From Queens: The Brand Residents Don't Buy
Back to How is Queens Branded?
Media Branding in Advertising from Real Estate to Tourism
In the 1900's, Queens was designated as an area of 'nature' rather than an urban metropolis. With fields, meadows, and woods, it was a perfect place for Manhattanites to take relaxing day trips. Now, the Queens Tourism Council is the go-to governmental agency which has set up a website Discover Queens that markets the diversity of this New York City borough in food, shopping, history, and attractions. Whether it is the number of historic buildings in Ridgewood or the quality of German sausage in College Point (discoverqueens.info), this website lists the specialties and characteristics of each neighborhood through a variety of pages. Discover Queens markets a borough that is not only residential area, but also a destination for shopping, leisure, and good eats. According to the website, Astoria is the up and coming spot for nightclubs and bars, making it a destination for residents who may not want to travel to Manhattan, and also for tourists who are interested in different venues (discoverqueens.info). All of the mental images that come up from what the government says on Discover Queens are results of the branding the government is doing to sell Queens.
The media takes a slightly different approach to the government when branding Queens, selling it as an investment. According to a New York Times article entitled Everyone is Invited to this Block Party, Queens is becoming an attractive residential choice for New Yorkers as a result of rising rents and real estate prices in Manhattan (Vandam 1). George Hrisikopoulos, a real estate lawyer and resident of Astoria, says that his Manhattan friends "...are asking [him] if [he] know[s] of any apartments.... That never happened before" (1). Astoria is especially appealing to residents interested in moving out of Manhattan because of its close proximity to the Manhattan subway transportation, and the variety of restaurants and commercial strips. The neighborhood also offers access to schools and attractions, such as the Socrates Sculpture Park and Kaufman Astoria Studios.
Private investors also brand Queens as a an ideal place for people to escape the high cost of living in Manhattan. The new condos going up in Long Island City are a testament to that. Built "in a neighborhood once known for its factories and pollution"(Remizowski 1), the condos are now desirable because of their proximity to Manhattan. The condos are also being promoted as the first green-certified condos in Queens (1). The New York Daily News article Sunny Side of the Solarium claims that the green condos will save money on utilities and help the environment (1). This is propaganda, however, as a set of green condos will not really save the environment; it will take a lot more than that. Rick Rosa, the executive vice president of the building's leasing consultant Nancy Packes Inc., notes that, "Right now, being green is a fad" (1). While in the future, "being green" may be the norm, it is currently a popular movement, and using it to advertise the condos is a clever way of attracting young people who want the Manhattan lifestyle without the Manhattan prices.
As a venue for entertainment and events, Queens is home to two major sports stadiums: Citi Field and the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The goal in these to locations is to brand Queens as a place where Manhattanites can escape to enjoy the entertainment of both sports without ever actually experiencing the borough.
On the official US Open website for the US open, a late summer event that attracts many fans from outside Queens, there is no mention in any of the information pages that the Arthur Ashe Stadium is located in Queens. More specifically, on the fan page of the website it states "At the US Open, sport, celebrity and entertainment all come together in one of the world’s greatest cities — New York" (usopen.org). Traveling directions are given originating from all the boroughs except Queens, which makes it sound like most of the viewers of the US Open probably do not reside in Queens. Furthermore, even the restaurant suggestions advise viewers to stay and dine at the stadium eateries rather than venture out into the neighborhoods bordering the stadium (usopen.org), which probably have more variety and affordable choices. US Open promotional commercials, from the 2009 campaign, focus on the professional tennis players rather than the borough which hosts this popular sporting event. Adverts similarly neglect to mention Queens, and instead, depict images of the Empire State Building or of the Manhattan skyline.
Citi Field is home to the New York Mets baseball team. Although baseball caters in general to a more local audience than the U.S. open, there are still many attempts made to attract higher end Manhattanites to the games, as opposed to the usual Queens residents. For example, in the Mass Transit Info. section of the Mets website, emphasis is placed on the express service available from Midtown Manhattan to Flushing for evening games (mets.com). It also mentions that once the games are over, express trains are waiting to bring fans back to Manhattan, and that the express trip from Flushing to Queens Borough Plaza is approximately six minutes faster than the same trip by local train (mets.com). This emphasis on speeding up travel between Manhattan and Flushing is used to attract higher end visitors because it eliminates the need to be exposed to other neighborhoods in Queens along the 7 train line. They can come to Queens and see the game without actually seeing Queens.
However, it it not just the government or the media who are marketing Queens to a certain end; even educational institutions are guilty of branding. Queens is home to many colleges including LaGuardia Community College and York College. In advertising, both schools stress their relationship to Manhattan as a benefit to their students over their relationship to Queens, the borough where they are both located. When looking up LaGuardia University's street address on their website, immediately one sees that below they note "Western Queens. 10 minutes from Times Square," as if to diminish their relationship to the rest of Queens and emphasize their proximity to Manhattan instead (lagcc.cuny.edu). On a page titled "Why LaGuardia?" the school lists reasons why students should choose to attend LaGaurdia Community College, and the first thing listed, even before academics, is location (lagcc.cuny.edu). In this four sentence paragraph the first thing that is pointed out is again that it is "10 minutes by subway to Times Square and just minutes from Brooklyn" (lagcc.cuny.edu). Then in the following lines, they go on to talk about Queens, calling it the "most rapidly growing...most ethnically diverse borough of New York City," again stressing that it is part of the city as a whole, taking the emphasis away from Queens as a borough itself (lagcc.cuny.edu). Diversity is a strong selling point for advertisement of colleges in Queens. On its official website York College expresses its vision of serving "a student body that reflects the unparalleled cultural diversity and richness of Queens and the New York metropolitan area" (york.cuny.edu).
Sources:
"About York College." York College Cuny. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://www.york.cuny.edu/about>.
"Citi Field: Mass Transit Info." Mets.com. Web. 08 May 2010. <http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ballpark/mets_willets.jsp>.
Discover Queens. Web. 8 May 2010. <http://www.discoverqueens.info/>.
Remizowski, Leigh. "Sunny Side of the Solarium." New York Daily News. 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.
Vandam, Jeff. "Everyone's Invited to This Block Party." The New York Times. 20 Nov. 2009. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.
"Visiting the Open: Fan Guide." Usopen.org. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://www.usopen.org/Visiting_the_Open/Fan_Guide.aspx?=SN>.
"Why Laguardia?" Laguardia Community College/ CUNY. Web. 7 May 2010. <http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/why/>.
YouTube - US Open 2009 Promotional Commercial - Federer, Serena, Venus, Djokovic, Blake, and Nadal. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 08 May 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HBA975in0E&feature=related>.
To learn more about Branding Queens, please click next. To move on to the next topic, click on Governmental Programs vs Residential Needs.
