02/04/08
Process determines town should focus on families
“Families come first in Sheldon.”
It’s not a slogan – although it could be used as one for certain purposes.
It’s much more than that. It’s Sheldon’s brand essence. In other words, it’s what Sheldon is saying it’s all about as a community.
“The key there is that’s a lot deeper than a tag line that you’re going to hear a swing choir sing on a classic commercial on the radio,” said Heidi Nissen, chairwoman of the Sheldon Marketing Committee. “What we’re saying is this is our promise. This is the way we make decisions. This is the way we live here.”
“That’s our vision”’ added Mark Gaul, director of the Sheldon Chamber and Development Corporation.
The five words in the brand essence sums up the results of a branding discernment process for community. And without blatantly saying, it, the brand essence also officially retired the “Sheldon – A Really Nice Place” slogan that had been used in the community for the past several years.
Nissen and Gaul announced the Sheldon “brand” that had been developed by a 17-member band discernment committee with the assistance of consulting firm REL Productions of West Des Moines during the Sheldon City Council meeting. The council allocated $8,200 in funding to the branding process.
A six-person steering committee, made up of representatives from Sheldon marketing Committee, the SCDC and the city, first came together several months ago to discuss the need for the community to develop a brand identity. The group determined now was the right time because Sheldon is being presented new opportunities with the new four-lane Highway 60 expressway bypass opening and it wants to maximize those potential opportunities through sharpening its marketing approach.
The community also had come to be known as many different things – all that were good concepts in and of themselves. “Sheldon - Really Nice Place”, “The Marigold City”, “Prairie Queen City”, “an Opportunity.”
But, there was no consistency.
“We’ve had an identity crisis that we’ve been dealing with for a long time,” Nissen said, referring to the slogan examples she listed. “It all depends on who’s letter head you get, who’s business card you get, which truck drives by and which commercial you hear. That’s not effective marketing. Tag lines are a dime a dozen. They get away from the truth, and frankly, they don’t stand the test of time. So the goal of this process was to determine: What’s our reputation? What’s our story?”
Those are the primary questions the brand discernment committee, which was made up of a cross-section of people in the community, attempted to answer during a comprehensive, brainstorming session.
The consultants wanted the committee members to discuss and determine what was different, inviting relevant and truthful about the community of Sheldon. It also had the group discuss how the community got to where it is now, where it wants to go and who it wants to reach. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the community also were all discussed.
The purpose was to discover Sheldon’s brand.
“This group took a lot of hours to really go through who we are,” Gaul said. “It wasn’t REL Productions coming to town and selling us what Sheldon is all about. What they did is lead us through a real hard discussion.”
The group settled on the concept that Sheldon is about putting families first.
“What we found out is a lot of what we’ve done in this community and a lot of what we’re doing revolve around family, making this the best place for families,” Gaul said. “We take for granted the great environment we have for families.”
Nissen noted the question came up among committee members about whether many other communities could make the same claim as Sheldon.
“Maybe. Maybe not. They don’t,” Nissen said. “Why don’t they? Because if you can’t say that you’re making all your decisions that way and that’s not your basis, then that’s not your promise. We’re saying, based on a lot of different things, that’s Sheldon’s promise.”
A second meeting of the brand discernment committee presented the brand idea results and the initial creative concepts that had been developed, such as logo examples. The group gave their input so the concepts could be finalized.
The logo selected by the brand discernment committee presented the brand the brand idea results and the initial creative concepts that had been developed, such as logo examples. The group gave their input so the concepts could be finalized.
The logo selected by the brand discernment committee presented the brand idea results and the initial creative concepts that had been developed, such as logo examples. The group gave their input so the concepts could be finalized.
The logo selected by the brand discernment committee depicts a family with a mother, father and two children represented.
“There was a number of different logos that they remitted to us, and we were trying to get the more modern look,” Gaul said.
He siad the goal new will be to use the brand essence and logo in its marketing efforts.
He said people living in large cities, in particular, would be targeted to promote what a small town like Sheldon has to offer such as safe neighborhoods for children to play in.
“I think it’s important to state that this is just he beginning; it’s not he end of the brand discernment process,” he said. “It’s the beginning of creating a brand for Sheldon, not a tag line or slogan – a brand that we would appreciate the support of the citizen of Sheldon, the SCDC, all the organizations in town to really take a hard look at an adopts our mission.”
