By MICHELLE GARTNER | Truckee
There’s been talk recently about branding Truckee. There was a rumor that the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce defined a demographic for the brand that is upper middle class, educated, and has disposable income. This inspired discussions around the chamber trying to attract people to live, work, and vacation in Truckee who aren’t representative of what made Truckee what it is today.
As part of an economic development program, the chamber is developing a brand to support a new website. To do this, they need to define a demographic. The current Truckee demographic doesn’t fit the standard marketing description of a demographic; Truckee represents people’s passions and a certain lifestyle — not income, age, employment, education level, or home ownership. When developing a demographic for Truckee, the focus should be on what’s in peoples’ hearts and souls, not what’s in their wallet, or what car they drive; well, unless it’s a Subaru.
We can talk about who we are and what Truckee means to us, but if we build a brand on the current demographic and then don’t develop ways to sustain that demographic, all the work and the money spent will be for nothing. Developing a brand is one thing, but making that brand work for the community is a whole other story.
The Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce website benefits the community by connecting locals and visitors to services, businesses, and programs. When the chamber creates the new website it will be imperative that the town follows through with programs that support the new brand. The programs should include ways to build a vibrant local economy that supports the locals and enables them to thrive while ensuring new members of the community can do the same.
Truckee people come from all different socioeconomic levels, and the ones that make it thrive are those who choose a lifestyle that includes health, wellbeing, conservation, the arts, adventure, and supporting “the greater good.” The common thread is that most of these people live on less than what they could elsewhere and still give generously back to the community.
Truckee is not an affordable place to live, nor an easy place to make a living. Many of us who moved here 15 to 25 years ago could afford to buy a house and the people that moved here penniless straight from college, high school, or Mexico could afford to work at the local resorts and maintain a respectable lifestyle; but, things are very different today. How do we keep the current culture if we can’t continue to attract the type of people that are here now?
The current demographic is dying and, unless we can find a way to allow the same individuals who developed this community the opportunity to build a life here, the current demographic will become extinct and the brand will be a symbol of what this community once was.
~ Michelle Gartner was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and worked in the postproduction world of film and video. She moved to Truckee more than 15 years ago and is now pursuing the written word.
