Marketing the “Soul of the Southwest.”

On Tuesday, April 8, 2014, a regular meeting of the Town of Taos Marketing Committee will be held at the Taos Visitor’s Center at 9 am. According to the agenda, attendees will discuss “Pressing Issues, Television spot final edits, Photo contest – how we implement, Branding doc for rollout to the community,” and “the New Mexico Tourism Department Grant.”

As one who has never understood either the speculative nature of public relations or the thrust of contemporary advertising but who sees the low impact on local business of spending several hundred thousand dollars during the last year, I can only wonder about proposals and raise questions.

It is encouraging to read recent comments in the press by representatives of the new Barrone administration. Town Manager Rick Bellis has called for spending less money on p.r. or advertising and more on “events.” Bellis believes the Town and greater Taos area must provide specific incentives for tourists like Mumford and Sons, the Solar Fest, Fiesta, etc. in order to attract visitors. Apparently, there is a direct correlation between the uptick in gross receipts tax revenue and events tied to tourism.

In addition, the greater Taos community can capitalize on reinvesting in traditional long-term attractions like the landscape and outdoor recreational opportunities. Specifically, I believe we should be publicizing the Rio del Norte Monument, since it has local, statewide, and national momentum. In the event of potential national forest closures, due to drought, the Rio Grande Corridor of 220,000 acres will still be open to the public.

Since the Monument has been established, I believe anecdotal evidence at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and state rest stop shows a rise in visitor count. I visit the west rim trail about four or five times a week and see a variety of out-of-state and in-state license plates. More telling is the number of people who walk on the bridge to gaze at the Gorge and the Mountains and patronize the vendors. More people appear to visit the vendors than the retail shops on historic Taos Plaza.

This so-called “branding” business seems mysterious. I always liked the notion of “The Soul of the Southwest,” under which rubric one could publicize the landscape, the arts, and various events. When you change the so-called “brand” each year, you just confuse the residents and tourists, who cannot keep up with the p.r. jargon. The Summer of ’69, etc. worked well because it was a specific target with a variety of specific events, including a movie, Easy Rider, and movie star, Dennis Hopper, which produced a rare confluence of energy.

We need a five-year plan, updated each year, so that local museums, organizations, hotels and restaurants, retail shops, etc. can prepare. The theme and its interpretation can attract variations of presentation that everyone can understand if the locals and visitors have something concrete on which to build. Possibilities include the Monument, Mabel Dodge, the acequia culture, the History of Violence or Non-Conformity, “Manby” as stand-in for Land Swindles and real estate deals, etc. The focus on the Summer of ’69 and Dennis Hopper possessed inherent drama. The transformation of Dennis from enfant terrible to honorary Mayor of Taos within two generations was symbolic of the times: transforming hippies into citizens through the telescope of nostalgia.

Advertising mavens, p.r. specialists, and the middle-class conformists tend to run away from the reality, a reality I believe provides a kind of authentic human experience for locals and visitors in Taos. Sure El Norte is beautiful and even sublime. But the vision of Taos presented in your latest winter guide or Enchanted Home magazine hardly matches the reality of Taos Funk. The breadth and depth of the sky, the mountains, the desert and the Gorge contrast with the juxtaposition of million dollar homes and back yard trailer homes, earthships and tidy adobes or off-site built houses and custom homes. The communities and the rebel residents, who prize chickens and junk that transcends suburban developers or the condo crowd is dramatic indeed. The community issues, historic, ethnic, class, political and artistic are similar to the contrast in the landscape, hence the intense drama and excitement.

The few locals and out-of-towners, who visit the Plaza, expecting “something,” when they enter the old County Courthouse, seem to enjoy the old jail and the courtroom frescoes in equal measure. They don’t buy as much as they do at the Gorge or at Bent St. shops. But the enchanting allure of historic culture attracts visitors similar to the way the landscape, the arts, and special events do.

The highest visitor counts on the Plaza this winter came during winter ski holidays: Christmas and Spring Break. Skiers, like most visitors, appear to have more than one way of enjoying Taos. Taosenos in the Historic District, like the Blakes in Taos Ski Valley, can’t afford the upgrades. But I doubt we’ll find a billionaire inclined toward a benign investment in the historic culture.

But we Taosenos can help ourselves by becoming friendlier and more knowledgeable about the community in order to pass on that enthusiasm to both locals and visitors about the historic sites and the geographical sights. If we can create a bump in GRT to enhance the revenue stream we can help pay for the upgrades at the Youth and Family Center as well as the Eco Park. Both projects have suffered in the last decade, due to political machinations i.e. egregious violations of the procurement code and a lack of implementing the original vision.

Now that we have Town leaders, who are willing to recognize potential of the community and the need to address practical realities, we can capitalize on marketing the attractions by involving passionate locals with expertise who live here in the Soul of the Southwest.