Cities seize the phrase

Whenever anyone outside Maine asked me what it was like to live way up there in Bangor, I’d respond with the usual images of contented small-town life.

I might tell them, for instance, that while Bangor was a humble little community, as far as cities go, and not always exciting enough to keep our teenage kids happy, it did offer most of us the amenities necessary for living a satisfying life and raising our families safely and comfortably.

But now, with the recent unveiling of the city’s very own official catchphrase, I can describe my hometown to strangers with a pithy pizazz that was unavailable to me before, and even boast without appearing the least bit boastful.

“Bangor, Maine?” I can say to them. “Why, it’s surprisingly metro.”

“Is that right?” they might ask.

“Indeed,” I’ll declare, “not only that, it is refreshingly real.”

For those who might wonder exactly what those terse tag lines are meant to convey, I can offer an explanation from Linda Packard of Packard Judd LLC Strategic Design Group in Bangor, who helped devise the catchphrase as part of a broader, $20,000 promotional contract with the city’s business and economic development office.

“Bangor has something of an image problem,” said Packard. “Because we’re a little more insulated from the parts of Maine that get all the attention, the coastal areas, many people don’t have any idea what we have here.”

She said that few people outside Bangor would consider the Queen City to be a metropolitan hub of culture, commerce, the arts and recreation. Some people in other states don’t even know the city exists, for that matter, unless they happen to be fans of Stephen King and know of his Bangor home.

“But once they come here to visit, they’re surprised at all we have to offer and how pleasant the city really is,” she said. “So in working with city officials, we decided to promote Bangor as a place that has a metropolitan feel – surprisingly metro – and yet still maintains touches of our unpretentious, casual business style – refreshingly real. We came up with what we think is a brief, to-the-point way of differentiating Bangor from other cities.”

While the promotional campaign and its new catchphrase may be Bangor’s first serious attempt to package its personality for the market, other cities have been selling their unique charms with “positioning statements” – as they say in the marketing business – for years.

A check of the Web reveals that Bangor is not, by the way, the only Queen City out there – Manchester, N.H., is a Queen City, too, as is Charlotte, N.C.

Independence, Mo., is both the “Queen City of the Trails,” and the place where “The Trails Start and the Buck Stops.” Buffalo, N.Y., which also happens to be a Queen City, presumably paid an advertising agency to produce such stirring catchphrases as “Buffalo: It’s Good for You” and “The City of Good Neighbors.”

Hartsville, S.C., boldly promises “Something for Everyone,” Brookings, S.D., is “Someplace Special” and Waverly, Iowa, swears it is “Simply the Best Place for You to Be.”

Skowhegan, Maine, may be “A Place to Watch,” but Elgin, Ill., is “The City to Watch.” Conneaut, Ohio, welcomes visitors to “The Mistake on the Lake,” while Wilton, Iowa, wants us to know it is “Ready for Tomorrow.”

Lake Forest, Calif., is a place where people “Remember the Past, Challenge the Future” and Horton, Wis., has “Pride in Our Past, Hope in Our Future.”

Belleville, Ill., offers “Small Town Charm, Big City Appeal,” while Leon Valley, Texas, has “Small Town Hospitality, Big City Advantages.”

I suppose we’ll have to wait to see whether declaring Bangor to be “Surprisingly Metro. Refreshingly Real” will actually wind up attracting new businesses and residents to our fair city. Municipal marketing strategies can be tricky, after all, with no guarantees that how a city chooses to present itself to the bigger world will pay the economic dividends it hopes for.

Just ask the proud people of Caldwell, Texas, the “Ornate Box Turtle Capital of the World.”