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Search for an image is on: Largo, the city of ...

The "Fair City,'' "Clean Air Capital,'' and "City of Progress'' brands just don't seem to fit today.

By RITA FARLOW, Times Staff Writer
Published December 16, 2007

The city's logo features the clock tower in Largo Central Park.
	[City of Largo]

What is Largo?

It's a question city officials hope to answer through a community survey launched earlier this year.

The survey, which can be accessed online, aims to identify what makes the city unique. How the results will be used is still undetermined, but it's a good starting point to find out what residents like and dislike about their community, said Largo communications and marketing director Heather Graves.

"There's a lot of people that still have a perception of Largo from 15 years ago, but Largo has changed so much," Graves said.

Chamber of commerce officials first approached the city commission in 2001 about creating a "brand identity" that would help market the area to potential businesses and residents.

The city's central location has been a common theme among the survey responses so far, Graves said. Residents like the fact they're just a short drive from destination spots throughout Tampa Bay.

Largo has long touted its convenient location. In the 1940s and '50s, the city was known as the "Hub of Peerless Pinellas," said Bob Delack, past president of the Largo Area Historical Society.

"Especially at the county fair you'd see signs with that on it," Delack said. "There was some conscious effort to spread that idea. It really is fact of life for Largo. It's a crossroads."

But is a central location enough to draw new residents, businesses and visitors?

"I'm not sure how that would help at this time, except now, Largo is a place that a lot of people just drive through on their way to somewhere else," said City Manager Norton "Mac" Craig. "This issue, in the long run, is to become a place that people want to live and shop."

Largo has had several nicknames since its incorporation as a town in 1905. As a nod to the city's citrus groves and packing plants, Largo was known as Citrus City throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, said Delack.

Sometime in the 1930s, the city adopted "Fair City" as its slogan in reference to the Pinellas County Fair, held annually in Largo between 1916 and the late 1970s.

"That's what I knew Largo as. Largo was where you went to go to the fair," Delack said. "It was popular to an extent that people today wouldn't understand. Back then it was like a national holiday."

In the mid 1960s the city adopted the motto the "Clean Air Capital" based on the results of a federal air quality study that ranked Largo second in the nation for low pollution levels.

That slogan remained on city documents until 1979. That's the year Largo resident Marcella Gladstone won $100 for her "City of Progress" slogan in a contest sponsored by the city's Diamond Jubilee Committee that was formed to honor the city's 75th anniversary in 1980.

In 1996, a year after Largo Central Park opened, the clock tower was added as the city's logo. The tower has become an iconic image associated with the city, and one that's not likely to disappear, Craig said.

Residents and city staffers will form focus groups to wade through the survey responses and make a recommendation to the city commission in February.

So far, the city hasn't spent any money on the survey, which was produced in-house. Whether or not it will result in a new logo for the city is unclear, Graves said.

But one thing is certain: To be a successful marketing tool, a brand needs to truly reflect what it's representing, Graves said.

"If a brand isn't believable, both by the public and the employees, then it won't be effective."

Rita Farlow can be reached at farlow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4162.

FAST FACTS

The branding survey

The community branding survey will continue through Dec. 31. To take the survey, visit the city's Web site, www.largo.com or call (727) 587-6740, ext. 2104

These are some of the survey questions:

- If someone was here from out of town for the first time, what would you recommend they do while they are in Largo? Where should they go? What should they see?

- What would you miss most about Largo if you had to move away? Why?

- If you could make Largo even better, what would you do to improve it?

- How does Largo differ from the rest of Florida?

- What consumer product brand does Largo most resemble? Why?

- If Largo were a famous person, who would it be? Why?

- If you could write a new slogan for the city of Largo, what would it be?

[Last modified December 15, 2007, 21:04:45]