Duane Hicks
It’s coming.
The new brand for the Town of Fort Frances will be revealed to council during its next regular meeting this coming Monday.
Chris Fields, senior brand strategist with Twist Marketing, will present “the brand’s story” to council, said Tannis Drysdale, a consultant with the Rainy River Future Development Corp.
“The brand’s story is understanding what it means,” explained Drysdale, who has worked with Twist Marketing and the town’s Economic Development Advisory Committee during the process.
“So we have a logo, an interpretation of the brand, that the graphic design people made, but it’s more than that,” she remarked.
“It’s a discussion of who we are [and] how we fit into the marketplace.
“Kind of like the ‘swoosh’ on the Nike is the logo, but there’s a whole story behind it,” Drysdale continued.
“The apple on the Apple computer—it’s an apple, right, but there’s a whole story behind that and you know what it means.
“That’s a big part—to understand what it means, the interpretation,” she stressed.
Drysdale said the unveiling is just the beginning. If town council adopts the brand, it will be utilized in all Town of Fort Frances marketing as well as all marketing the town and Rainy River Future Development Corp. supports financially.
Members of the Economic Development Advisory Committee also will be making a series of presentations to various groups.
The presentations will be to discuss the brand and how groups can interpret it for their own organization.
Twist Marketing, an award-winning Calgary-based firm, first started the process to establish a unified brand across Fort Frances back in November.
First a workshop was held at La Place Rendez-Vous, where about two dozen stakeholders gathered to learn about branding, as well as provide initial input to help shape the community’s future.
Twist Marketing then conducted some 30 local and regional interviews to gain more insight into the community’s strengths and weaknesses, and what direction the town should go in.
It then developed a logo, slogan, and an overall marketing philosophy to attract business investment, professionals, and tourism.
“It’s been a very interesting journey in attempting to redefine ourselves and the new opportunities that the next era of Fort Frances will bring,” Drysdale said of the experience.
“We look forward to this being the beginning of the process of launching the brand,” she added.
