By Monica Green/features@trcle.com
Branding is a person’s initial perception or lasting impression about a service, product or organization, a man working to “brand” Cleburne told the chamber of commerce Wednesday.
Drew Fockler, the president of Trilogy Design Group Inc., spoke at the chamber’s quarterly luncheon about “What’s in Branding a Community?” His company has been working with the city of Cleburne and other organizations on developing a marketing slogan for it, or branding it.
“Cleburne is a changing community,” Fockler said. “The perceptions will change, and your needs will start to differ. We have to determine what those are. We have to get people excited about that.”
The slogan Trilogy proposed is “Cleburne: This is Texas.” Fockler unveiled proposed advertising images portraying pictures of people and places that represent Cleburne. One shows a child playing in water fountains with the words “Cleburne is splashy,” an allusion to Splash Station and other water-based activities.
“This is about the community embracement,” said Cathy Marchel, chamber president. “It’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. We’re working very diligently because Cleburne is a great community to raise your family and to live and work.
“I’m very proud of what we have in our community, and we all should be. There’s a lot of great things going on in this community. We live in a great place that has a great group of people.”
A song recorded by Sonny Burgess about the city was revealed. The song includes the words “come and plant your feet on solid ground.”
“We’ve got to consider a more emotional side as well,” Fockler said. “We’ve got to drive a passion. There has got to be an excitement because, face it, you as residents and business owners are the people that are going to sell Cleburne. The excitement has got to be generated from within.”
Branding is not a logo, identity or product; it is defined by the individual, Fockler said.
“It’s the individual shopper, it’s the resident, it’s the new resident,” Fockler said. “It’s the new business owner, it’s the new business that wants to move here .... Those are the people that we’ve got to attract or sustain from within. The city has got to build from within first before we can decide to go and go forward.”
A strong brand delivers a promise of value and difference and creates a positive image of the future in the customers’ minds, thus cultivating trust and understanding, Fockler said.
“When we’re looking at Cleburne we have to be able to offer a different point of view or something different that is value to our customer, our customer being the residents here, or new residents, or businesses,” Fockler said.
Trilogy has been conducting focus groups this week to hear the reactions of residents and business owners to the proposed branding campaign.
“I think that this company is top notch and very professional,” Marchel said. “They are really reaching out to all the people in our community, not just certain groups. It is very important that we reach out to all of them. Every person is as important as the others.”
The public attending the luncheon applauded Fockler’s presentation.
“I think it was great,” said Pam Masters, outreach coordinator for Community Opportunities Inc. in Keene. “It was real representative of what Cleburne is. Taking the different names and words like family and things, I thought that was great.”
The company hopes to launch the campaign by the end of January.
