By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The Trussville City Council is considering rebranding the Trussville Entertainment District. During the council workshop on Thursday, July 7, the council heard from David Blumberg, creative director for Clarity Studio, on how they would implement the potential rebranding process.
During the workshop, city officials discussed how the Trussville Entertainment District doesn’t have a solid branding that everyone can refer to because some people refer to it as Ferus, and others call it T.E.D.
“One of the biggest needs that we found is the need for a website, people Google the entertainment district, and it goes nowhere,” Stacy Frazier, Trussville mayor’s assistant, said during the workshop. “So we want to fix that; we want it to be its own separate entity, and our goal is to know who we are and define that a little better than we have.”
Since announcing the potential rebranding, there has been some backlash on whether or not this is the right decision for Trussville. If this rebranding is approved, what should the city of Trussville expect?
Aaron Gresham, Executive Creative Director for Big Communications, explained the ins and outs of rebranding.
From his perspective, he said that rebranding would begin with discovery, which means first-party and third-party data.
“They’re going to research. Most likely, they’ll start with predetermined audiences, or they’ll determine the audiences, so that would be key constituencies inside of the Trussville area,” Gresham said. “Probably some potential audiences from surrounding areas that might be drawn into the entertainment district.”
What they’re looking for in those sessions is, “What is the right sense of place for this? What sorts of businesses should be here? What should be the connection between them? What’s the promise you’re making to people when they go to the entertainment district?”
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These questions would then lead the rebranding into something that is almost thematic.
Gresham explained that if you think about amusement parks and what makes them valuable is the connection between everything. In other words, everything you need to enjoy a day in Trussville would be available in the entertainment district.
“The thing that is drawing you in is the idea that there are so many things to do there,” Gresham said. “It just makes it a lot easier to market it to people as one unit.”
After all the research is conducted, the rebranding company will provide a toolkit/brand guide that answers how to address each of these audiences and what business types are right for them. The toolkit will even provide potential growth paths, like, “here’s the low-hanging audience; this is the audience you could immediately develop if you just had this kind of family place.”
Then the brand guide would probably have visual assets like logo identity, video assets that can be used for social and online, a photo shoot, and a lot of language that explains how to talk about the space.
Creating a good brand for any company stems from choosing a highly qualified rebranding agency. Gresham explained that ensuring the rebranding agency understands the community is key to success, and seeing multiple points of view on rebranding is common.
“For public dollar work in particular – it is common to use an RFP process, which is a Request For Proposal,” Gresham said. “An RFP can be sent to agencies that you would like to see included as well as an open invitation to agencies that wish to be included. This can be a larger field initially. After initial responses – the field of agencies is typically culled to 2-3 who may present a direction or plan directly related to the project.”
Then the project is rewarded to the agency whose plan and work are most aligned with the project’s goals. The are several rebranding agencies in the Birmingham area, along with Big Communications and Clarity Studio, such as Lewis Communication, Cayenne Creative, Tatum, and many more.
Gresham said that if Trussville chose Clarity Studio based on its work with The Big Chill and Sand Mountain Amphitheater, then there must be “some shared audiences there between groups of people that would go to that area and the Trussville Entertainment District.”
“I always look for connection,” Gresham said. “So if they like those projects, I would say the Trussville Entertainment District is probably going to look somewhat like those projects.”
Gresham spoke highly of Clarity Studio, saying that Blumberg and David Ytterberg are highly qualified professionals who can do the rebranding for the Trussville Entertainment District successfully. He also commented on the price range for the rebranding, which is currently set at $65,000.
“I would say 65 is fair. It’s not an excessive number, I know how much time and effort it’s going to take them to do this, and it’s very fair,” Gresham said. “Most agencies have a blended rate, that means the hourly charge they base their budgets, that’s anywhere from, in the state of Alabama, $125 to about $150 an hour.”
You’re not only paying for a new brand logo; you’re paying for everything in between. Gresham explained it is the most valuable investment you’ll ever make in your community “because it will pay for itself.”
There are ways that a rebranding project is done incorrectly and can create negative outcomes for the community. Gresham said that the best way to ensure you do the job correctly is to stay connected to the community.
“Even if you don’t have a budget to do more in-person qualitative studies, at least do some surveys and do your own first-party research,” Gresham said. “Have the community be involved. I don’t care if it’s through Facebook, if you have small town hall meetings, or if you bring in key constituencies.”
Gresham said that the most important step is getting alignment early with all key stakeholders and making sure the community feels included.
“I do think this city of Trussville would greatly benefit from going through this effort because it gives them something to market, something new to build excitement and energy around the community,” Gresham said.