Logo sells city to businesses, visitors

By CASSANDRA SHOFAR
Staff Writer

MEDINA — The City of Medina, Ohio: Preserving the Past. Forging the Future.
For outsiders looking in, this is Medina’s new identity and starting point for a three-part branding campaign for the city.

After putting three logos and four taglines before the public for a vote, these were the two chosen, said Nancy van Alphen, of Savvy Marketing International LLC.

A logo is often a picture, sometimes coupled with a few words, that is able to stand on its own. A tagline is usually a phrase, sometimes very short, that is supplementary to the logo.

The process started months ago when the marketing company told residents about the logo and tagline, seeking any feedback and input about why they love the city. About 12 logos and taglines were created by Savvy Marketing incorporating that feedback, van Alphen said.

They were narrowed down to three logos and four taglines, which were voted on by residents at the end of May.

“Medina is in a very unique position where we have an image of being a very quaint place to live and work … a charming place. But we’re also very progressive,” van Alphen said. “So we want to get that point across, but also don’t want to lose our heritage. We’re not changing our identity, we’re adding to it.”

Van Alphen said this campaign, which was set in motion by city Economic Development Director Tom Krueger, was mainly meant to put Medina on the map for businesses looking for a new home, not just families interested in moving to the area.

“We just want businesses that are thinking of moving here to know that it is a solid place for them to do business,” van Alphen said. “This was the first step of the campaign and it will really help give their campaign direction.”

This portion of the process cost $2,600 while the price for the next two steps, which include a strategic plan for implementation and creating a new city Web site, have not been determined, Krueger has said.

While the city will take over the project from here, Savvy Marketing, at no cost to the city, is creating new business cards and letterhead with the logo and tagline and a Flash logo, which is a moving logo that will appear on the Web site and in any other electronic applications the city may choose to use it for, van Alphen said.

“More and more cities are looking at themselves as a business … they have to because they are competing with each other for business,” she said. “Our specialization is in branding and positioning and strategy. My motto is basically, don’t spend a dollar on marketing until you have a strategy in place. We can do that for not only cities, but for any business that is out there looking to develop an image for themselves or looking for a particular audience to sell their services and products to … and get the correct message across to that audience.”

Van Alphen added: “We are very proud to be a part of this campaign because we’ve lived here for seven years now and we love Medina and we love the dichotomy of the city.”

Shofar may be reached at 330-721-4044 or cshofar@ohio.net.