Agenda Packets - 2009/04/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Heidi Steinmetz From: Patrick Bettenburg [patrick@risdall.com] Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:34 AM To: Heidi Steinmetz Subject: letter to council Page 1 of 2 4/2/2009 Council Members and Economic Development Commission Members, I wanted to respond to the comments made at the last work session I attended regarding the idea of presenting the final logos for a public vote. At the time I spoke up and expressed my opinion that this decision is an important one and it must be made using a more strategic process than public opinion. I wanted to expand on my comments further in this letter. The idea of presenting the logo designs to the public for their opinion is laudable and I commend you for your efforts to be inclusive and receptive to the public. However, I want to point out that the entire branding project was developed to include efforts for extensive public input. Our research project was very successful in achieving a statistical confidence level and that information, together with the other discovery information, is what drove the brand strategy creation. This in turn has guided the creative process in generating logo designs that reflect the true character of the city. Creative is often subjectively judged with everyone having their own likes and dislikes, so pleasing everyone is not possible. The goal is to select the strongest logo to represent your brand, and our process of working with the city staff and committee has involved great efforts to evolve creative designs to the point that they are all viable candidates. This process has been lively, interactive, passionate, and diligent. I’ve been very impressed by how involved and committed your team has been and we’re all proud of our final results. There are several problems that can be encountered with polling the public for logo selection input. First of all, getting results that will be statistically representative of the community is not very likely without additional time and costs. If you recall the concern that our research projects faced regarding statistical accuracy, the problem here is that public polling would not represent the whole community. Also, public polling processes can create “camps” or factions that might work together to favor one certain design and encourage others to vote for the group’s favorite. The worst case would be only polling those who attend the annual Town Hall meeting, as that group is certainly a subset of your city’s political community. The report from the city’s economic development specialist on other cities logo development processes shows that virtually none of them elected to poll their communities for logo input. This is good research that gives you insights on how others in the situation handled it. It also shows that I am not alone in my recommendation that polling the public now is not the best method of selecting a logo. In the end, this decision belongs to those who are the elected representatives. I urge you to trust in the process and to respect the work that led us to this point. I can assure you it has been achieved though earnest efforts. I truly commend the city staff members who have worked very hard to be sure we present you with a variety of winning logo designs. Any of the finalists will work well for your brand and will have been borne of extensive public input and effective professional processes. Respectfully, Patrick Bettenburg Vice President / Account Supervisor Risdall Marketing Group Patrick@Risdall.com www.Risdall.com Direct: 651-286-6754