Branding & Corporate Identity

Background

The Branding & Corporate Identity Initiative involves a five-phase approach to re-branding the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville and developing a new corporate identity. This includes our visual language – such as logos, taglines, color palettes, typography, photographs and graphics – and our emotional language – such as our tone of voice, and our storytelling.

A town’s brand is more than a look – it is how we make people feel. It is a culmination of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.

All these help form the Town's reputation. Our brand is our reputation. Our reputation is our brand.

This project was approved in the 2019 Capital budget.

October 2020 Public Consultation

Up until March 2020, we had only completed Phase One - to determine what the name of the town should be. After extensive public consultation, Council decided to retain the name “Whitchurch-Stouffville” however, they gave permission to market the town as simply “Stouffville.” For more information about the potential name change, see On The Road October 2019.

To keep the project moving during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began public consultation with 20 select individuals within the community. This feedback allowed us to get a general idea of what the community thought about our town. Based on these ideas, concept designs were created. The Branding Steering Committee narrowed the choices down and we are ready to ask the public what they think of the designs.

You can fill out the survey here: surveymonkey.com/r/StouffvilleBranding

If you would like further information about the process, please read October's article in "On the Road" entitled "Branding project enters public consultation stage."

Why Re-brand?

A community brand is a clear and consistent vision and message that conveys what a community represents (i.e., what a community stands for, and the values it holds). Our brand is central to our marketing endeavors. It directly addresses the needs of specific target audiences.

So, why brand? The reasons are important:

• it helps put our community on the global, regional and national map
• it increases a sense of local identity, well-being and pride
• it helps attract new businesses, industries, investments and high profile events
• it draws in new populations and a diversity of skills and talents
• it increases tourism
• it develops and maintains a clear and consistent sense of community identity and messaging for the outside world, and
• it supports coherent local development efforts overall as physical, social, economic and cultural sectors come together to deliver your community’s brand promise.