City, Local Government, Branding Case Study

A Community Brand to Engage Citizens, Visitors, Businesses, and Stakeholders

Connection Group was selected from over twenty branding firms throughout the United States to develop new city branding for Salem, Missouri. The Salem community had a solid vision for the future and needed a brand purpose, brand vision, and brand statement that was aligned with their goals and their community. Along with a new logo for the city of Salem, and its’ city departments, the Salem Community Chamber Logo and the County of Dent Logo were included in the rebranding project.

Outcomes

  • Professional community logos, visual brand, and identity materials
  • A positive, community tagline that also serves as a hashtag and is relatable to all ages
  • Identify retirees as a new target market in response to recent retirement statistics

A contemporary logo was selected that encompassed the brand visually. Because Salem is close to the Current River and is the entry to the Ozark Riverways residents, visitors, and businesses alike associate with the outdoors and river activities. Depicting a kayaker with a handwritten typestyle encompassed the natural and easy-going lifestyle Salem represents. This logo was adapted to suit all of the main City of Salem departments as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the Dent County logo making it a true community re-brand. For the Dent County logo an illustration of the historic courthouse replaces the kayak. The fonts and layout remain consistent. Changing the graphic helps distinguish the County identity from the City identity while still depicting a unified community brand.

Challenges

One of the main challenges that many cities face when re-branding is getting buy-in from the community. Another big challenge is the fact that municipalities are busy and seldom have staff who have time allocating to a detailing rebranding project. In the case of the Salem community re-brand the County of Dent was hesitant to participate and considered separate branding altogether.

Connie was a pleasure to work with! She was very receptive and able to pick up on concepts not initially expressed by the majority, and from those she developed a final design that was overwhelmingly embraced by the initial group and the community.

Sally BurbridgeDirector Economic DevelopmentCity of Salem, MO

Solution

A survey of the committees helped get the creative going. A zoom presentation outlining brand messaging, tagline, and logo concepts helped bring all the stakeholders together. A customized logo was adopted for each entity while maintaining a strong community brand that resonates with residents, businesses, and visitors alike. Identifying projects leads at the onset helped expedite the project. Working digitally with proofs and with virtual presentations that were recorded respected individuals schedules and kept the project moving forward.

The brand vision and brand positioning statements were developed in alignment with the 2024 Community Vision document. Highlighting the river attractions, active outdoor lifestyle, local attractions along with the friendly atmosphere invites visitors and investors alike. Connection Group created the tagline #CatchtheCurrent for an energetic appeal that is used in social media, ongoing print and billboard marketing campaigns as well as on apparel and products for purchase. Photos selected depicted the main target markets identified in the re-branding research.