Community branding process begins

The Timmins 2020 Branding Committee is meeting this week to start developing a brand strategy for the community. The Committee will be creating a request for proposals from place-branding consultants who can help us establish a distinct, identity for our city. A brand helps organizations distinguish themselves from others, and reflects a promise to its stakeholders, consumers, clients or partners. A brand is the message, the story and the image that we want to project to others.

Why do we need a brand?
As globalisation intensifies, communities increasingly compete for attention, influence, business, investments, tourism, residents, culture and events. Communities now compete with cities and countries halfway around the world. The volatility of global markets and shifts in competition mean that communities can lose their historic purpose and their competitive edge. A brand helps focus community marketing efforts on the things that it does best. It supports greater, more consistent marketing and promotion, which makes it easier to extend the reach and message of the brand.

A community brand helps the community become more competitive. The process of branding encourages the community to clarify and refine their purpose, strengths and competitive advantages.  It helps build brand equity, which in turn sustains the community’s identity, and attracts and retains  the resources the community needs in order to grow and prosper.

What’s the difference between a brand and a logo?
A brand expresses the personality of a product, service or organization.  It is a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or combination of these, and an understanding of how it relates to key constituencies: customers, staff, partners, investors etc. A brand includes a psychological element, and can include the thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs and attitudes that become linked to the brand. Typically, a brand is made up of:

  • The value proposition. What does the brand promise, and how is that promise different (or better) than the competition?
  • The brand story. What is the history or background? Stories evoke an emotional response from people, and are more likely to remain in the memory.
  • The actual perception of the brand (through personal experience or hearsay).
  • The visual representation and imagery of the brand (logo, symbols, tagline, typeface, colors)
Note that the logo is just a small part of the overall brand concept. The logo is an important element because it can help consumers easily connect your message to the symbol, but its main function is to allow for differentiation between brands. The logo doesn’t add much meaning to what you actually perceive a brand to be. For example, if you were to look at the logo (symbol) for McDonalds, those golden arches really don’t tell you anything about what McDonald’s does. But if you’re driving down a burger alley in a strange town, you’re likely to quickly recognize that giant yellow M and associate it with cheap, fast food, and all of the other things that McDonalds wants you to associate with them. The M is not the brand, but it makes you think about the brand just by looking at one little symbol.