City of Powell River officials are hoping to receive some pearls of wisdom from residents about the tagline to be used in city branding to describe the community.
Scott Randolph, manager of economic development, said when Powell River’s new resident attraction campaign was being designed, some feedback was received that the city should move on from The Pearl on the Sunshine Coast, which was adopted by the city in 2004, he believes.
“Just for the purposes of the campaign, after batting it around a bit, we came up with Coastal by Nature,” he said. “We thought we’d do this specifically for the resident attraction campaign. When we unveiled it with the campaign mid-January, we received quite a bit of positive feedback.
“As a result of that, and with other projects pending such as the sign project, which Tourism Powell River is undertaking, we thought why don’t we make the recommendation to make the switch in corporate brand to Coastal by Nature?”
Randolph said a report was submitted to city council recommending the change and council made a request for more feedback to cement public support for the change before a decision was made. A simple online poll has been designed, asking people to let the city know which brand they prefer, and also to provide any other comments they might have with regard to other possibilities for a tagline, just in case there are any other ideas out there.
“Our main focus is to show there is public support for changing the brand tagline from Pearl of the Sunshine Coast to Coastal by Nature,” Randolph said.
The survey was posted online last week and cutoff for input is the evening of Sunday, March 22. A link to the poll is found on the front page of the city’s website or the poll can be accessed directly online.
“We are hoping for good participation,” Randolph said. “In the first couple of days there were more than 200 respondents and it continues to grow on an hourly basis as people make their way to the poll.”
The results will be presented to city council and are not binding. Randolph said he will take council’s direction on the matter.
In terms of the cost of making the switchover, if that is the recommendation, Randolph said if council decides to make the change, the city shouldn’t rush out and switch everything, but to change things incrementally as things require changing.
“So, for example, if you need to order new stationery, then you implement the new brand tagline,” he said. “The same thing goes with trucks. When you retire the old ones, you put the new brand on the new trucks. We’re not saying go out and spend a whole heck of a lot of money.”
Randolph said the results would be available for council when its meeting is held in early April. “If we can get a decision on this in April, that would be great.”
