HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 3 Marketing and Branding Efforts or
19 82 STAFF REPORT CITY CLERK
` CITY COUNCIL File #1100-70
DATE: October 21, 2014
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Christopher L. Foss, City Manager "
SUBJECT: Study Session - Update on Marketing and Branding Efforts
Prepared by Linda Smith, Assistant City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City Council will receive an update on the City's marketing and branding efforts and will
provide Staff direction on the creative options presented.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
None.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council receive the presentation from North Star Destination
Strategies and provide feedback and direction on the two creative options for the City's
marketing and branding effort.
DESCRIPTION:
On September 3, 2013, the City Council approved an Agreement with North Star Destination
Strategies to develop a branding and marketing plan for the City and also approved the creation
of an Ad-Hoc Marketing and Branding Committee, consisting of Mayor Sbranti and
Councilmember Gupta, to work with City staff and North Star on the development of the
branding effort.
Over the last year, North Star, Staff and the Committee have been working on the development
of the plan. The first several months, from September 2013 through February 2014, included
more than 20 pieces of separate research about Dublin, including but not limited to stakeholder
interviews, focus groups, external opinions about Dublin, as well as data driven psychographics
about the Dublin's residents. The purpose of this research is to ground the branding and
marketing plan in what is real and authentic about Dublin and to shed light on aspects of the
community that can serve as points of differentiation —what makes Dublin special.
As part of that effort and at the recommendation of North Star, the Committee convened a
citizen's advisory group of four residents — Phil Tucker, Melissa Strah, Steven Wright, and
Alcina Wegrzynowski — to help vet various concepts and ideas prior to presenting to the City
Council. The advisory group met on five occasions since March 2014, and with the exception
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of one instance, met with the Marketing and Branding Ad-Hoc Committee jointly. The following
table summarizes the meeting dates and topics covered.
Marketing & Branding Ad Citizen's Advisory Group Description
Hoc Committee
3/18/2014 3/18/2014 Kickoff
4/3/2014 4/3/2014 Presentation of Research / Brand Platform
Statement
6/9/2014 Presentation of Written Concepts
8/15/2014 8/15/2014 Review of Written Concepts
9/8/2014 9/8/2014 Review of two Additional Concepts, Feedback
on Concepts
As noted in the table, the Committee and advisory group spent considerable time on the
development of written concepts. Written concepts serve as a foundational piece for the
development of brand creative and North Star wanted to ensure that this was fully vetted by the
Committee in advance of the development of subsequent creative work to present to the City
Council. This process took longer than expected given the desire to see some additional
concepts for review and the logistics of bringing together the Committee and advisory group
given their busy schedules.
In order to ensure that the process of selecting a creative direction concluded with the current
Committee, Staff accelerated the effort by requesting North Star fully vet out two creative
concepts and present these concepts to the City Council in a study session. The City Council
approved this revision to the agreement with North Star at their last meeting.
The Committee, with input from the advisory group, is recommending that the City Council
review the creative concepts, including the logos and looks that correspond with those concepts.
The Committee can address their preferred concept as part of tonight's Study Session. Staff
also extended the invitation to the advisory group to provide their input.
The purpose of tonight's study session is to select a creative direction and provide feedback to
the North Star team on any desired modifications to the proposed logos and looks. Upon
receiving that direction from the City Council, Staff will finalize the branding and marketing plan
and will present the final plan to the City Council in January 2015.
Tonight's study session also means that the work of the Committee and their advisory group has
concluded. Staff wishes to thank Mayor Sbranti and Councilmember Gupta, as well as the
members of the citizen's advisory group for their efforts over the last year.
NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH:
An email invitation was sent to members of the Committee's citizen advisory group to attend the
meeting.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
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