"We want to have consistency," league executive director Kenneth Bullock said of the overall message. "If it's consistent from Randolph down to St. George and Springdale, Vernal to Tooele, and people see 'Making Life Better' and it's on a city truck, your city police car, we think that's positive. The residents are going to associate it with West Jordan, Tooele, whatever community they're in."

It won't directly address the misperceptions of the 63 percent of Utahns who overestimate their annual city tax burden.

The average Utah family pays nearly $16,000 in federal, state and local taxes each year. Only 4.5 percent of that, or about $750, goes to the city where the family lives, Abercrombie said.

But the new brand is expected to improve the perception of cities and towns by making it clearer what services are provided with those tax dollars.

"Branding should create a feeling in the consumer that they want to be a part of," Snarr said. "We have to treat our brand like it's something we want people to stand behind, get behind, rally behind."

Billings said the slogan has changed the way he explains his job to Boy Scout troops.

"Now I just say, 'The mayor's job is to make life better,"' he said. "And they say, 'Oh, cool."'

The brand has improved the morale of city employees in Richfield, city manager Woody Farnsworth said. Mayor Brad Ramsay and city staff have thought it was just what they needed, and the city adopted the brand two months ago.

"We'd been searching for a theme like that in Richfield," Farnsworth said. "The slogan and logo are already on the uniform shirts of our public works employees, and they'll soon go on our police cars and public works vehicles. We're one city that's going to take this on in a big way."

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com