The Free Press
September 12, 2007
By Steve Hubrecht

Communities in the Elk Valley and the South Country have long been identified as ‘mining towns’, ‘logging towns’ or ‘ski towns’. But those labels, or ‘brands’, are powerful images that can limit growth and diversity. Free Press reporter Steve Hubrecht has prepared a special series examining how local community leaders are attempting to re-define their brand. First up is Elkford, a town ‘Wild at heart’.

ELKFORD - The sign on the way into Elkford proclaims the district as the ‘wilderness capital’ of British Columbia.

It’s made from stone, the words ‘wilderness capital’ are engraved. The sign isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, says Elkford’s Chief Administrative Officer Corien Speaker, and neither is the district’s rugged, natural surroundings.

But Elkford and the image it projects to the rest of the province, is changing.

Mugs, T-shirt and shopping cards lying in the district office bear stylized letters, all lowercase-’elkford’-over a smaller font tagline-’Wild at heart’-and an uneven outline of trees.

The stylized letters, tagline and trees, all part of the district’s rebranding, show up on councillors’ business cards, on District reports and even, eventually, on the District’s new trucks.

Abusiness vitality initiative undertaken three years ago made clear the need to rebrand the community in order to promote business, says Speaker.

“Wilderness capital of B.C. is a very direct statement, but it doesn’t say much,” says Twist Marketing creative director Corey Brewis. It doesn’t speak to other characteristics of the town.

Twist Marketing-the Calgary-based company Elkford chose to execute the rebranding-wanted to keep the district’s nature theme, but wanted the new brand to reflect much more.

“They are in the heart of the wild. It was just natural to look at it from a different perspective and say, ‘yes, they’re in the heart of the wild, but they’re also wild at heart,’” says Brewis. It focuses not just on the landscape around the community but also on the character of Elkford.

The modern feel of the new brand brings Elkford into the modern age, he says, and fights against the perception that Elkford is a backwater town.

Some subtaglines (Get intimate with nature, Join our herd) are purposefully tongue-in-cheek to drive home that Elkford residents are young, exciting people who thrive being in nature, he says.

Elkford residents are catching onto the new brand, he says.

“They’re really starting to get it. They’re really starting to see, ‘yes, this is me. This is our town,’” says Brewis.

“We’re seeing the community embrace this and run with this,” says Speaker, adding the district has already put in a second order for its mugs.

The new brand isn’t being warmly welcomed by everybody.

A number of residents still like ‘wilderness capital,’ says Speaker, which is why wilderness still features prominently in the new brand.

“It’ll still be part of what we are, but it won’t be so much the face of the marketing campaign,” she says.

One respondent to the district’s 2007 citizen satisfaction survey wrote “‘Wild at heart’ sounds (bad), you’ve taken an outdoor image and totally feminized it.”

“Change isn’t an easy thing for most people...(but) sometimes change is necessary if you want to grow in size and character,” says Brewis, adding many Elkford residents initially opposed to the new brand changed their minds once they saw it.

“It’s a handful (who oppose the new brand), probably less than 10 per cent (of Elkford),” says Speaker.

With a project so large, keeping everybody happy all the time is impossible, says Brewis.

“It definitely was a large undertaking...essentially it was just like marketing a typical product on a larger scale...(but) we really needed to see the big picture,” he says.”There were so many facets involved (promotion, tourism, economic development)...and multiple target audiences...We had to think differently.”

Twist had never branded such a large area before and a lot of strategy and planning went into the project, he says.

The strategy and planning seem to have paid off, both for Twist and for Elkford.
Twist’s rebranding of Elkford recently earned the company bronze in the brand redesign category of the 2007 International Summit Creative Awards (for smaller to mid-sized marketing companies).

The rebranding is attracting a lot of attention to the district, says Speaker.

“We are finding that is getting noticed...When we take this out of town, we get rave reviews...Nobody’s saying ‘how much did this cost you’...they’re saying ‘wow,’” she says.

“We need something that people will see and get excited about and think let’s go see what’s happening in Elkford,” she says, and the new brand seems to do just that.

The new brand makes the identity of Elkford stand out against other communities, she says.

“Most communities don’t think about who they are...they just exist and take what comes their way,” says Speaker. No other community defines itself with as much depth as Elkford now is.

Fernie has a distinct look and feel, but no cohesive brand outside the ski hill. Sparwood has embraced the mining industry and started to do some things, but has no finished product yet. Kimberley has a certain feel but doesn’t have a coordinated effort to identify itself, she says.
Elkford’s rebranding, and subsequently its new identity, is consistent, professional, different and, most of all, marketable, she says.

“If you want to sell yourself...you have to have a vehicle to sell yourself with,” she says.

And selling Elkford is ultimately what rebranding is about.

Elkford’s a mining town but eventually one day the mines will close. If the community is to outlive the mines it currently depends on, it needs to attract investment and diversify, says Speaker.

“One industry towns are susceptible to economic downturns...At the end of the day it’s all about making sure the community stays sustainable should something happen to the coal mining industry. So it’s not one of the East Kootenay ghosttowns, she says.

The District has already sold itself to at least one outsider.

Brewis says through all the strategy, planning and trips to Elkford, the rebranding of the District became more than a business endeavour.

“I feel I have a lot of vested interest in it from a personal standpoint,” he says. “It’s been such a fun, exciting client to work with...The people of Elkford are phenomenal...Everybody just has a different way of thinking than the big city...Everything just slows down when you’re there. Everything is so relaxed and carefree...(Elkford residents) are down to earth...It’s like they remember the things...that should be important to us as human beings.”

Elkford’s rebranding will be successful if it gives outsiders a better understanding of what the district is about, he says, but it should also remind local residents why they live there.