Bayfield Branding Begins

Bayfield branding effort begins
By Carole McWilliams

Times Senior Staff Writer Article Last Updated: Thursday, February 18, 2016 2:52pm
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Marketing consultants were in Bayfield this week to meet with community members and start the process of creating a brand for the town.

They arrived Monday and met with Bayfield High School students on Tuesday. They hosted a community forum last night.

No, it's not a cattle brand.

"Our focus is enterprise branding," consultant Paul VanDenElzen from Avant Marketing told town trustees on Tuesday. "Municipal branding is the part we enjoy the most, because we get to go into the community and get to know the people." He said invitations were sent to all town residents for last night's forum. The 90-minute session was to include vision exercises and finding shared values for the participants.

The interviews and visioning are the research phase of the process. Then the consultants will develop a statement of vision and values. From that, they will create visual branding including three logo options to choose from, also letterhead designs, way-finding signs, and website development. There will be a five year marketing and implementation plan.

The goal is to create a unified brand for Bayfield, VanDenElzen said. "We feel a brand can't be just a logo and a slogan." It has to resonate with residents and businesses.

Avant senior partner Mark Vogel said the branding should cause everyone to feel "that Bayfield is a place for people like me. We don't focus on the place. We focus on the people of the place, the shared values and the vision that people have for the future."

They do that with one-on-one interviews as well as community forums, he said. "We believe the internal stakeholders (residents and businesses) are as important as the external audience."

Vogel listed four levels of someone's relationship with a brand:

.awareness (I've heard of Bayfield)

.association (I've been there and know a bit about the town)

.brand affinity (you identify personally with the brand)

.brand fanaticism, which he said is rarely achieved. He gave sports teams as an example.

"The Denver Broncos don't have to pay you to promote their brand," he said. "With an enterprise, you want residents and businesses to be brand fanatics based on shared values and vision." He gave another example of asking a man who mops the floor at a hospital what he does. The man says, "I mop floors." But at another hospital, the man who mops floors says he helps the doctors keep people healthy.

"It starts with your vision, mission, shared values," Vogel said. "(Personal) values are important but difficult to articulate. Through the interview process and the focus group, we'll take people through exercises to define those values. The outcome is to energize and unify your community, turn residents into brand fanatics."

VanDenElzen said the high school students will do some market research, then create recommendations that they will present to the town board.

Vogel commented, "If the input we received today (from the students) continues through the week, we'll have ample material to work with."

Town trustees hired Avant Marketing in January, choosing them out of 12 proposals. Trustees approved a maximum cost of $22,500, with 75 percent of that covered by a state grant administered through the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments. Similar grants are going to Ignacio, Pagosa, and Silverton. All are follow-ups to downtown revitalization assessmets conducted by Downtown Colorado Inc.

Bayfield's assessment was in March 2015.

- See more at: http://www.pinerivertimes.com/article/20160218/PRT01/160219855#sthash.YfDpDzZn.dpuf