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EDA Item 7B – June 8, 2009 Communications/Marketing Plan Page 2 of 4 Discussion The ideas that City staff most appreciated in the plan submitted by Risdall are as follows: • Track City Website visitor data • Create, define & manage guidelines for the use of the City’s brand (logo) • Transform the City Website home page to appear like a hometown newspaper (add weekly updates and archived articles) • Change images on City Website home page to be recognizable City locations • Use one voice on the Website • Set standards for accepting programming and announcements on the cable channel and the electronic City Hall sign • Obtain & track cable channel viewer data • Rename County Road 10 to Mounds View Parkway or Boulevard so that it becomes the City’s brand icon Although there are many good ideas in the plan, City staff considers the plan from Risdall to be a framework. It provides the City with the basic framework for such things as estimating implementation costs, creating action steps/related timelines and measurement goals. The steps involved in creating a more detailed communications and marketing plan would include one to two months of additional City staff time that would be spent on the following: 1. Gathering sample plans from other communities 2. Prioritizing Risdall’s recommendations based on City Council goals 3. Assuming the implementation of the new City logo is a top priority, requesting quotes for applying the new logo on letterhead, business cards, envelopes, City vehicles, squad cards, City flag, water tower, entrance signs, monument signs, street signs, etc. (three quotes for each item) 4. Estimating costs of implementing Risdall’s recommendations 5. Creating action steps/related timelines in achieving those action steps 6. Creating goals for measuring the outcome of each action step Recommendation Staff recommends that the EDA adopt the Public Communications & Marketing Plan for Mounds View as submitted by Risdall. City staff suggests moving forward with requesting quotes for implementing the new City logo because it is the most cost- effective way for the City to move forward with the rebranding of the City.