THE 4 STAGES OF RE-BRANDING YOUR CITY
Plan the brand process
Develop the brand
Expect the process to go off the rails
Throw away the plan
The brand committee, which consisted of Town staff members and area stakeholders, chose their top three favorite logo designs and was excited to share the process and new options with the Town Board. The exiting Mayor, who earlier decided not to participate or vote, instantly rejected all the options, stating his spouse's decades-old logo was far superior. Oh crap! We managed to follow the above process to a tee. Clearly, we missed the memo about the unspoken "spousal veto" clause.
Going through the brand process and introducing a new logo and guidelines to your community doesn't need to produce battle wounds like the one above. After creating dozens of local government brands over the past 11 years, we learned the most crucial lesson of creating a new brand: there will be a hiccup in the process. This hiccup can take the form of a community with an overwhelmingly engaged presence during the process or elected officials deciding to take over the brand committee halfway through the project, or yes, even a "spousal veto clause."
So, the big question is, how do you prepare? Simply put, ensure you have these essential conversations with your stakeholders, electeds, community, and staff before developing your brand process. Seasoned brand professionals will be able to spot 99% of red flags during these conversations and tweak the process accordingly.
Secondly, you need an influential representative to converse privately with the ultimate decision-makers before any Council brand presentations. This can be the Communications Director, City Manager, or Mayor. The key is a direct conduit who can support, encourage, and respectfully push the decision maker to move forward, even when the going gets tough.
Don't be discouraged. At the end of the day, creating a new City brand is truly a fun process. It inspires the team involved and serves as a motivational factor for your staff. They get new uniforms and vehicle wraps, and the City receives better signage. Your website will shine, and more consistent communications through visuals and messaging will take root. Overall, you'll find much more efficiency and effectiveness in your communications and within your team.
On an economic development front, you're keeping up with the times. Industries and investors see your City as attractive and vibrant. You can produce materials that your office will be proud to distribute.
If I were to replace #4 in the process above, it would go something like this, Take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and modify the process.
Ryan Burke
Founder, Slate Communications
Ryan has more than 27 years of experience in creative marketing and brand development as well as 19 of those years specializing in local government communications. His work has won awards through 3CMA, TAMI, Center for Digital Government, American Advertising Federation and the Society for Publication Designers.