Zionsville Embarks on Town Branding
By: Jessica Kiefer
November 11, 2009
As Zionsville prepares for redistricting in January, a strategic plan is also in the works: a town branding campaign.
Branding initiatives are common among businesses and organizations to establish a unified vision for the futures of companies and projects. But Charles Edwards, chairman of the Zionsville Economic Development Commission, said branding initiatives in towns are beginning to catch on.
“I thought it odd at first, but I found out that more and more towns are taking this, ‘what’s our mission, what’s our vision’ type of approach,” he said.
In May 2008, the Zionsville Economic Development Commission began with the mission of creating a unified message and vision for the town of Zionsville. Prior to the establishment of the Zionsville EDC, representatives served on the Boone County EDC, all with varying ideas of what may or may not work for the town.
Zionsville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ray Cortopassi said the EDC is essentially a volunteer committee taking input from everyone.
"We knew we wanted to come together to make a cohesive Zionsville Web site, but we weren’t sure of the cohesive message we wanted to give,” he said. “Our question became one of how do we sell (Zionsville) to the rest of the world, particularly those looking to expand businesses.”
The EDC teamed up with Indianapolis marketing firm Dean Johnson Design, 646 Massachusetts Ave., to create a branding image and slogan for the town. Cortopassi said more than a dozen different graphic elements have been proposed, most of them incorporating a uniquely written ‘Z’ for Zionsville.
“That graphic will be used for Web sites, town vehicles, brochures – basically anything having to do with the town,” he said.
In the coming weeks, residents will be able to give their input on which design should be used. In addition to the graphic, a survey of 300 Zionsville residents narrowed down a list of slogans that are being considered. Two of those slogans include “Zionsville. Going places. Naturally.” and “Zionsville. For all the right reasons.”
“(The survey) was enough to develop a consensus to determine the strengths of the community,” Cortopassi said. “This campaign really gives Zionsville a stronger voice in how its community is developed. The slogans being considered are those that spoke to us as individuals.”
The final slogan and graphic are set to be unveiled in early December, followed by marketing efforts next year that will be funded by a grant from the EDC. But the real task is not deciding on a design.
“The mission is really to invite prospective residents to come and live, but more importantly, corporate partners,” Cortopassi said. “We’re aiming for a highly promotable campaign that will showcase Zionsville as a destination for high-tech, strong and solid corporate partners to consider as a new location.”
Named in April 2008 as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Top 100 Places to Start a Business”, Zionsville’s corporate community is growing.
Just Marketing International, a global company representing sponsoring corporations in the auto racing industry, is headquartered in Zionsville. The company, a recent addition to the town, moved into its current building in February.
Bob Abdellah, vice president of global communications, said JMI outgrew its previous location near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and there was significant motivation to come to Zionsville.
“In the nature of our business, the Indy market is a logical place to be,” he said. “We’re seeing the business complexion of Zionsville changing significantly. We’re cognizant of the fact that it’s a time of revolution, and despite that, there is growth and progress in the town. New businesses are coming into the town quite often in the last couple of years.”
Abdellah said that at the time of the move, JMI had 30 employees. That number has now increased to more than 130, and he said he attributes this to people wanting to be in the town.
“The nice thing about Zionsville is that it has retained its historic downtown, but there is still that sense of a growing business community and a growing suburban area that is helping it to progress economically,” he said.
Edwards said the ideal outcome of the town branding campaign will be a fixed vision of what Zionsville can and should be, and an incentive to work toward basing future goals on that message to increase community growth. For example, if it is decided that Zionsville’s most important asset is its parks, all EDC work in the future will be done with park preservation and presentation in mind.
“This is really just the first step in the big picture,” Edwards said. “Picture it like a trip out to California. We plan to take the trip, and next we’ll decide whether we want to take a plane, train or car to get out there. We’ll deal with the issues of each once our ‘means of transportation’ is decided.”
