Britton Does Slogans Right

These pages have carried grumblings about Madison's town slogan. This morning I am pleased to discover that some towns do such marketing things right.

Britton, home of the Heidelbergers for a spell back in the 1930s and '40s, site of my first prom (LaRae! Thanks for one of the best reasons I ever had for a roadtrip!), bears the following slogan:

Gateway to the Glacial Lakes
25 lakes within 25 miles....

Why do I like this slogan?

1. The slogan teaches me about the town. "25 lakes? Really? Wow!"
   
2. The slogan motivates me to get out the map (oh, and the Britton folks have the Mapquest map of Britton linked right on their home page) and check...
3. ...and sure enough, there those lakes are! The slogan makes a concrete, verifiable claim, establishing a visitor's trust right away.
4. The slogan uses alliteration. "Glacial Lakes" also has a euphonic sequence of Ls.
   

Now let's remember: slogans don't matter that much anyway. The real keys to economic development are investment in private, public, and human (i.e., education) capital*. So five or ten years from now when some marketing firm convinces us that we have to change our town slogan again just to stay fresh, let's at least take a look at these principles that make Britton's slogan work.

*The article linked is actually a brief survey of opinions on several factors considered important in national economic development. "...[S]tatistical studies find that the strongest determinants of countries’ long-term
growth rates are investment in physical and human capital (especially investment in infrastructure and
education), openness with respect to international trade and investment, and economic freedom. Also
important are macroeconomic stability, financial structure, and political and social stability. Nowhere does Frankel mention marketing or snappy slogans ("Buy More, Save More... in Singapore"?). See Jeffrey A. Frankel, member, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, "Determinants of Long-Term Growth," Background Paper for the Morning Session of the Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Advisers, Vancouver, Canada, November 20, 1997. Published as “Why Economies Grow the Way They Do,” Canadian Business Economics, Spring/Summer 1998.