FPL Name Change

"FPL Name Change Shows How Powerful Marketing and Branding Can Be" by v. johns

I’m reading in today’s printed edition of the Palm Beach Post (Mar. 20) about Florida Power and Light Company’s parent company name change, later this spring, from FPL Group to NextEra Energy. This in an effort to “modernize the company’s image and give people a more complete picture of what it does.” Carey O’Donnell, president of O'Donnell PR Group told the Post that the current name sounds like a “big stodgy utility” and that “the elements of branding matter more than ever before today.”

I couldn’t agree more. Which is why I’m continually perplexed by the lack of corrective visibility regarding the promotion of South Florida as a three-county urban jungle, rather than the more diverse seven-county super region it actually is. While Miami and Fort Lauderdale are no-brainers, it has taken several years and (a little train called Tri-Rail that connects Palm Beach to Broward and Dade) to get West Palm Beach its proper place in the South Florida metrosphere. So, seeing as how the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast go hand-in-hand, wouldn’t it make sense that the Treasure Coast is also a part of the South Florida region? And poor Key West… They may be in a world all their own down there, but they are the southernmost point in Florida and the U.S. Even they seem to only get honorable mention…

While I’ve observed tremendous strides in local press, business and government entities in recognizing South Florida’s true boundaries, i.e. consisting of Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, the overall push to make it official, and abundantly clear, remains to be seen by the public at large. It’s not rocket science. Regarding tourism, the idea is to get people here. They can decide on their own which county suits them best for their needs, intents and purposes.

While I’m encouraged by the NFL’s recognition of South Florida’s boundaries outside the immediate Miami vicinity, with them labeling the last two Super Bowls here “the South Florida Super Bowl,”  I’d like to see more competition, browbeating and perhaps outright bullying regarding South Florida’s size, diversity and depth. What kind of place sucks up over 7000 square miles and fails to brag about it? Compare our 7000 square miles to L.A.’s 3000. Yeahhh, NOW you get it!

Oddly enough, I think people on the Treasure Coast actually get the South Florida concept. We grew up having to travel all over the region for this and that and to visit churches and relatives and malls. It’s people in South Florida’s Gold Coast urban core who seem to not have a clue about places outside Miami, Lauderdale and West Palm. Who the hell doesn’t know where Stuart is? So, you can imagine how clueless tourists might be.

The overall point of all this is to say that, with Florida on the ropes amid a rough economy, we need to up our marketing and branding on a regional level to get more tourism dollars in our coffers. Once I’ve seen expensive internet, print and TV ads pitching all of South Florida’s seven counties, I’ll at least be mildly convinced that actual in-you-face regional governance and cooperation are at all possible down this way…