Mayor's Sloganeers Head West

Will nothing ever go right for the poor man? Is Fate constantly against him?

It is another blow to the Mayor's plans. The positive message about Windsor that he wished to convey may never get heard by the masses outside of this City. In fact, the City may never get rebranded now at all. We have no one to help us.

Apparently a consultant may have to be hired at a huge cost to figure out what to do with the $900,000 that may not be able to be used for rebranding of the City. Adding to that the $250,000 that has not yet been spent to hire the PR flacks for the Mayor means that over $1 million is available.

This "found money" however is burning a hole in Council's pocket. Stay tuned to see how this money will be squandered. Don't count on it being used to reduce taxes or for the Library however. City Hall is on some kind of mission respecting the system that frankly I have never been able to figure out. Perhaps we can get our snow cleared now.

In the meantime, take a look at this story from the Globe and Mail:

• "Go West, young graphic designers
  The Prairie provinces are seeking out new logos, saying wheat sheaves and wild roses won't cut it any more
  JOE FRIESEN AND DAWN WALTON
  Globe and Mail, December 14, 2007

WINNIPEG AND CALGARY — The iconic wheat sheaf of Saskatchewan will be scythed from government documents and highway signs in the coming year as the province tries to fashion an identity that reaches beyond its agrarian past.

It's part of a broader image makeover across the Prairie provinces that has given birth to a more muscular, less "friendly" bison logo in Manitoba, and raised the thorny prospect of having "Wild Rose Country" plucked from Alberta's licence plates.

"This is probably the right time for all of them to be thinking about it," said Ken Wong, a marketing professor at Queen's University who helped design a tourism strategy for New Brunswick in the mid-1990s.

In recent weeks, Prof. Wong has visited Calgary, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, which he thinks may be the single biggest indicator — at least to him — that the Prairies are hot. "I can't recall in 25 years of professional life having a reason to be in all three provinces in the same two-week period," he joked.

Saskatchewan Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz said the wheat sheaf is outdated as a symbol because harvesting techniques made it obsolete by the 1950s. "We want the visual identity of Saskatchewan to be something more modern that depicts what we're all about," Mr. Krawetz said.

The wheat-sheaf logo was brought in under Allan Blakeney's NDP government in the 1970s. Mr. Blakeney said yesterday that it has been mischaracterized as strictly agricultural. "It was stylized so it could represent several things," he said. "It was thought to be possibly a wheat sheaf and possibly an oil well overflowing … I think it's a pretty good logo because it's highly distinctive and easily recognized."

Albertans were told last month they'd be consulted on the province's first licence-plate revamp since 1983, to look into a new design, colour theme and whether to remove the phrase "Wild Rose Country." Service Alberta Minister Lloyd Snelgrove will travel around asking people whether they'd like — for example, the province's official motto "Strong and Free" instead, although the "Alberta Advantage" is probably more widely known.

Debi Andrus, marketing professor at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, said all this re-branding of Canadian cities and provinces is linked to economic development and tourism.

"Perceptions can be real barriers to how people will invest in or go to a destination," Prof. Andrus said. "Saskatchewan is more than wheat and it has been for quite a while. For them to now say we've changed and we need to show the world that we've changed makes good sense."

After much debate this year, Calgary finally dropped the mascots of the 1988 Winter Olympics, which were played in that city, from its road signs. The cuddly polar bears Hidy and Howdy were replaced with signage that touts Calgary as the "Heart of the New West" topped off with a white cowboy hat, which also received some criticism.

While some are trying to position Calgary as something other than a "cowboy town," Prof. Andrus said the white hat is a strong image that is known internationally. "You have a symbol that is recognizable and fun. You can't walk away from that," she said.

But the experts also offer some words of warning to governments looking to liven up their region's image. Don't toss out the entire, long-standing brand, but rather add something new to it and back it up with investment in the areas that are being promoted, Prof. Wong said. "A brand is a lot more than a logo or a slogan," he added, "There has to be something behind it."