Rebranding the Gold Coast - lets fix the 'product' first

Gold Coast Council is investigating a new brand for the Gold Coast in a move that could cost ratepayers around $2million.

This proposition in my opinion, is putting the cart before the horse and will ultimately be a waste of money, if we don't fix the product first.

This means firstly building on the standards we already have in place but then working to tidy up and better present our tourism centres, like Southport, sections of Surfers Paradise, Palm Beach and Mermaid. This tidy up is as simple as Council creating spaces that are appealing to the eye through implementing professional and consistent signage for business, streetscaping, upgrading foot paths and walk ways, cleaning up litter and creating community working groups to remove graffiti.

It will also be important for Council to work with the State Government to reduce crime, and create a safe atmosphere. If we are looking to attract tourists who spend more when they get here we need to provide locations that are safe but still fun, unique but not tacky. People feel vulnerable when they are not safe and part of a relaxing holiday is travelling to a location where you are safe to unwind.

We also need to educate stakeholders the importance of having a economically sustainable brand, a brand that isn't driven on a culture of discounting but instead a culture of value adding and providing a better product - this would be a win for local business, tourists and residents. And would mean the Gold Coast is less susceptible to fluctuations in the general tourism market.

Once we have a economically sustainable product in place then we identify the markets we want to attract to the Gold Coast - market segments that have money to spend when they get here. And this is where we need to ensure our new brand connects with domestic and international audiences - Audiences like the high earning and often over looked Canberra market, the traditional Sydney and Melbourne markets and the valuable Brisbane/SE Qld drive market as well as international emerging middle class markets in Asia like India, China and Malaysia.

Whatever the outcome of creating a new brand for our city, the Council need to realise this would be the brand we take into the Commonwealth Games in 2018, and this brand is more than just a mechanism to attract tourists, but also business - so in years to come we have well paid jobs and career options on the Gold Coast.

A new brand should be about what we want to be - what we aspire to be as a city.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/05/28/419481_gold-coast-news.html