Growing Destinations
Your go-to source for insightful discussions on destination development. The Growing Destinations podcast delves into the strategies, challenges, and successes that drive community growth. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local and national experts, uncovering universal themes and innovative practices that can be applied to any city or region.
Growing Destinations
A Year of Westopolis: Lessons from a Bold Destination Rebrand
Becky Bakken is President and CEO of Westopolis, the destination marketing organization representing the Minnesota cities of St. Louis Park and Golden Valley, just minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Over the past year, Becky has led her team through a major transformation, rebranding from Discover St. Louis Park to Westopolis, to better reflect the vibrancy and connected spirit of both communities. She shares why the rebrand happened, what they've learned one year in, how the community has embraced the change and what's next for Westopolis.
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SPEAKER_01:We felt that the name Wastopolis said a lot. We liked the idea of it being one name, and we felt that that one name had a lot of power.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, Bill Von Bank. My guest today is Becky Bachin, president and CEO of Westopolis, the destination marketing organization representing the Minnesota cities of St. Louis Park and Golden Valley, just minutes from downtown Minneapolis. Over the past year, Becky has led her team through a major transformation, rebranding from Discover St. Louis Park to Westopolis, to better reflect the vibrancy and connected spirit of both communities. We'll talk about why the rebrand happened, what they've learned one year in, how the community has embraced the change, and what's next for Westopolis. Becky Bach and welcome to the Growing Destinations Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, Bill. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let's get started with your career journey and what led you to your current role as president and CEO of Westopolis.
SPEAKER_01:I grew up in a hospitality family. And I always like to say, when you anybody who's had that experience knows what it's like, you you kind of help with everything. You're just part of the part of the team. My father ran an American Legion in the town I grew up, Fairfax, Minnesota, southern part of the state. And there were many mornings before school I helped clean. There were weekends I helped wash dishes. You know, you helped pick up the garbage in the parking lot. You kind of did it all and you fell in love with it a little bit. I started serving in a small cafe in the same town when I was 16, and that led to a long few years of serving through high school and college and loved it. I went to the University of Wisconsin Stout for both my bachelor's and master's degrees. My bachelor's degree is in hospitality management. Started working for Marriott Hotels in Detroit right out of school. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have worked in corporate America as my first career job just because you learned so much. I mean, there is a policy and there's a procedure for everything. And so you really learn kind of right and wrong and just really how to do things. So I'm forever grateful for that. Went back to Stout for my master's degree in tourism, had the chance to work as a graduate assistant under a well-known um professor in the tourism realm and really thought I was going to teach. I thought that that was the path that I was on. But when I finished that degree, I needed a little break and started working for Carlson Marketing Group. At the time, they did incentive travel for Fortune 500 companies, so got to see a little bit of the world. And then I started to work for the Twin West Chamber of Commerce. And that started kind of my long career in this West suburban market. So the Twin West Chamber represented eight West suburban cities. Two of them were St. Louis Park and Golden Valley. And I really then started to get that deep appreciation for community and really for what a chamber of commerce is and does for the business community, and fell in love with that. Took a bit of a diversion then for almost 15 years when I went to work for a community bank as their marketing director. That bank was headquartered out of St. Louis Park. And although I wore many hats in that organization and learned a lot about operations, uh, one of my favorite parts of that job was to be the face of the organization in the community. So again, part of the St. Louis Park area. And so when the job at Discover St. Louis Park at the time, now Westopolis, presented itself, I just felt like it was meant for me. Like it was kind of like me going back to my hospitality and tourism roots.
SPEAKER_00:I always say people who grow up in the hospitality industry, I'm doing air quotes here, get it. Because you know what it takes to really serve customers and serve a community, or in this case, a destination. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And I feel like it helps you really get the people you represent now, too, right? Like the restaurant world, the hosp the hotels, the people who are willing to work those long hours, weekends, holidays, but they love it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, yeah, there's something special about that. Can you paint a picture of the destination you represent, specifically St. Louis Park and Golden Valley? Tell us about this region of the Twin Cities.
SPEAKER_01:So these are two beautiful, well-established communities. Both touch Minneapolis to the west. When I talk about them being established, it really means these are older communities, right? In order for development to come in, something typically has to go. So these are communities that have put a lot of thought into that over the years.
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SPEAKER_01:Louis Park, I would say, was really aggressive in this realm already about 30 years ago. So 30 years ago, they took this area called Excelsior Boulevard, turned it into Excelsior and Grand. They removed many, many longtime businesses that were tired and created this mixed-use property. So that meant that there was retail on the bottom and living space on the top. Now you see this type of development everywhere. It was novel. It was the first of its kind in Minnesota. So it was a big project for this city. And it really created kind of an area. I think they had hoped it would feel even more downtown-esque, but it certainly is an area that is still vibrant today. Then about 15 years ago, they developed a space called the shops at West End. And so for people who do know art market, they tend to know that area. It's a few blocks of an area that is retail, it's restaurant, it's activity. And it's just the thing about this city that's most easily accessible and really prominent. It's located, you know, on a corner of two major highways, Interstate 394, Highway 100. It's five miles from downtown Minneapolis. It's 16 miles from the airport. It's within walking distance or a very short drive to any of our hotels. So it really kind of became this place. It's kind of a lifestyle type mall. And with that came the creation of Discover St. Louis Park, now Westopolis. The city said we really could use a destination marketing organization. We now have something we think we can share and invite people to come experience.
SPEAKER_00:And then you added Golden Valley.
SPEAKER_01:We added Golden Valley. Yep. Golden Valley came into the mix. So St. Louis Park, Discover St. Louis Park was developed in 2011. And in 2017, Golden Valley joined the mix. And really that was just a conversation where the city came to the destination organization as well as the city of St. Louis Park and just said, we'd love to be part of this. How can we be part of this? That's how that happened. I would say that Golden Valley is going through a lot of its redevelopment right now. So I really believe they are a city to watch over the course of the next few years for the same reasons as St. Louis Park was a few years back.
SPEAKER_00:About a year ago, Discover St. Louis Park took on a new brand. Tell us about Westopolis and why you decided to rebrand under that name.
SPEAKER_01:Clearly, we were representing two cities under the name Discover St. Louis Park. So that was kind of the premise of the conversation. I think when we started to really dig in, we realized there was so much more there. Like we worked with a naming agency, we worked with a a branding agency who specialized in naming, which was really important to us. And it really came down to us really leaning in and trying to identify that one thing that was unique to us. And that is very hard. It's so easy to say, we can do that. Any business can do that. But it was very hard to say to really identify the one thing that you say, this is special to us. Because we all do lots of really incredible things. But for us, we knew that being just west of Minneapolis said a lot for us. It told people a lot about where we were located. Um often when we're at at shows or meeting with planners outside of Minnesota, they didn't know where St. Louis Park or Gilson Valley was. So we really wanted to lean into that location thing. We felt that the name Westopolis said a lot. We liked the idea of it being one name, and we felt that that one name had a lot of power. Polis is Greek for city. And so truly we are uh, you know, west of the city. Most people tourists get the concept of what it means to be right next to a major metropolitan area. It comes with some perks. Um, and so we felt like that helped identify people to the fact that we were we were vibrant. We believe that this area of St. Louis Park and Golden Valley has a vibrancy that not all other suburbs have the luxury of having. So that was our our our lean-in. And we felt that even though it wasn't necessarily a place on a map, it would it would create interest. You couldn't ignore this interesting name and you would want to learn more.
SPEAKER_00:How did you balance honoring the unique identities of each city while creating one cohesive brand?
SPEAKER_01:Such a great question, right? Because every place has its unique properties. So for us, we understand the importance of uh boosting the economy through tourism, bringing people here, bringing people here who may not have ever been here before, never discovered this awesome place. So we know the importance of creating interest and intrigue and getting them here. But certainly once they're here, it's about discovering what there is here. And we know we have amazing opportunities and venues and places in both of these cities. So for us, Westopolis is an area comprised of St. Louis Park and Golden Valley. And we're always very conscientious in our marketing to promote it in that way.
SPEAKER_00:Now that you're a year into Westopolis, how has the transition gone overall?
SPEAKER_01:It's been great. Um, we feel like we've, you know, for us, we didn't do a slow launch. We did like turn the light switch on kind of launch. We felt that that's what would work best for us. We do feel really great about it. People have gravitated to us. We feel like we've seen um increases in a lot of our marketing, specifically our social. Our community has really embraced us. Our board is very, you know, uh supportive. I think that though, the thing is we did a lot of change here, right? We've we changed, we changed a name, we changed the logo, we changed colors, we changed it all. So the reality is the proof is in the pudding. And I think one of the things that makes me and our organization super excited is to, you know, really pay attention to our work and the results and the impact that we have on St. Louis Park and Golden Valley over the course of the next few years.
SPEAKER_00:Looking back, what surprised you most about the rebrand journey? And is there anything you would have approached differently?
SPEAKER_01:I loved our process. We we did this slowly. Very thoughtfully. Um, we did it very thoughtfully. It was a two-year process, which didn't feel too long at all, to be honest with you. We involved our board, we involved uh one-on-one conversations with the community and task force and all of the all of the stuff. I would encourage anybody going through this process to do that, to to take the time to get as much input as possible. So I think one of the things that that did catch us off guard a little bit was the interest in our local media. We actually worked with a media company and and you know, really came to the conclusion that we weren't that this wasn't going to be that interesting. Um, and then the media really, the local media really globed onto this, which was awesome. But they had a little fun of their own in kind of uh confusing the messaging just a little bit. So misinformation. Absolutely. A little bit of like playing with St. Louis Park and Golden Valley are becoming one, or St. Louis Park and Golden Valley are changing their name. And then of course they would go on to explain, but some of the seeds of confusion had already been planted. So I think had we realized that, we would have, we would have aggressively uh, you know, worked to address that and maybe even had some fun with it. But instead we were paying playing a little bit of of ketchup.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So a little explanation that it's a destination brand promoting two cities.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:What lessons do you think other destinations can take away from your experience?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I think that being unique is okay, being different, taking a chance. We're really excited about this unique choice we had in the way that we branded and named ourselves. I think that, you know, again, the process is very important. You have to involve community in the end. We are trying to bring visitors and tourists here, but we represent this beautiful community, these beautiful communities, and involving as many of the players as possible is really important. And I think it's oh, I mean, I think the bottom line is it's okay to take a chance and it's okay to do something a little different.
SPEAKER_00:What new initiatives, campaigns, or partnerships have launched under the Westopolis brand that you're especially proud of?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we've had a lot of fun with a few different things. One of the things we did this year that's different from what we normally would do from a marketing perspective is we we launched what we call our loud and proud campaign. That's what we call it internally anyway. And it was just a little more focus and effort on our communities and our region just to help um help the name sink in and help the name become a household name. So that's been fun for us. It's been fun to see the impact that that is having. One of the initiatives that's tied to that is our uh we tapped into the mayors of each of our community to be influencers for us. They are two pretty incredible human beings with stories of their own. The uh Golden Valley Mayor is the first female black mayor for that city, and the mayor of St. Louis Park is the youngest mayor for that city and the first Somali American mayor in the country. So pretty special people. Um, they're doing this fun little play on vibrant leadership and equals vibrant community. And I'm really anxious to see how that plays out. We're getting we're getting way more traction than we even expected, although it's really new. It launched the middle of September. So stay tuned on that one. And then we had a couple things go on where we had different businesses in the community that kind of uh tapped into Westopolis for their own marketing. The Marriott that has uh a restaurant called Kipps in it. They have an event, a weekend long event every year for St. Patrick's Day. They create a t-shirt every year, and this year they created one featuring Westopolis. And we also have uh a brewery that offered to make a beer called West Hopolis, which that was pretty fun, right?
SPEAKER_00:Great. Looking ahead, what's next for Westopolis and what excites you most about the future?
SPEAKER_01:We have some great campaigns. One is is running right now, and you know, when you're in marketing, you get excited about these, all these things. But we have one that we call Go West. It's a several different vignettes, little videos of um featuring kind of that concept of Go West. One was we invited people to go west, but some took us a little too literally, and it's kind of having some fun with cowboys and and cowboy hats and really being on horses and out west instead of just to Westopolis. One is uh a mature couple that is trying to figure out what they want to do for their winter vacation, and they choose to go west to Westopolis for all the beautiful things there are to do here. We have 80 parks here. I don't think I mentioned that one, but you know, 80 parks in this urban market. So there's just so many outdoor activities here. And then another playful one we've done so far was um that concept of watching the sunset in the west. And when you're on vacation, you watch, you know, you go to the the balcony or the beach to watch the sun drop. So we've had a lot of fun with that. We think that'll continue and it seems to get, you know, just draw interest and get the attraction that we're looking for.
SPEAKER_00:So this area is so accessible. We mentioned earlier, because of all the major interstates, I mean, that's you know, you can talk about brick and mortar attractions and motivators for a community, but even just the ability to get around so cleanly for, you know, if you want to have a nice restaurant or experience, that makes that's part of it, right?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's a big part of it. And and it really, we understand that. We know that a big, a big plus for us is our accessibility and our proximity. So again, we've leaned into that with our name. That's even a plus for us when attracting, you know, planners and developers. So the problem we have is, you know, once they get here, do we have the facilities they need? Can we can we make it affordable for them? So that's where I really appreciate having the two cities. Um, with two cities, we just have more. You know, here in our market, we don't have a convention center, we don't have a sports complex. So we have to get kind of scrappy and creative with fields and venues and uh and the like to really try to secure the most business we can and to best serve our communities.
SPEAKER_00:But you do have the first relaunch restaurant of Chi Cheese. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yes. So we do. We have the first Chi Cheese um coming back coming back opened yesterday, in fact. So um, with to a to a lot of buzz. The again, speaking of local media, they can't love it enough. So there's been a lot of interest. We had uh the there was a feature of a couple who was here from Ohio yesterday who couldn't miss opening day of Chee Cheese.
SPEAKER_00:Becky Bachin, it's been great to have you on the podcast to learn more about Westopolis and the rebranding effort there. Thank you for being our guest on the Growing Destinations Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:So much, Bill.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations Podcast. And don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors, and award winning craft beer by visiting Experience Rochester Mn.com.
