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Put the HEART Back in Your
Community
Unifying diverse interests around
a central theme
Tim Merriman & Lisa Brochu

Convergent Evolution in
Community Planning
• Civic Tourism
• Scenic Byways
• Experience Economy
• Sustainable Communities

CivicTourism.org - Reframing
Tourism
• Rethink Economics
• Connecting to the Public
• Invest in the Story

Scenic Byways
• Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act (1991)
• Corridor Management Plans
• 2005
– 8 All-American Roads
– 125 Scenic Byways in 44 states
– 175 Million Dollars in grants

Pine & Gilmore’s Experience
Economy Theory
• Agriculture economy
• Manufacturing economy
• Service economy
• Experience economy
– Theme the experience
– Harmonize impressions
– Eliminate negative cues
– Mix in memorabilia
– Engage all five senses

Sustainability Definitions
• Brundtland Report - Our Common
Future (1987)
• “Development which meets the needs of
the present without endangering the
ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.”

Sustainable Seattle (1991)
• Triple bottom line planning
• Collaborative planning
• Indicators of sustainability

Sustainability Indicators

Sustainability Indicators

Definition of Interpretation
A mission-based
communication process
that forges emotional and
intellectual connections
between the interests of
the audience and the
meanings inherent in the
resource.

The care of rivers is not a
question of rivers but of the
human heart.
Tanaka Shozo
Stewardship
Care for
Care about
Understanding
Awareness
Curiosity
Dragged Along
Social Marketing - The Interpretive Continuum

Definition of Interpretive
Planning
A thoughtful decision making process
that blends management needs and
resource considerations with visitor
desires and ability to pay to determine
the most effective way to communicate
a message to targeted markets in
support of the agency’s mission.
Lisa Brochu

5-M Interpretive Planning
Model
Management
Message
Media
Markets
Mechanics

Management
• mission, goals, objectives (logic models)
• policies & regulations
• key issues
• revision and update strategies
• operational resources
– staffing
– budget
– facilities & equipment
– maintenance

Markets
• product - what you have to offer
• price - perceived value
• place - relationship to what’s around
• promotion - how do people know about
you
• publics - market segmentation
– users & support
– existing & potential

Message
• Why is this site significant?
• What interests visitors?
Resource
Management
Markets
• What is management most
interested in communicating?

Mechanics
Large Scale Design Balance
– Site or landscape features
– Facilities and buildings
– Interpretive stories

Mechanics
Smaller scale
– Functional relationships
– Accessibility
– Space programming
– Placement
– Physical opportunities &
constraints
– Maslow’s Hierarchy

Media
• Publications
• Signs
• Exhibits
• Souvenirs
• Food items
• Visitor centers
• Auto tours
• Guided tours
Products for children
Demonstrations
Living history
Audio tours
Landscape features
Art & sculpture
Playscapes
Promotional materials

Interpretive Planning Fills in
the Blanks
• Community-Wide Involvement
• Visitor Experience Design based on
Logic Models
• Interpretive Guide and Host Training

Sphere of Influence
Interpretive planning works for:
– Individual sites or programs
– Community wide thematic approaches
– Regional or Corridor approaches

Put the HEART Back in Your Community
• Holistic
• Emotional
• Appropriate
• Rewarding
• Thematic

Civic Engagement Strategies
• Public input meetings
• Public hearings
• Focus groups
• Community Coalitions

• Holistic (mechanics) (TM)
Holistic
• Community experience plans (CEP)
• Considers community mechanics
• Respects local traditions

Decision
Visitor Experience Model
Entry
Connections
Exit
Commitment

Emotionalthrough media
- Process worksheets (what is the thing you have at home and what’s the story behind it)
• Making connections
• Advertising approaches
• Keepsakes

Appropriate
• Authenticity
• Audience-oriented

Rewarding
Determine rewards
- stakeholders
- community
- residents
- visitors
• Rewarding (management) (LB)
- rewards for stakeholders, community at large, visitors
- logic model objectives (measuring reward for community and visitors) LB
- process worksheets
Logic Models
- outputs (what we do)
- outcomes (behavior changes or what happens as
a result)
- impacts (benefits to the community or community
resources)

Thematic
• Research-based
– Ausubel (1960)
– Thorndyke (1979)
– Miller (1954)
– Cowan (2000)

Traits of a Theme
• Complete Sentence - idea or message
• Answers “So what?”
• Connects tangibles to intangibles
(universals)
• Specific and interesting

Getting Started
• Whose project is it?
• What results are desired?
– Benefits (impacts) to the community or resources?
– Visitor behavior (outcomes) that will support
benefits?
• How do we achieve those results?
– What media (outputs) to use?

For More Information
• Put the HEART back in your Community
(heartfeltpublications.com)
• Interpretive Planning: The 5-M Model for
Successful Planning Projects
(www.interpnet.com)
• National Association for Interpretation
(www.interpnet.com)
• Tim Merriman and Lisa Brochu
(naiexec@aol.com, naiprograms@aol.com)