On Monday the Town of Clarenville held an information session to update people on the progress and direction of their efforts towards developing a new “Brand” for Clarenville. For the layman this means that Clarenville is working to find a way to better talk to people and for people to talk to it. Branding helps contribute to the sizzle that helps promote the steak – us.
Towards this goal the Town has contracted with Pilot Communications. Over the past few months Pilot has consulted and developed a new Logo, designed a new Website and is developing a communications strategy for the Town.
The Sizzle
Pilot’s research has revealed some key points that most of us would easily agree with such as:
- Clarenville is growing and there’s lots of economic potential in the town
- There is not a lot of “push” of information about Clarenville out to the rest of the world.
- We have a good balance of urban pleasures and rural tranquility.
- We have a great hockey team!
At the meeting a draft logo was displayed (we were asked not to photograph it so I can't show it to you) that incorporates soft blues, oranges & greens to highlight abstract aspects of the Town’s features and potential – with a keen matching of a three word tag line: Real.Life.Potential .
The Steak
Pilot has done a very professional job. Their process, presentation and product look to be top notch and I’m sure what they develop will be a great toolkit to promote the benefits of our town to ourselves and others.
Websites, Social Media strategy’s and Communication Strategies are great communications tools to talk about and they have lots of potential, but they need a huge ongoing commitment of resources to implement effectively
.
What's Served
Unfortunately in Clarenville, I have not seen a huge commitment to communications in the past.
The challenge and the real test will be our ability to take that toolkit and make it work - Clarenville’s role will only begin at this point.
There will have to be a huge change in mindset that seeks to disseminate information rather than protect it ( notice there are no pictures here) , that seeks to actively work to promote and publish relevant & timely content rather than let it flow through word of mouth to those lucky enough to hear it and there will have to be an honest commitment (that includes financially) to an ongoing professional communications process.
The questions I need to see answered (with action) : Is there recognition of the need for change? Will there be a commitment to change? Who will drive that change? If we can't answer those questions then I would contend that this will become a simple exercise in futility and that would do a disservice to our town's future.
If we do the same things we did before and expect different results our steak won’t be too tasty despite all the sizzle.
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