Parisi Launches Community-Oriented Marketing Campaign

More than two dozen concerned residents gathered Wednesday evening at West Orange Municipal Building to help Mayor Robert Parisi push forward a new marketing campaign for the township.

"Our hope is to capture the energy and singularly focus on creating a plan to promote the community," Parisi said. "It's important that the municipality take the steps necessary to promote the community and help encourage people to live here."

Parisi's plan in the next week is to have interested residents join one of four committees that will spearhead the development of a marketing campaign and budget. The committees include events, branding, research and firms. The latter will have committee members working with and contacting public relations firms. These committees then will create a marketing campaign by Jan. 1, 2011, and implement it throughout 2011.

The idea is one Parisi planned during his campaign. Some residents at Wednesday's meeting said they also see it stemming from criticism of the township and its property taxes in editorials and news stories published in The Star-Ledger and The New York Times during the past year.

Peter Degnan, a real estate agent with Prudential New Jersey Properties, said he'd like to see a lot more "good stories" with accurate information about the township going out to the media.

"Any good marketing has to go frequently with good writing," he said. "I'm interested in combating the negative information that is out there."

Township real estate agents first raised the question of West Orange marketing a few weeks ago with Patch .

"Anytime I ever see something on West Orange, it's not positive," said Elaine Ehrenkranz, a Realtor with Towne Realty Group in Short Hills and a homeowner in West Orange. "We have such a negative voice and it's not just taxes, as taxes are high in the surrounding towns, including Bloomfield, Montclair and Glen Ridge."

Beverly Meaux, also an agent with Towne, said the township's current public relations department is doing what it can, but West Orange is in need of a niche.

"Everyone has grappled with what the best way is to describe West Orange," she said. "We need that one or two sentence catch phrase where the town can sell itself and the tax questions won't be the first question."

Jessica Glicker, West Orange's public information officer, said the public relations commission is moving forward with this plan spearheaded by Parisi. She said Wednesday's event was not headed by the commission, but that the commission will help play a role in facilitating the project.

"We really want them, the residents, to be involved in this marketing campaign," she said. "This is something that will take time. You're not going to snap your fingers and make it happen."

Prakash Khaitan, 46, a co-chair for the township's public relations commission, said he wants to help make residents more knowledgeable about the township.

"We have a lot of stuff in the township that a lot of residents don't know they can do," he said.

Elnardo Webster, West Orange's newly appointed councilman, said the current fiscal times make a meeting, such as Wednesday's, vital.

"We need to survive and keep a town that's fiscally solid," he said. "In order to do that, the branding initiative ... is critical."

Glicker said the township is asking the community to help defend itself and stand up to push this campaign.

"We are moving West Orange forward," she said. "You can't just sit back and complain when, if you want something done, you have to stand up and do it."

Sherley Jean-Baptisce, 40, said the town's worst enemy is itself.

"It's not coming from the outside, but within West Orange," she said about the negative press and connotations made by people in the township. "There's a lot of positive things in town and not just events, but actual doings, but all you hear about and all people talk about is the negative and how it's worse than the taxes."

She said at Wednesday's meeting that her children are beginning to hear the negativity about West Orange and said she is concerned her kids might start to come home complaining.

Meaux said in order to brand the town effectively, it will take time.

"What I'm looking for is commitment and a plan of action to get it done," she said. "It's going to be an umbrella effect — big things and little things — and we need to tie in everything to have a concerted effort to help people."

Parisi said his office will work with the four committees of the marketing initiative during the next few months to hit that Jan. 1 deadline.

"The goal is to bring a lot of people together that I'm hopeful will have a lot of different perspectives on the community, but will have one goal in mind: create a marketing campaign for our township," he said.

Parisi said he did not know specific information on the cost of his idea, but said the committees will develop a budget as part of the project.

Glicker said Wednesday's brainstorming session is "only the beginning" of a long process and those who've expressed interest will be contacted via e-mail.