CVB hopes study will solve Cape's marketing identity crisis

When it comes to drawing tourists, St. Louis has its world-famous arch. Kansas City is renowned for its famous barbecue. St. Joseph has the historic Pony Express. Even Hannibal -- population 17,700 -- has Mark Twain.

And Cape Girardeau has ... well, what?

Try an identity crisis.

Is Cape Girardeau the River City? (Yes, but so are several Missouri towns.) What about the City of Roses? (The roses that lined the roadway between Cape Girardeau and Jackson vanished years ago.) How about the Home of Rush Limbaugh? (True, but is that enough?)

The fact is, from a marketing standpoint, some city leaders believe that Cape Girardeau has struggled to latch onto a definitive identity that will draw tourists into town.

A brand name

That's a problem the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau hopes to address with a recently commissioned $42,000 tourism marketing study that will give the city a brand name it can sell.

"Unless you have some image, some brand identification that immediately comes to mind, you're afloat. Nobody knows," said CVB director Chuck Martin, who recommended the study. "There is a little bit of a vacuum when it comes to Cape."

The study will be done by North Star Destination Strategies of Nashville, Tenn. The city council recently voted unanimously to spend the money from motel and restaurant taxes to pay for the study, which is expected back in September.

"We want to know where people are coming from when they visit Cape Girardeau," Martin said. "We want to know where our best feeder markets are and where we should be spending our advertising dollars and where shouldn't we be targeting. If you're not targeting the right places, the money's just gone."

The CVB has $40,000 to $50,000 to spend each year in advertising.

"That's why it's so important that we know the best place for our money to go and not to take the shotgun approach," Martin said.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said he agrees, although he realizes some are reluctant to spend money on consultants.

"But I like that this is an outside group," Knudtson said. "There are a lot of people here who feel like they know what's best for Cape Girardeau. But they have their own agendas and their own emotions tied to it. We need an outsider to help us figure out what is driving tourism."

So far, marketers have used "Wake Up to Cape" to promote the city, borrowed from the statewide "Wake Up to Missouri" campaign.

'Sometimes it's a feeling'

North Star president Don McEachern said the company will study the way the city presently markets itself and then determine the city's most relevant marketing position.

"A lot of destinations don't have a specific icon to wrap themselves around or a particular piece of history," McEachern said. "Sometimes it's a feeling. Sometimes it has to do with the people or a personality. We figure out what it is and sort of massage that to the advantage of Cape Girardeau."

The company will be doing phone interviews with residents and already has sent out about 150 surveys to a select group of city leaders asking them to point out what they think Cape Girardeau's selling points are.

Cape Girardeau resident Jenny Brune was one survey recipient.

"I don't think of one definable thing," Brune said. "I think of several things, such as the riverfront, Southeast Missouri State University, the new Bill Emerson Bridge, Rush Limbaugh and lots of banks, churches and restaurants."

After studying the community, the company then boils down the information and moves into the creative stage. North Star will create a "positioning line" -- think "I Love New York" or "Don't Mess With Texas."

The information and new marketing information will be presented to the CVB after the report comes back, Martin said.

"If it is the river -- and that's a pretty big if -- we can look at ways to capitalize onto that concept," Martin said. "Maybe an excursion boat or a nice observation deck. Whatever the concept is, we have to develop the infrastructure to capitalize on it."

Martin said that Cape Girardeau isn't in a terrible marketing position.

"It's like anything in life," he said. "There's just always room for improvement."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137