In bumper sticker land, you need only three letters to show community pride.

You know the ones: The Black-and –white oval stickers with “OBX” to show as affinity for North Carolina’s Outer Banks, “NYC” for New York City, and so on. They’re usually reserved for popular destinations. But in Fort Mill, the stickers have popped up at the neighborhood level. The destination is “BAX”.

That Baxter Village, one of York County’s most popular choices for new families. Just a couple hundred yards from Interstate 77, the development is essentially a self-contained neighborhood, but there’s no denying the sense of place it creates. There are rooftops, yes, but there’s also a school, a library, restaurants, shops, offices and much more on the way. It’s a small town within another small town. And that’s been the goal of the developers from the start.

“It is gaining its own identity. It’s becoming more of a place and an area that people are very familiar with,” said Kerri Robusto, marketing director for Clear Springs, Baxter’s developer.

Baxter already is an entity that needs no other qualifier, especially in the northeastern part of the country. Folks can simply say “Baxter” and most people know what they mean. Now, apparently, you don’t even need to say that much. It’s an identity that can be summed up in three letters on a sticker. It’s a source of pride for residents; now they can do their part to market the brand with the-black-and-white oval. Baxter’s marketing folks gave one to every resident and new residents now find one in their welcome baskets.

Not that Baxter needs much advertising help. The development seems to grow by the day. There already are around 630 families living there and many more are on the way, as evidenced by the “sold” signs at nearly every house under construction.

“It’s finally becoming what the vision was when we moved here,” said Becky Pond, 37, a stay-at-home mom whose family came to Baxter three years ago from Charlotte. “We didn’t look anywhere else. Baxter is why we moved here… It’s really like the ads. Everybody knows each other.”

On a nice day, moms and kids gather on a playground. The mom’s chat, the kids play. “You can come out here any day and have someone for your kids to play with,” Pond said.

That feeling of community-as-family is what resident say makes Baxter work. It’s a concept that’s been easy to sell, and likely will only get easier as “BAX” stickers fan out across the Charlotte region. “If you can create that kind of buzz, then people want to know what it is. I think they’re maybe trying to create the kind of buzz you don’t get from advertising,” said Bobbie Fuller, an associate professor of marketing at Winthrop University. “ Baxter looks like kind of grass-roots effort in the way they do things. This is kind of one more marketing image builder. It makes it feel like the family’s together.”
The Vermont Company that manufactures these destination stickers says Baxter is one of only a handful of neighborhoods anywhere to have them.

“It wasn’t a complete surprise, but it was a little different, “said Tim Williams, vice president of E.F. Williams & Co., which has done similar decals for various towns, resort and schools.

As destinations go, Baxter obviously isn’t New York or the Outer Banks. But make no mistake, it is a destination. And it’s only going to get more popular. Some say it’s a model that should be duplicated again and again. They say it’s a throwback to a simpler time. Those who live there can probably cite a dozen reasons to love it.

But as an outsider, it’s easy to see how one could be a bit jealous of those 630 families. For them, it’s home.

Euro-style decal
The decals first became popular in Europe as a way for drivers to show national pride. Their popularity in the United States is a phenomenon that’s gained momentum in the past few years. Here are other places with their own decal:
OBX- Outer Banks, NC
MP- Myers Park
HHI- Hilton Head
BFT-Beaufort
FL- Florida

Copyright 2005 The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C.