How important is a municipality’s image to its future growth and prosperity?
This is the question Woodlands County council are currently asking themselves.
Two weeks ago, at their regular meeting on Nov. 3, Woodlands County council instructed administration to come up with options for redesigning the municipality’s logo.
The request came when administration brought forward a proposal from the Woodlands’ administration staff and the county’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) to hire a company to create the new logo.
However, council decided to take a second look at it and come up, with what they hope, is a lower cost option. Woodlands County council have been investigating the possibility of re-branding their corporate logo and in their 2015 budget, set aside $75,000 for the project.
The majority, $50,000 is to create the logo and $25,000 goes towards a public consultation process.
However, council voted to look for lower cost options, including outsourcing the design of a new logo and possibly holding a public logo design contest.
With the money council saved from going this route they hope to be able to redesign or refurbish the aging, entering Woodlands County signs.
One of the reasons council decided not to sign a contract with a market company who would have been tasked with the re-branding process, is the majority were concerned if there would be enough economic benefit to the county.
It is always a difficult thing to quantify, but rebranding is something all businesses, municipalities and even provinces and federal government agencies look at doing from time to time in order to stay current and fresh.
Take Edmonton for example. Since 2003 they have undertaken a number of different attempts at rebranding themselves. According to Post Media, the City of Edmonton has spent in the neighbourhood of $1.5 million on their various rebranding efforts.
In 2012, Stephen Mandel, then Edmonton mayor, created Make Something Edmonton, an image and reputation task force, at a cost of nearly $1 million. The group put forward a number of recommendations to city administration in an effort to improve Edmonton’s reputation around the globe.
And there is something to be said by that. When businesses or municipalities try to attract investment of money or people, it doesn’t hurt to have a favourable image.
The question, like everything a municipality does, is the effort worth the reward? For Woodlands County council the answer was a qualified yes.
Was it the right decision? Hopefully, but it never hurts to investigate ways for a person, a business or a municipality or government to put their best foot forward.
