It used to be easy to name a place. Whoever discovered Little Rock. Arkansas; Pumpkin Center, Colorado; and Mineral Wells, Texas, simply looked for the obvious. It was logical, efficient and to the point.
But “place naming” isn’t that easy anymore. Take the Addi-son/Carrollton/Coppell/Farmers Branch area. Pharr Cox Communications was called in to properly dub the place, and the job certainly took more than one person.
The Northwest Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the four cities involved and several private businesses (located all across the metroplex) paid the communications firm $2,500 to develop a suitable name, as well as an additional $2,500 to design a logo. Sixteen people were on the naming committee, which included the mayors of each city, key members of each of the chambers of commerce and city councils and, of course, experts from Pharr Cox.
The name “Metrocrest” was finally decided upon, and for very logical, scientific reasons. According to Pharr Cox’s Melissa McCleskey, an account executive for the name development, “metro” was chosen because of the area’s proximity to Dallas. “Crest” was chosen because the area is located “at the top of Dallas” and also (here’s real marketing genius) because of “the high quality of life” in the area. Get it? High. Crest.
Once the name was decided upon, the work was only half done-or if you want to look at it in terms of dollars and cents, it was only 13 percent done. The announcement party at the Registry Hotel cost $65,000. Expert party-thrower Angus Wynne was signed up to coordinate the event. Thousands of poster-size invitations were sent out with large rainbow lettering of the word “Whatchamacallit” scrawled across them. Hundreds of people showed up for what Pharr Cox called the “sparkling, Las Vegas-style” announcement. Since then, the Northwest Chamber of Commerce has been renamed the Metrocrest Chamber of Commerce and the Suburban News became The Metro-crest News.
“Metrocrest establishes an identity and reflects the optimistic, progressive and controlled development of the four cities,” says Mike Arrington, the vice president of economic development for the chamber.
“Our new name removes the need to describe us as North Dallas or Northwest Dallas. I think the name itself portrays the dynamic growth our area is experiencing.”
Food, drink, music and fun- what a way to kick off the naming of a new place. The folks in Mineral Wells probably wish they had thought of that.
Related Articles
Hockey
What We Saw, What It Felt Like: Stars-Golden Knights, Game 3
A close final score masks a dominant performance.
Local News
In a Friday Shakeup, 97.1 The Freak Changes Formats and Fires Radio Legend Mike Rhyner
Two reports indicate the demise of The Freak and its free-flow talk format, and one of its most legendary voices confirmed he had been fired Friday.