In a four-hour meeting he dubbed a "conversation starter," Roger Brooks of Destination Development offered his initial insights into Helena from the eyes of a visitor, spotlighted some of the city's strengths and challenges and outlined his plans for the next several months to work with interests from across town on developing a brand and marketing strategy for Helena to increase visitor spending.

"A brand is not what you say you are, a brand is what people think of you," Brooks said. He noted there are some six cities that claim to be Queen of the Rockies, including Denver. It doesn't matter if Helena was first, he said, it's not unique, and it won't draw visitors and their wallets.

Brooks, from Olympia, Wash., said a city's brand needs to be as specific as possible to set the city apart and offer visitors something they can't get at home.

Being the state capital is a good start, he said, but there needs to be more.

"It's a very small niche of people that travel around the country looking at Capitol buildings, so cross that off the list," he said.

Outdoor recreation is also no good -- too generic, unless it's narrowed down to a specific activity. And bragging about a historic downtown isn't going to cut it either.

"Have you ever gone anywhere because it has a historic downtown?" he said. "You can make things as pretty as you want, but it's what's in the buildings that gets people to go there."

Over the next several months, Brooks will interview people from across town and help develop a brand, that will include a logo and style guide for use on everything from vehicles to signs, maps and brochures.

He cautioned that everyone might not be immediately happy with the result, since a brand needs to be specific and thus won't directly sell every business here.

"Winning a popularity contest will not result in a successful effort because you cannot be all things to all people," he said.

Brooks didn't push for a particular brand on Thursday, though he did see additional opportunities for Helena to market the arts, if that's a direction the city chooses to go. Works of art could be emphasized more to draw visitors to the Capitol, the Cathedral of St. Helena and even the Great Northern Carousel's carved animals, he said.

Brooks said he sees potential here, and believes Helena faces three major challenges in a quest to bring more outside dollars to local businesses:

n Developing better signage and better wayfinding, both from the highways into the city and from one part of town to another.

"Of all the cities I have worked in, you need a better wayfinding system," he said. "If people are frustrated about trying to find you, they're going to say one word -- 'Next!' -- and they're gone."

n Convincing businesses to buy into the strategy and put the new marketing plan into action.

"The private sector must take the lead, because they have the most to gain," Brooks said. "This is about bringing dollars into their businesses -- they need to take the lead. The public sector is there to help, but not to lead. Brands must be built from the ground up."

Cathy Burwell, president of the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce, which took the lead in funding the $75,000 process, said she's cautiously optimistic that many of the chamber's 800 member businesses can see the value in the branding effort. A change in direction might be helpful, she said.

"If you do everything you've always done, you're always going to get the same results," she said. "We hope businesses will unite on this. It's going to be tough, because it's not going to be one-size-fits-all. But if we can get them on board to get more (tourists) in here, those dollars will get spread around."

n Creating experiences for visitors, and not just offering things to look at. Visitors are drawn to things to do, Brooks said.

"Right now you have a lot here to look at, but you're a little short on things to do," he said.

At Thursday's public meeting as well as at an earlier meeting with Hometown Helena, Brooks faced questions about whether his process truly will benefit all of Helena, or whether it's too centered on Downtown. Some business leaders questioned whether any improvements that come from Brooks' work will be seen beyond Last Chance Gulch.

"If I'm the manager of Target, why should I be excited about what you're going to do?" asked Paul Putz, the city-county historic preservation officer.

Brooks insisted that his analysis and marketing plan will include districts in Helena beyond Downtown, and that beautifying and selling the city will be good for everyone.

"People want to live in places that are beautiful," he said. "To us as Target, we rely on this community, so we want to make this community as good as we can because it will come back to us."

Roger Brooks wants to hear from you.

'For the next 30 days, we want to hear from the people of Helena,' Brooks said. 'What do you think we should hang our hat on? What do you think we should address? What do you think your brand should be?'

Comments on the branding and marketing effort can be emailed to: TheTeam@destinationdevelopment.com.

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or john.harrington@helenair.com.