SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT "BRAND:" Westerners are familiar with the word “brand” and its many permutations. Thoughts turn to branding irons and springtime’s smell of sizzling cowhide. Each ranch has a distinctive imprint, and some Laramie County brands can be seen on the Lions Park walkway between Cheyenne’s Botanic Gardens and the Old West Museum. In Ivan Doig’s novel “Mountain Time,” Lyle Rozier in Twin Sulphur Springs, Mont., boasts a shed full of branding irons he plans to sell to Yuppie ranchette owners moving into the area. One of his many New West get-rich-quick schemes that fall through.

Writers have had it up to here with the word “brand.” All of us are supposed to have that or a “platform” in order to sell books to NYC commercial publishers. It’s O.K. to write a fine book, but you need some quirky background to go with it. Rehabilitated ex-con is a pretty good brand and quite a selling point. Celebrityhood is the perfect brand, as evidenced by all the new children’s books by Hollywood types and NBA stars. Let’s face it, you need a brand to sell scads of books.

On the PR front, states need brands to sell themselves to travelers. Utah is looking for a new brand. Its current official slogan is “Utah! Where Ideas Connect.” It was unveiled by former Governor Mile Leavitt before he decamped to D.C. A recent wire service story said that the slogan proved unwieldy and isn’t being used. A new brand is needed, and the state has $10 million in tourism promotion money to pay for it. Salt Lake City advertising agency W Communications is on the job. Its president, Mark Hurst, said it should reveal “the look of Utah,” “the soul of Utah,” and “the sound of Utah,” all composing the “emotional core of Utah.”

Any of you wyolitmailers want to suggest a phrase that might reveal Utah’s emotional core?

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:46 AM