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October 07, 2005
Marketing Beverly Hills: Where's the Upside?
Is there gold in them there hills? Seems city officials are trying to cash in on the supposed appeal of the "iconic" brown Beverly Hills signs that mark city limits. According to the LA Times (registration required), it's not the slam dunk some assumed it would be.
"Marketing experts said they are not surprised that things haven't taken off as quickly as some Beverly Hills boosters hoped. 'There's a lot of clutter in the market,' said Deborah Cours, a Cal State Northridge marketing professor who has studied the value of Los Angeles-area place names. 'Is Beverly Hills as exciting as Rodeo Drive or Armani? Most boutiques have put a lot of money in their own brand names. They don't want to market someone else.'
"Cours suggested that tourists — particularly those from abroad — might be Beverly Hills' ideal target. 'In the international market Beverly Hills has a reputation of being trendy.' "
Those wacky foreigners, they'll fall for almost anything.
"Assessing the marketing value of a government entity can be tricky, Cours said. She noted that she once took part in a study of 'Los Angeles County' as a brand and found its main appeal was its connection to 'Baywatch,' a TV show about county lifeguards."
Posted by Deborah Branscum at October 7, 2005 03:56 PM
Comments
It strikes me that the brain trust on this project may have an inflated sense of what local influence implies. The signs are indeed distinctive and carefully placed, and they do appear in the local media from time to time. Whether they have any currency outside the area isn't clear to me, although I do vaguely remember seeing one in the opening credits of a network TV show some years ago.
Posted by: Pete at October 7, 2005 11:41 PM
Let me guess. Was it Baywatch?
Posted by: Deborah Brasncum at October 8, 2005 05:46 PM
How dare you suggest I would ever consume Baywatch!
(Actually, I haven't. No joke. I also didn't see Titanic.)
Posted by: Pete at October 10, 2005 08:35 AM