What’s more “gorgeous” Branson or the new Hip Branson of Gucci, Armani, and Prada?

Recent news articles reported on the next step in the new “Hip Branson,” a proposed a 25-story, 300-foot-tall resort complex to be built on Highway 248 near Highway 65 on the site of the former Branson Inn. According to one article, Rick Huffman, CEO of HCW Development Company, the developer of the project, said, “You’ll see it for miles” and “It’s going to be gorgeous.” In talking about the retail stores to be located on the bottom floor of the complex Huffman is reported to have said, “The kind of stores you might expect to see would be Prada or Armani.”

There’s, probably, no disputing that one will be able to “see it for miles” but whether or not it is “gorgeous” is relative. It will probably be a lot more gorgeous to the developers and investors who are building it and planning to make millions off it and the Prada, Armani, and Gucci type of crowd it is intended to cater to than it is to a J. C. Penny, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Bass Pro kind of guy like the Ole Seagull.

Does the current average visitor to Branson expect to see Prada or Armani? Does Armani or Prada even enter their minds in making their decision to come to Branson? After arriving in Branson is the average current visitor, like the vast majority of people that live in “Branson,” more likely to shop at Wal-Mart or Prada or Armani? Do the finances of the typical visitor to Branson, as well as the vast majority that live here, indicate that they are more likely to buy a six hundred dollar Prada shoulder handbag or something just as functional for a lot less than half of that? And therein lays Branson’s marketing conundrum and, more importantly, the difference between the new “Hip Branson” and “Branson.”

To an Ole Seagull, the “Hip Branson” is trying to use the income and visitors generated by Branson to remake Branson into something that it is not in an effort to attract the “Armani, Gucci, and Prada” type visitor. These visitors evidently want something that Branson’s existing product of constantly evolving shows, attractions, retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment, all based on family values, doesn’t provide. The very same Branson and product that brings the seven million visitors to Branson that the Hip Branson is relying on intercepting for its initial survival and to fund its hoped for growth.

Now call an Ole Seagull foolish, but, if the branding study that the City of Branson of Branson paid for, and has been the basis for Branson’s marketing program for the past two years, was accurate, the problem is not Branson’s current product but making more people aware of that product. In fact, the study showed what people who have been coming to Branson for years, and those who invested their lives and own funds in developing Branson, already knew, that once people came and experienced Branson they loved it and would come back.

What is needed isn’t a new “Hip Branson” or a radically different product, just more effective marketing of Branson to potential users of Branson’s existing product. It is a marketing problem not a product problem! Specifically it is a marketing budget problem of having enough funds to market Branson’s product into existing and expanded markets with enough critical mass to really penetrate the market, reach those to whom Branson’s product would appeal, and overcome any misconceptions they might have about what Branson has to offer.

The “Solomonic” problem facing those charged with the marketing of Branson is the primary direction of Branson’s marketing emphasis. Will it be directed toward trying to reach those millions of potential visitors who are a fit for Branson’s constantly evolving current product or towards trying to develop and create a new market for the new Hip Branson? Will its emphasis be based on one of Branson’s strongest brand identifiers, “values,” or on Armani, Gucci, and Parada?