The holiday period gives us time to reflect.
Over the festive season, I thought back on the branding exercise Squamish is currently going through and concluded the money expended so far wasn’t well spent. When the process was launched, I supported the initiative. I thought one possible outcome would be a confirmation that the existing Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada moniker was a strong title with a good logo and the consultants would encourage us to further strengthen that brand.
As we all know, that didn’t happen. The consulting company brought in to review our brand and make recommendations was paid handsomely to work with us. Who could justify spending all that money just to be told the foundation is already in place and all that is needed is this and that to reinforce the existing brand?
If I had the ability to go back in time, appoint myself the sole dictatorial leader of Squamish and redo this thing, I would restructure the call for proposals and ask branding experts to bid on a project where the winning bidder would work with district staff and other community stakeholders to come up with a plan to reinforce and sharpen Squamish’s already established brand. In the world of brands, our reputation as the recreation capital of Canada is relatively young. Wide use of the phrase started only in the 1990s.
General Electric is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. According to Forbes magazine, it’s the seventh most recognizable global brand. This is a company that launched in 1892. In my lifetime, I don’t believe the logo has changed and despite its evolving business interests, the company has maintained a consistent image.
The same can be said for McDonalds. The golden arches have been a constant for the sixth most recognizable brand in the world dating back to 1955.
The Walt Disney Co. came into existence in 1923. Through the decades and through changes in the entertainment business, we all instinctively know what this company is about and what it offers when we see the word “Disney” in its unique and distinct stylized font.
The energy we’ve injected into re-creating Squamish as being hardwired for adventure could have been better spent reinforcing the relatively young brand that already had us on the map with adventurers from as close as West Vancouver and as far off as Europe and the deepest recesses of Asia. And, the Mark Kamachi-designed logo that has served Squamish since it was ported over from the Brennan Park Recreation Centre by then-mayor Ian Sutherland is a strong logo that didn’t need replacing.
I don’t have a time machine and, sadly, I’m not the community’s revered supreme leader, so I’m plugging in for adventure and doing all I can to promote the new logo and support the new branding direction. The most important thing at this point is to work together to deliver results in the form of new visitors, attracting new business and retaining existing successful businesses.
