Consistent brand story makes Timmins stand out

On December 17, 2012, the Branding Team presented the new branding concept for Timmins to City Council. Presenter Glen Loo, Managing Principal of St. Clements Group, described the brand story that grew out of the community-wide consultations, revealed the new community logo, and explained its rationale.

The Branding Project

St. Clements Group is the consulting firm the City hired to coordinate the Branding project. They were supported by the Branding Committee, which is made up of all local community members. Together, these two groups make up the Branding Team. Since early in 2012, the Branding Team has been working to accomplish the following goals:

  • Develop a unified message, or “brand story,” for the community’s marketing efforts, including investing, working and living in Timmins
  • Help define an economic development path that highlights the types of investments, residents, amenities and businesses the community could attract
  • Assist with creating a Timmins-centric identity for the community’s various neighbourhoods
  • Create a brand that community organizations can use in their own marketing, so that the overall Timmins message is consistent

The consultants, through an extensive consultation process, developed the branding concept based on feedback from over 500 local residents . They facilitated more than a dozen focus groups and over 80 interviews, held the public “Timmins from the Heart” special event, conducted an online survey, attended the Welcome to Timmins public event, and ran a two-month long social media campaign. The consultants also examined the experiences of four other similar communities to determine best practices for Timmins.

The final product for the consultants will be the completion of a Branding Strategy, or Marketing Plan, that will consider what Timmins hopes to gain from its brand. Timmins is competing with other communities for new residents, workers, investment dollars, government services, businesses, and tourists. The brand story considers not only Timmins’ roots in primary industries like mining and forestry, but also its strength in providing other resources such as clean air, water, power, open spaces and people, including both Anglophone and Francophone. Timmins contributes to the knowledge sector by providing expertise directly to the resource industries, as well as by providing support for those industries through applied research, equipment and service providers, goods, and amenities such as education and entertainment. The overall message is that people come for the opportunities, but they stay for the lifestyle.

The entire Branding project process, including time spent on the consultations, data gathering and dissemination, logo creation and the final Branding Strategy document, cost $88,000. The logo creation, discussed in more detail below, was only a fraction of the overall cost.

The Logo

The intent of the logo design is to establish a strong, progressive and inclusive “brandmark” that would be completely unique to the City of Timmins. Using the unique wordplay afforded in the name Timmins, the “IM IN” logo concept builds upon the commitment of residents and businesses to build vibrant lives in the community. It implies that, while we live in Timmins physically, we also have strong connections to its lifestyle and are fully committed to building lives in the community.

As mentioned, extensive consultations were used to develop the brand story that contributed to the logo creation, however consultations were also used to gather feedback on the logo itself after it was created. The participants of these session, after some discussion, decided that removing the apostrophe from “IM” was in keeping with the strength of the image and would not be confusing to audiences.

The best logos are not complex. Think of Facebook’s white “F” on a blue background, or Nike’s swoosh. These logos are simple, but you instantly know what company they represent. Timmins’ new logo is meant to accomplish the same thing for our community. With time and regular use, the “IM IN” logo should be easily and immediately associated with Timmins.

The logo will not stand alone on most marketing material, however. The consultants designed the logo with the intention of allowing many organizations to use it for their own marketing, such as in the example below. Eventually, the word “Timmins” underneath should become unnecessary: as people begin to recognize the “IM IN” logo, they will no longer need the word Timmins as a reference point. They will automatically know the material is about investing in Timmins.