Building a Community Brand - District of Elkford

THE CHALLENGE

In an effort to aggressively grow sluggish business, tourism, and residential numbers, as well as encourage community pride, the District of Elkford, British Columbia initiated a Re-Branding and Business Vitality Initiative.

In June of 2005, after a series of District led strategy and planning sessions, The District of Elkford established their initial needs as:

The identification of target markets
The creation of brand and visual identity
The creation of a Community Profile document
The development of a District website

The District of Elkford engaged Twist Marketing to establish themselves as a self-sustaining, enterprising town promoting economic diversity – Their choice to engage Twist Marketing was based upon the firm’s expertise in community brand discovery, development, execution, and evaluation.

THE SOLUTION

Recognizing that every community has tremendous unrealized revenue potential, Twist Marketing approached the challenges facing economic, tourism, and residential growth with proven methodologies to effectively close the gap between current and potential revenue performance – to establish a total marketing program which would identify the most profitable prospects to target, and the most compelling brand vision, value proposition, positioning, and media strategies needed to attract them.

Through the identification of these specific and strategic markets, the District of Elkford would then be able to plot its development course; providing framework and guidance for its new brand.

First steps were identified as an essential research phase – meeting with key stakeholders, community and business leaders, local media, residents and others, to develop a thorough understanding of the community. Through competitor analysis, and consumer and visitor profiling, a clear view of the current perceptions associated with the community was established.

Utilizing the information gathered during the initial research phase, Elkford’s brand character was determined – enabling an intangible emotional connection between the community and its target audiences. Here, creative and strategic thought were given equal consideration in support of both distinct expression and the effective delivery of a unique and influential message.

As the spirit of Elkford was also seen as a reflection of its geography (nestled deep within the wilds of British Columbia’s Kootenay region), this afforded an interesting opportunity to incorporate a unique approach when facing the District’s internal and external growth challenges. The tagline “Wild at heart” and sub-taglines of “Get intimate with nature” and “Join our herd” were established in support of a brand deemed “seriously fun” and “fresh” while maintaining a close connection to its previous incantation as the self-proclaimed “Wilderness capital of B.C.”

While engaged in developing the brand strategy, an analysis of desirable community factors and realistic market opportunities was performed to determine those differentiators within the competitive marketplace which would allow for successful brand recognition and retention among potential investors, residents, recruitment prospects and developers.

Brand implementation saw the tactical execution of Elkford’s identity – rugged, free-spirited and unconventional – to not only reflect the untamed environment that surrounds the area, and the adventurous nature which defines its people, but to distinguish the District from competitive locales within a growing marketplace. The community brand became a tangible entity through the development of logo, color palette, taglines, supporting graphics, brand standards documents and more – including such primary marketing tools as advertising (tourism, economic development and recruitment campaigns), website, pageantry, and brochures.

THE RESULTS

In 2007, the District of Elkford’s award-winning branding initiative proved successful in its attempt to generate a lasting impression, positive interpretation, and call to action among both internal and external audiences.

Growing favour of the positioning statements “Wild at heart” and “Get intimate with nature” has encouraged internal support – instilling a sense of civic pride and urging residents to unite in one voice under community pride.

Reinforcement of this claim culminated in the September 2007 Free Press feature of the brand as the anchor piece within a Special Series of articles in which was stated, “No other community defines itself with as much depth as Elkford now does.”

“Elkford’s re-branding, and subsequently its new identity, is consistent, professional, different, and, most of all, marketable.” Gaining momentum, the brand has seen positive multi-faceted integration into every aspect of the community’s being, and with it, will continue to evolve and grow.

For additional information, please refer to the attached Special Series article titled “Marketing 101: Know your brand.”