Creating an identity for Germantown

June 23, 2004

Douglas O'Bryon was attending the Germantown Leadership Forum in March when he realized what the area was missing.

"They were talking about the Germantown community, and I thought 'now there's an oxymoron for you!'" O'Bryon recalled. "It's hard to say those two words in the same sentence, it's so disjointed."

O'Bryon concluded that Germantown had no brand -- no identity or unifying theme. So after two months of formulating ideas, he asked the organizer of the forum, Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, if he could chair a subcommittee charged with the task of brainstorming brands for the community.

Attendees at the forum loved the idea.

"It's very important that Germantown convey a certain image," committee member Sandra Furton Gabriel said. "We want to bring people here, but more importantly, we want to bring people together."

On June 14, five members of the committee met at Furton Gabriel's house to begin discussing possible brands. O'Bryon explained that the group should identify Germantown's core competencies.

"Every town has good schools, a good library, culture, arts -- everybody has that," O'Bryon said. "What we need to find out is, what do we do better than anyone else?"

By the end of the meeting, a dozen of Germantown's strengths were written down. SoccerPlex, Black Rock, new library, Montgomery College, parks, youth, recreation opportunities -- the brainstorming went on for an hour.

"It is hard to bring people together unless you have something that unifies them a little bit," committee member Bob Fischer said. "I think you have to take some common element that Germantown has and capitalize upon it."

He referenced Gaithersburg's "Character Counts" slogan and Rockville's red, white and blue signs.

"The fact that I can even remember those shows that it did stick in my mind," he said. "If we can give ourselves an identity, it's one more tool that the powers that be can use to market the area for us."

In a letter to committee members, O'Bryon defined what a brand is.

"In its simplest form, a brand is a promise," he wrote. "Think about the best brands around: Lexus, Harley-Davidson, Rolex, Sony, McDonalds, even Target. While some of these represent 'high luxury,' the 'best brands' aren't necessarily the 'best products.' The best brands are the ones that have done the best job of establishing an 'expectation' (or promise) in the minds of consumers, and then delivering on that promise."

As the first meeting commenced, committee member Christine Whitten noted the significance of the project.

"We're not just building a brand," she said. "We're building an identity to enhance the community."

O'Bryon asked the group to brainstorm their own branding idea for the next meeting, to be held July 6. From there, the committee will select the best ideas. O'Bryon plans to present the brands at the Sept. 18 Germantown Alliance meeting.

"We'll have a larger body of people weigh in on what they think is the best brand to move forward with," he said.

The committee is one of several projects related to the Germantown Leadership Forum, which Knapp started in March to identify current and potential Germantown leaders, provide an avenue to discuss issues important to the community and develop a strategy for stronger advocacy. Forum attendees have started to address several community issues, and the results will be presented at a meeting in December.

"Each of the groups will update us through the fall on the status of their projects," Knapp said.

Germantown's identity takes on many forms, he said, depending on each individual's perspective of the area.

"How do you package it so that everybody else in the region thinks of Germantown as a great place?" Knapp asked. "Our challenge is to take all of Germantown's key attributes and roll it into something that conveys a thriving, dynamic, energetic community."

O'Bryon thinks the package will benefit Germantown in the coming years.

"If we can wrap this around the master plan -- if we have a collective understanding of what we actually want to be -- then we can be proactive," he said.

O'Bryon compared the community to an adolescent yearning to identify itself.

"Who are we?" he asked. "Who do we want to become?" Home Brian Stelter Blog   Photos   Resume   Archive