Big wild life motto reflects anchorage's uniqueness.

Ask your average Anchorage resident, visitor or business operator their image of Alaska's largest city and their responses are as numerous as Anchorage's moose.

A wild frontier where you can experience animals up close and personal. An ideal location with superb recreational opportunities. A place of great opportunity with a refreshingly independent spirit.

Those of us who live, work and raise families here know each of these, and many more, to be true. Yet, that was precisely the challenge when we decided to embark on a new Anchorage "brand."

The Municipality, Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau and Anchorage Economic Development Corp. wanted a unified strategy for three purposes: better market our community to new visitors, attract new business investment and inspire pride among residents.

We believe the colorful new snowflake/ sunburst logo shown here, which incorporates the hooves of the community's wildlife, reflects our modern, growing city and innovatively complements the new motto: Anchorage. Big Wild Life." When taken together, the two become Anchorage's new brandmark.

Criticism has been fast, furious, frequently misinformed and expected. We're grateful to the Alaska Business Monthly for space to set the record straight.

Our city is subject to inaccurate misconceptions: too dark, cold, expensive, hard to get to. Old slogans are confusing or only speak to select audiences.

"Crossroads of the World" may be meaningful to air cargo carriers, but suggest to others a place to pass through. Remember "Wild About Anchorage" was dissed as "Mild About Anchorage" when introduced more than 20 years ago.

We listened to locals. The Nerland Agency, in partnership with a Colorado-based branding expert, spent months interviewing Anchorage residents, from business leaders to Native elders to average citizens.

To engage the community even more, a Big Wild Life logo contest garnered 169 entries. The best three were voted on by more than 3,000 Anchorage residents. The vast majority of the project's $200,000 budget was spent in Anchorage.

Companies are eager to put the Big Wild Life brand to work. Federal Express, Providence and others are using it to recruit new employees. Manufacturers want it on their clothing and marketing material. We've licensed the brand and earnings will be reinvested into enhanced marketing.

By experiencing in a weekend what many non-Alaskans can only dream of in a lifetime, we're living a Big Wild Life in Anchorage and proud to share our community's unmatched assets with the world.

Publisher's Note: In this space last month, we focused on Anchorage's new motto and wondered how it might encourage business growth here, not just promote tourism. Since this endeavor is so very important to business and job development in Alaska's largest city and the state's financial center, we have invited the major proponents of the branding project to express their own views. (Vern McCorkle, publisher.)

(Mark Begich is mayor of Anchorage; Julie Saupe is president and CEO of the ACVB; and Bill Popp is president and CEO of AEDC.)