By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Robyne Beaubien with New Mexico Mainstreet was in Raton Monday and Tuesday March 19-20 for brainstorming meetings put on by the City of Raton and Raton Mainstreet for the purpose of developing ideas to create a marketing brand for Raton.
The meetings were held to get ideas from community members and develop a brand that will help Raton identify itself and create a brand for marketing the community and its many assets. Beaubien started the meetings out by showing some slogans or brands that other cities use like Santa Fe, “The City Different” or New York, “The Big Apple” or Hershey Pennsylvania, “The Sweetest Place on Earth”.
She started the brainstorming by asking people to describe Raton in one word something that is not an easy task. She then moved on to define Raton’s assets. As the ideas flowed in, she noted that unlike some communities who only have one or a few, Raton has many. Lake Maloya, Sugarite Canyon to the Whittington Center, Parks, Museum and other attractions that may not be in town but are close enough to make a day trip to. Another asset that kept being mentioned was Raton’s water, which is described as some of the best around.
Of the many challenges that were discussed the one that stood out the most was communications between organizations, civic groups and businesses. For example does a local restaurant know that there is a big event going on at the Whittington Center that will bring in a lot of people or that its spring break in Texas and that they need to stock up so they don’t run out of food on a real busy weekend.
What makes Raton unique? No one-way streets, architecture and history. It was also noted that Raton has a large variety of outdoor experiences close to town like hiking trails, camping and wildlife watching.
Some of the problems that Raton is dealing with is the number of boarded up buildings in the downtown district. Part of the branding and marketing strategy will be to try to get those buildings reoccupied with viable businesses. Also to create an event or events such as the Gate City Music Festival and the Run to Raton Car and Motorcycle show to utilize the downtown area and show off the qualities the downtown area has.
Another part of the meeting was to determine the markets that Raton wanted to reach, such as retirees or
telecommuting jobs for new residents. The Center for Sustainability is working on a project just for the purpose of providing a database and an outlet for those seeking online jobs or telecommuting.
Participants also threw out ideas for a slogan at the end of the meeting. A couple of those thrown out for consideration included a “small town with a big heart” “town of Peace” “The Love of Raton, The Love of New Mexico”
Beaubien concluded saying that she will work all these ideas up and create a paper for a committee to go over and ultimately create a brand and slogan for Raton to market itself to tourists and other targeted groups or locations such as Texas and Oklahoma and even worldwide to places like Japan where it was noted several visitors to Raton have come from.
