When I first took the position as tourism marketing director of Ste. Genevieve, I didn’t want to rock the boat right away. However, it became obvious early on that the branding I inherited was stale and was getting in the way. The thing with branding is, it’s your ground zero. If you don’t have a brand people trust or can trust, you’re throwing the money you spend on advertising away, which makes it something you certainly want to address sooner than later. Luckily, I didn’t have to be the one to force that idea early. The city council hired an outside marketing firm to draw up a five-year marketing plan in case I decided the job wasn’t for me. It was a smart move, and guess what? Year one: rebrand.

Also lucky for me, I had almost a whole year to stare down that objective. What does a rebrand truly entail? It’s a question that leads you through a deep rabbit hole, I’ll tell ya, but comparison is a good place to start. Pitting our logo against the logos of our competitors, places like Hermann and St. Charles in Missouri, we just blend in, or worse, look like a less attractive destination. In honesty, it kind of looked like we installed swimming pools. We needed something that reflected who we are. It needed to be apparent right away that we’re the oldest town in Missouri, but not completely dependent on recreating the past. This is a real living community as well. The story continues with every new person that picks up the torch of preserving our traditions, our architecture, or keeping our downtown a thriving place for visitors and residents alike. Now, how do you condense all that into three colors and a font? That’s the task at hand, and it’s a formidable one.

It may be tempting to try to keep the work in-house when you see the price tag for something like this, but when you distill the task down to its essence it’s easy to see why you shouldn’t cut corners. Get it right and you have a life-long brand that bends with the times, but never breaks.

The more you dig in the more you realize just how esoteric branding is. What most people believe is all of branding, your logo and visual identity, are only part of it. They are built to resonate with your intended audience and attract attention. You convert views to visits, however, with the promise your brand signifies and you build followers by delivering on that promise. This is a tricky thing because sometimes you can’t deliver on the things most places can, so you have to be honest where you’re at and what you can deliver on. That’s how you build trust, which is the ultimate goal of branding. Once you have a brand people can trust, you’re cooking with hot grease.

With Ste. Genevieve, “There’s Something Special Here.” We’re not going to wow you with how bustling we are, or our rowdy nightlife. We’re imploring people to take their time, look deeper, walk the streets and look at the houses and the beautiful gardens, tour some of the architectural marvels from the American frontier, or take a ride on one of only eleven ferries in the US that cross the Mississippi River. We once had more residents than St. Louis, but our path took a different turn; a no less interesting turn. So, take the road less traveled to see a community that has embraced a more intentional, artistic, and family-oriented approach to life.

Soon, what you promise and how you deliver becomes synonymous with your brand, and if all three phases of your brand are strong, your logo and visual identity start to draw from a wider swath of the American public. Again, the psychological mechanics behind this stuff is fascinating. Here’s the pitch on branding that the St. Louis firm, Blacktop Sailor, used to show me they were the right partners for this exercise: “A brand isn’t what they’re selling you. Apple doesn’t sell technology, it sells the ability to think differently. And you certainly feel that way when you’re out at the coffee shop on your Macbook.” You see how that operates on multiple levels? Apple has done such a great job with branding that it’s products have become an essential part of some people’s identities and feelings of self-worth. That’s a staggering thought, but it goes to show you just how deep the branding rabbit hole goes.

It also illustrates my point on how having a strong visual identity paired with an attractive promise and unmatched delivery help you build brand ambassadors and gain followers. It’s why I’d wear a Taos or Joshua Tree tee shirt (if it was cool looking of course) even though I haven’t spent much time in either and didn’t necessarily have some transcendent experience while I was there. It’s because it’s cool to a crowd I’d like to count myself a part of and makes me feel part of a larger network of like minds.

What’s great about Ste. Gen is it’s not a tourist trap like Jackson Hole or Sedona or Asheville. It’s a real community, and while we want more tourists it’ll be my mission to make sure we stave off the negative effects of tourism. Can it be done? I don’t know. I know there was a point when all of those spots I listed were really something to cherish. I’m sure most will say it can’t because of how it went for those communities. I’m hopeful, though, that we can learn from them like case studies. With preparation and cooperation from the right parties, there’s not much that can’t be accomplished. Whatever lays in store, we do know that Ste. Gen’s heyday is ahead of it, not behind it. Wish us luck.