Steve Baron: Brand Whanganui sells us to the world

THERE is hardly a week goes by that we do not hear a complaint to this newspaper about rates and council spending.

Every election we have candidates pounding the lectern telling us they are going to go through council expenditure with a fine-tooth comb and root out unnecessary spending.

The reality is that the chances of reducing rates in Whanganui are almost zero.

Central government continually loads responsibilities on local government and continually reduces subsidies; massive, but unavoidable capital expenditure has been required for our new wastewater treatment plant; and, in addition, citizens demand more services but are up in arms if council suggests selling rarely-used facilities, parks, and other land, all of which could be used to reduce debt, and potentially rates.

To reduce rates, we either need to drastically reduce services or sell off massive tracts of council property.

Other options are to lobby government to increase funding and to find ways to increase employment through government jobs transferred to Whanganui.

Growing the number of households in Whanganui by many thousands would make a huge difference. It would spread the load among more people. That is a difficult task based on past performance, but not impossible.

Economic development (growing our population and creating jobs) is the secret, and an aspect of local government that councils are starting to focus on more than ever.

We have had a positive population growth number in Whanganui in recent times, but we need to do far more.

A big part of growing our population is having the infrastructure, services and attractions in place to lure visitors and permanent residents.

After that comes image, branding and marketing, otherwise it is all a waste of money.

Mayor Annette Main and her council have done a great job of improving our image to the rest of New Zealand and visitor numbers are growing, however, they are not growing as fast as in other cities around New Zealand, and we are not getting our fair share.

Where we let ourselves down is that we do not have a compelling brand/slogan for Whanganui.

The most famous city brand in the world is probably New York City. You would have to be a caveman not to have come across the brand "I (heart) New York".

Other cities, like Sydney, have maximised their profile with an iconic structure, such as the Sydney Opera House and through hosting the 2000 Olympics.

We all know that Whanganui is not in this league and nor do we want to become the next New York, Sydney, or even Auckland for that matter, but we do need to position ourselves as a place people want to come to, with a compelling brand that attracts visitors and potential residents.

At present we simply do not have one, and neither are the messages consistent throughout council-controlled organisations.

There is also very little cross-promotion. For example, our council website does nothing to promote Whanganui as a place to live, work or start a business. It is boring and uninspiring, and does not even have an obvious link to the Visit Whanganui website and tourist attractions.

Nor does it promote the council economic development arm, Whanganui and Partners.

Work is evidently in progress on a new website, and it will be interesting to see what transpires.

In the past we may have branded ourselves as the "River City" but such a slogan does little to inspire anyone, or to describe the heart of our city.

What exactly does the wonderful little city of Whanganui stand for?

What image do we want to portray to prospective visitors and businesses?

Experts would say that you must do the regeneration, investment and transformation before starting on any branding, and we have some way to go with the regeneration of our town centre and river frontage which is still a work in progress.

But now is certainly the time to start to think about our branding.

Part of that is having citizens who feel proud about their city and who become brand ambassadors - an important step to promoting our city.

Whanganuians are far more proud now than ever before, and part of that process has been the distribution of promotional videos that Whanganui and Partners have been releasing via Facebook. These promotions are easy for people to "share" on Facebook through their friend lists, and having thousands of free promotions like this can have a huge positive effect.

I have even had positive feedback on this from family members living overseas who had no idea previously as to what Whanganui had to offer.

Apart from free viral marketing, the good news is that through social media it is becoming far cheaper to promote ourselves throughout New Zealand and the world.

These are all cogs in the wheel of economic development that will help get our local economy growing again, and a city brand is an important step that we must embrace and implement with great skill.

If we can attract visitors who come to love this place as much as we do, they may eventually decide to live here, and that is good for all of us.

** Steve Baron is a Whanganui-based political commentator, author and founder of Better Democracy NZ, and holds degrees in economics and political science. He is standing for Whanganui District Council in October - feedback to: steve@stevebaron.co.nz