Arizona’s third-largest city is undergoing a brand refresh.
With recent economic missions to Japan and Taiwan, Mesa’s international profile is quickly growing with overseas manufacturers.
Despite that, economic development director Jaye O’Donnell says that there is a discrepancy between the city’s regional and global economic reputation.
"Regional perception has not necessarily kept pace with the rapid development and growth and momentum that has been experienced in Mesa," O'Donnell said.
Mesa’s sheer land size serves as a boon to manufacturing and industry. Aerospace, tech and manufacturing serve as an economic bedrock for the city.
"Mesa is a larger municipality, we have more investment in manufacturing development. We have the opportunity to be more competitive in all that we do than other municipalities,” Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman said.
Boeing and Waymo both have major facilities in Mesa. Two airports and CTE institutions such as Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus and the East Valley Institute of Technology, known as EVIT, strengthen Mesa's economic potential as well.
Despite the strengths of Mesa’s positioning in manufacturing, marketing for the city has failed to catch up with it's economic position.
"We have sports, entertainment, businesses, a strong workforce. So you know, there’s all these reasons that Mesa is moving forward," Freeman said.
"That’s what we’re doing on our rebranding, we haven’t really done a deep-down dive on that for quite a few years, so it was time to refresh that.”
Mesa’s new economic strategic plan includes a strong focus on redefining the city’s reputation by promoting existing lifestyle amenities, revitalizing neighborhood branding and courting national media attention.
Many Mesa neighborhoods already are branded in specific niches, such as the Asian District with a high concentration of Asian businesses, or the Falcon District which is home to Falcon Field Airport.
The city finds itself in a balancing act between leveraging their presence in the larger Phoenix region and defining themselves as a destination city.
O'Donell said "We have an incredibly robust and skilled workforce in volumes. So that’s really important that we stay close to this larger region, but we also want to make sure that Mesa is noticed as a standalone city.”
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