William Lieberg, left, owner of Lieberg's Hallmark store and marketing consultant Gregory Thomas pose with a piece of public art in the plaza on Main Street in Alhambra. (Staff photo by SARAH REINGEWIRTZ)

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
9/2/2003
- Man makes impact with Cub Scout troop
- Overcoming barriers in Monterey Park
- Clifton will hold all classes in west wing during upgrade
- Former students reunite to aid school
- Around Pasadena
- Monrovia soldier given symbol of support
- Skyrocketing premiums would have forced cuts at Fair
- Summer's last hurrah
- Temple City sufferes brief power outage
- Candlelight Murder Mysteries' flame being snuffed out
- 9 Pasadenans compete in Hershey
- Teens use drama to encourage reading
- Symposium urges teaching of higher math for tots
- George Adamson, pioneer in paper-making, dies at 95
- Opponents say SoPas skate park underused
- Schiff, delegation get 3-day tour of Iraq
- Around Pasadena
- Skaters roll into Duarte
- Historic homes being sought for fund-raiser tour
- 103-year- old's birthday wishes released to the wind
- Pasadena Christian holds 30th reunion
- No signs of illegalities
- Gold Line agency sets first meeting
- Search continues for missing woman
Cities develop marketing plans to lure patrons
Cities sell distinctive factors
By Cindy Chang, Staff Writer

ALHAMBRA -- In the days before mega-malls and Ross Dress For Less, before the term "marketing blitz' became common coin in corporate boardrooms, the Lieberg family owned department stores in downtown Alhambra, Pasadena and Temple City.

In the 1970s, the downtowns of cities nationwide fell victim to competition from giant shopping malls, and Lieberg's closed its doors.

Now, downtown business districts are finding success with an old- fashioned shopping experience that counters the anonymity of the air- conditioned shopping mall. But keeping downtowns economically viable isn't as simple as it was in the old days.

Downtowns still must compete with the same suburban shopping malls that drove them out of business. But revitalized downtowns now also vie with the downtowns of neighboring communities to attract hometown shoppers.

Downtown business associations are adopting sophisticated marketing tools to sell the qualities that set them apart from mega-malls and from each other.

The Alhambra Central Business District Association has hired a consultant to "brand' the Main Street shopping corridor where Lieberg's department store once stood.

"People have so many choices. They can jump into the car and go to Monrovia, Glendale, Pasadena,' said William Lieberg, who owns a Hallmark store on Main Street near the site of the old family business. "We need to articulate what's different about us.'

For Alhambra's central business district, with its mixture of shiny new bars and ethnic restaurants, the first step in the branding process is selecting a new name. The area is variously referred to as "downtown' or "Main Street,' but Lieberg isn't satisfied with the current usage.

"Downtown doesn't have that positive of a connotation. When you think of downtown or Main Street Los Angeles, that signifies a rundown, decayed area,' Lieberg said.

Gregory Thomas, the Santa Monica consultant hired by the association to give the area one alluring brand image, interviewed about 20 local business owners and government officials to get a feel for what they think Main Street Alhambra is all about.

Thomas has yet to announce a final naming choice, though he notes that the same word - diversity - came up over and over again in his interviews.

The plaza in front of the Edwards Renaissance Theater, in the heart of Alhambra's downtown, is lined with mosaics, the tiles of all colors and shapes combining to form an integrated whole. Thomas thinks that "mosaic' might be a good catch-word to represent that diversity.

"With the colors all working together, a mosaic reflects the quality of the restaurants and the shopping, and the diversity of the people, which is what makes Alhambra unique,' said Thomas, who is an adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and also has helped create brand identities for countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

Once a name is chosen, Thomas will design a logo, banners, street signs and decorative elements to give the area a distinctive feel that will linger in shoppers' memories.

The Alhambra Central Business District Association has spent about $28,000 on the branding effort so far and has budgeted $30,000 more for the coming year, Lieberg said.

Business owners in Old Pasadena were at the forefront of the downtown branding movement a decade ago when they hired consultants to shepherd the area's resurgence.

"Any urban area that wants to remain competitive needs to be clear about who they are and what they offer in order to cut through the clutter,' said Maggie Campbell, president of the Old Pasadena Management District, which has employed a variety of consultants to design logos and brochures for the area.

Wayne Hunt, president of Pasadena- based Hunt Design Associates, has helped create logos and signage for Old Pasadena and the Playhouse District and is an instructor at Art Center College of Design.

With theme parks such as Disneyland and new shopping centers like The Grove borrowing from traditional Main Streets to construct evocative settings, it's not surprising that historic downtowns have in turn adopted a theme park vocabulary to market themselves, Hunt said. In fact, he sees that vocabulary as vital to many downtown success stories.

"A lot of these districts are successes because they do some of the same things that theme parks do,' Hunt said. "Why shouldn't a downtown district try to create a brand or a place with just the same strategy that a private shopping center does?'

Even downtown associations with a do-it-yourself approach to marketing themselves are conscious of the need to nail down a firm identity to attract and keep shoppers.

Monrovia's downtown business association is just now developing the financial wherewithal to consider hiring outside consultants, but its members have designed logos and advertising materials on their own.

"Our knowledge comes from marketing our own businesses. We developed a logo for downtown - a picture of a light post with the mountains in the background - that we use on all our Old Town stuff,' said Jill Bigelow, managing partner of Caffe Citron and a member of the Monrovia Old Town Advisory Board.

Cindy Chang can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4586, or by e-mail at cindy.chang@sgvn.com.