Brand in the place where you live

I've learned, in recent days, that there are two distinct ways to develop what's called a "brand."

One way involves putting together a group of talented, successful movers and shakers, engage 1,500 people over two years, hire a Nashville-based branding firm to do $125,000 worth of deep research and come up with "Iowa's Creative Corridor." The new regional brand announced last week replaces "Iowa's Technology Corridor."

Another way, speaking of technology, involves creating an online application for the city of Cedar Rapids and calling it CRAPP. Heh. Heh. Snort. And hope the planned/inadvertent humor generates interest and downloads.

Creative Corridor or CRAPP? Which brand will catch on? Which captures the postmodern spirit of American attention-grabbing? Which best distills the zeitgeist?

Maybe you have theories. Please submit them in essay form by the end of class.

I haven't heard a peep from readers, etc., about CRAPP. Fish in a barrel, I suppose. Who wants to crack wise about something possibly created to spawn wisecracking? It's like having to eat your veggies. I will not be duped into prefabricated snarking. No, sir, I will not. It's no SUX.

I have heard some early reviews of "Iowa's Creative Corridor." Not glowing. The top 3 most common:

1. Why does a Creative Corridor have to look to Nashville for its branding advice? (Not the No. 1 fans of the brand from Tennessee, I guess.)

2. They spent how much and how long changing one word?

3. What's up with the barber poll?

Ahem. It is a double helix. Please consult science for more info.

I'm delaying full snark until I've seen what the movers and shakers plan to do with this here Corridor brand. Creative follow through may yet be created, so I'll hold my horses. It has possibilities. The biggest question is whether this new regional moniker catches on in the outside world. Doubts gnaw at my always sunny optimism. But we won't know that for a while.

These things take time and expertise to develop. It's not like you just throw "crap" out there and expect it to create immediate buzz. OK, sometimes.