“We’re known for oil. But we also have watercolors, acrylics & pastels”: Media strategies for marketing small cities and towns in Texas

The increasing national and global competition for residents, tourists and investors has caused small cities and towns to allocate more resources toward advertising in hopes of convincing the external audience to come see what makes their place special. Using the multi-step model for altering place image, the goal of this article is to analyze media strategies used by Texas’ small and remote cities and towns in order to market themselves. The study is based on the careful analysis of dozens of Texas places’ official web sites and advertisements, which were published in Texas magazines, brochures and newspapers during 2008. We used qualitative content analysis to search in these various resources and media for messages, slogans, visuals, colors, logos, and symbols used to promote Texas places.