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New Branding Initiative Slated for Navasota
What pops into your head when you hear the “golden arches”? What is the reptile associated with a certain insurance company?
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “what we call results are beginnings,” and the same idea is said to be the mantra of City of Navasota city council and administration. The City of Navasota kicked off the exciting month of September, 2008, initializing the beginning stages of a new branding campaign for the city. For a municipality, a brand is more than a logo; it encompasses the initial impression a visitor has of the area; an immediate image. The city, in partnership with v. creative studio in Houston, whose motto proclaims “results. by design,” is currently in the design phase of a new branding initiative for the city. This project is to develop a new marketing look and strategy to increase tourists, attract new businesses and home owners, and allow for a rebirth of images and impressions about the City of Navasota.
The project began with an initial meeting with project directors from the city and v.creative studios. In this meeting research of origins and history, discussion about the type of visitor Navasota wishes to attract and the needs of the city were discussed. With this information in mind, the professionals at v.creative studio are “busy creating an effective logo and tag line that captures and conveys the concepts and ideals of Navasota’s appeal, values, message.” Once the concepts are presented, feedback is given and a final approved, a final development of logo, tag line, color palette and typography will be developed. Once complete, v.creative studio will work with Navasota Director of Tourism and Branding Project Director, Kourtney Gruner in developing new stationery, business cards and letterhead templates for city departments and a new advertising campaign across all media (web, print, etc.). In this, new marketing brochures, rack cards, web banners and billboards will be developed.
“The main goal of this project is to roll out a whole new look for the City of Navasota,” Mrs. Gruner said. “When I took the job as Director of Tourism, my two goals were to create a more usable website and to rebrand the city so that we have a clean and crisp look to our presentation, a new beginning. Far too long I have seen no coordinated effort to effectively promote the area with quality, professional marketing pieces. My goal with this new branding initiative is to produce a new logo and tagline for the city that can be used to present the essence of the greatness of Navaota. Apart from being used in city services, we will use it to roll out our new website in April of 2009; we will also be using this new brand in all our efforts in marketing to tourists through my department, business and commerce through the Economic Development Corporation, and hopefully changing the attitudes of some citizens about the quality of our town.”
In an effort to keep this brand unique and professional, v.creative studio will also be preparing a standards guide for the comprehensive logo, tagline, color and typography, a first for the city. With this, according to Mrs. Gruner, “we encourage everyone who has a website, signs, banners, marketing materials and brochures to contact me to get the standards guide for usage. I will work with everyone so that in keeping to these guidelines, everyone is encouraged to update the old logo while maintaining the correct new look; when pieces do go out, they all can be easily identified by others as belonging to Navasota and it shows a much more coordinated effort on the part of the community.” To receive more information about the standards, replacing your existing logo or related questions, contact Kourtney Gruner at 926-825-7055 or kgruner@navasotatx.gov.
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