastation of natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, we’re getting to see a side of New Orleans that we either didn’t see or didn’t want to see.
Poverty. Crime. Deteriorated housing. Social and moral decay.
The challenge to New Orleans is to decide whether or not it even wants to come back as a destination brand and if so, what does it want to stand for?
Once the city has come to grips with the recent disaster, it will have to make some hard choices.
One of those choices will be to decide what it wants to be—if it even wants to be anymore.
Will it want to rebuild the party town, live to excess image of the brand or does it want to reinvent itself and become something completely different?
When and if New Orleans starts to rebuild and it has choices to make, I hope New Orleans decides to be a brand bigger and better then before. My hope is that the deep social issues are addressed as a priority and that any thought about New Orleans as a destination brand for tourism comes as a distant afterthought.
Now is the time for New Orleans to get in touch with those core values that are most important to it and make decisions about what it is now and what it wants to be.
If it decides to address social issues as a priority, eliminate corruption, deliver education reform, and focus on branding itself as a wonderful community for its citizens as the primary goal before any thought is even given to tourism, then it will by default re-brand itself as a wonderful destination brand. When it does so, we will all flock to support it and reward its decision richly.
Our thoughts, prayers and support go out to all of the victims of Katrina.
How to help:
The American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org
Lutheran Church World Relief & Human Care
LCMS World Relief & Human Care
No comments:
Post a Comment