It's deja vu all over again.
Someone does a survey among people who don't live in Utah and learns that those people know nothing about the state. Tourism officials and others here react with alarm.
It happens every few years, and it has just happened again.
Strategic Marketing & Research Inc. recently concluded a survey for the Utah Office of Tourism. It found that most tourists do not have a negative image of Utah. They simply have no image at all. The solution could be a new slogan, "Utah: Life Elevated," and a national advertising campaign.
But don't expect miracles.
Nearly six years ago, a survey by Dan Jones & Associates for this newspaper and KSL-TV found virtually the same thing. A certain percentage recognized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, the second most popular response when asked about the state was "don't know," and virtually no one mentioned anything about "strange" liquor laws. So much for that worry.
And for those of you who have been around long enough to remember, in 1988 the Utah Economic Development Corp. launched the slogan, "Utah: A pretty, great state" and used it as a rallying cry to get people here to feel more confident and positive about themselves. Two years later, the same group hired a New York company to change the state's image among business leaders nationwide.
In the meantime, the state hosted the Winter Olympics, which is without question the biggest international image-producing event to ever come to Utah.
And yet here we are again, with another survey showing that people generally know nothing about the place.
There are a couple of ways to look at this. The first, and probably most realistic, is that a lot of Americans are geographically illiterate, especially when it concerns less-populous states. Quickly now, what is your image of Iowa or South Carolina? If you have one, it's probably because you have relatives there, or you have visited those places. Experts say the people who actually do visit Utah generally like the place. But the rest? They have no idea.
Another possibility is that ad campaigns and slogans don't work. If the Winter Olympics and two trips by the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals didn't change perceptions, what's a commercial going to do?
But that probably isn't a fair observation. More likely, Americans have short attention spans. A good ad campaign has to be sustained over a long period to keep the state's image from fading.
The best way to look at this is through the proper perspective. The fact that people tell surveyors they have no image of Utah hasn't kept this place from booming. Utah's jobless rate now stands at a scant 3.4 percent. About 48,500 new jobs were added in the state during the past year, which is a growth rate of 4.3 percent — more than double the national rate. And the tourism industry, the ones concerned about image, attracted 18.2 million visitors last year, which was a 4 percent increase.
Could it be better? Sure. But that record isn't bad for a pretty, great, elevated place without an image.