New Hartford Slogan

[Cotuit]

On a side note, I think that -- before a new slogan is marketed -- it would be wise to see if Hartford's current slogan has caught on anywhere around the country. I can tell you that it hasn't caught on here in D.C.

You have to realize that most city slogans don't catch on nationally, how many can you think of off the top of your head, "I Love New York" "City of Brotherly Love," any others? In Providence "The Renaissance City" certainly isn't part of the national consciousness, but it is usually mentioned by national press when writing about the city. For cities like Hartford and Providence, the entire city is not really in the national consciousness, so we can't expect our slogans to be. What the "Renaissance City" moniker does for Providence is boost the city to it's residents and to other Rhode Islanders. There are still plenty of Rhode Islanders who think of Providence as a violent wasteland, so the first part of the battle for cities like Providence and Hartford is to get the people in the state thinking postively about us.

This is why I think slogans like "The ____ of New England" or some such, are reaching too far. The slogan for Hartford should speak first to Hartforders, then to other people in Connecticut, then to the region, and lastly to the rest of the nation.

One of the few slogans that has risen to the national consciousness though is Puerto Rico's "Rising Star" and of course Rising Star refers to the Commonwealth eventually attaining statehood and getting a star on the American flag. Since "Rising Star" does have at least a small recognition among Americans in relation to another area, I think that is reason enough that Hartford should come up with something different.

[runawayjim]

You have to realize that most city slogans don't catch on nationally, how many can you think of off the top of your head, "I Love New York" "City of Brotherly Love," any others? In Providence "The Renaissance City" certainly isn't part of the national consciousness, but it is usually mentioned by national press when writing about the city. For cities like Hartford and Providence, the entire city is not really in the national consciousness, so we can't expect our slogans to be. What the "Renaissance City" moniker does for Providence is boost the city to it's residents and to other Rhode Islanders. There are still plenty of Rhode Islanders who think of Providence as a violent wasteland, so the first part of the battle for cities like Providence and Hartford is to get the people in the state thinking postively about us.

This is why I think slogans like "The ____ of New England" or some such, are reaching too far. The slogan for Hartford should speak first to Hartforders, then to other people in Connecticut, then to the region, and lastly to the rest of the nation.

One of the few slogans that has risen to the national consciousness though is Puerto Rico's "Rising Star" and of course Rising Star refers to the Commonwealth eventually attaining statehood and getting a star on the American flag. Since "Rising Star" does have at least a small recognition among Americans in relation to another area, I think that is reason enough that Hartford should come up with something different.

i whole-heartedly agree... hartford needs to not worry about getting people from the rest of the country to visit when people from CT and surrounding states don't visit to begin with. providence as "the renaissance city" is only known to people in RI and the surrounding areas (and when other papers write about waterfire or the development going on here).

the rising star slogan should stay for a while... at least until a lot of the current development is completed. but then the slogan should stand out for and be directed at connecticutians and people who live around the area, like in MA and RI.

[Yankee.Peddler]

Perhaps I was not clear enough in my previous note. When I referred to Hartford's slogan catching on across the country, I wasn't referring necessarily to the general public. I was referring more to businesses and trade associations that have been targets of Hartford's principal marketing campaign. If there's a bunch of CCEDA literature out there already proclaiming Hartford as "New England's Rising Star", then I think it would be a waste of time and money to come up with a new slogan and retool the marketing campaign.