LYNNWOOD — Being referred to years ago as the city with big-haired women who go crazy with blue eye shadow still lingers in the minds of Lynnwood residents, some of whom work at City Hall.
They remember how the Seattle TV comedy show “Almost Live” spoofed Lynnwood in the 1990s by depicting locals as big-haired buffoons.
One particular 2-minute and 42-second segment about a fictional Lynnwood hair salon gave the city’s image a black eye — or at least a dark one — referring to a certain type of eye shadow as “Lynnwood Blue.”
“People still have that sense of what we are here,” said Anya Hennig, administrative assistant for the city’s economic development department.
As part of a continuing effort to find out how best to market itself, the city has hired North Star Destination Strategies, a national branding expert, to help Lynnwood develop an identity beyond big hair.
The city budgeted $80,000 for the project.
“Lynnwood has been defined primarily by others for a long time,” economic development director David Kleitsch said. “The community just wants to define itself.”
Coming up with a brand is important, said North Star Chief Executive Don McEachern.
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not around; in other words, your reputation,” he said.
A positive reputation can do wonders for a city’s marketing efforts, Kleitsch said.
“People know of Lynnwood, but they don’t know about Lynnwood,” he said, “so they make their own judgment. When that judgment is erroneous, then it’s disadvantageous to the community.”
Residents and business owners however, do know about Lynnwood, Kleitsch added.
They made their opinions known to city officials through a series of neighborhood meetings in 2007 and 2008.
That information will help as the city looks for a unified brand identity, a search it hopes to complete by spring, 2010.
As part of its work with the city, North Star will come up with a new logo and a tagline, which is the zinger line people come to associate with a product or, in this case, a city.
The city of Everett’s tagline, developed many years ago for economic development, is “Great Thinking. With a View. Everett, Washington.”
Officials in that city several years ago considered coming up with a brand identity but abandoned the idea, said spokeswoman Kate Reardon.
“We abandoned it because there was a stronger interest to place our focus in other directions,” she said. “What we have done is taken very specific goals and created educational campaigns to complement city programs that already exist.”
Kleitsch said when he was hired in 2001, the city known best as home to Alderwood mall used the tourism tagline “quality, convenience and value.”
In 2004, the city came up with a “Start Here” campaign to encourage visitors to use the city and its hotels as a springboard to sightseeing around the Puget Sound region.
However, the city has never had a streamlined brand and city-owned vehicles sport a hodgepodge of logo designs, Kleitsch said.
Renton, which also was lampooned by “Almost Live,” now runs TV commercials featuring former “Almost Live” host John Keister as part of its “Ahead of the Curve” marketing campaign.
Keister said Friday he’s always been surprised by the response to his show’s spoofs from Renton, Kent and Lynnwood.
“It’s really strange because we didn’t single out Lynnwood or Renton or Kent,” he said. “We made fun of everyone.”
Would he be willing to help Lynnwood put an end to a lingering reputation it never asked for?
“Lynnwood hasn’t called yet,” he said. “I’d be happy to go on the air and tell them ‘Ya know, the big hair, the eye shadow? It’s not that bad anymore.’ ”
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429, ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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