A Local Government Brand Presentation outlining discussions on our experiences in brand building for local government.

1. A discussion on our experiences
in brand building for local government
BR@#D!
is not a fouR letteR woRD

3. If a brand is a
customer’s
understanding
of your products
and services.
Do you know what
your audience
understands
about you?

4. So what is
a brand?

5. What have
you created?
- Every organisation has a brand whether they have carefully
constructed it, or allowed it to grow on its own
- It’s more than a logo
- It’s your reputation
- It’s what people say about you when you’re not around
- Your brand is generated by what you say and what you do as
well as by how you present yourself to the world
- All successful brands have a central idea that guides the
energy and provides a self belief system for the people in your
organisation
- A brand is not something that sits in a report, it’s something you
need to be obsessive about

6. Woody Allen
once said:
“90% of success
is turning up
on time...”

7. The magic for
brands is in the
other 10% woody!
Image and perception are value drivers for every organisation;
Without an image there is no perception.
- Your brand image is a key communicator of what you stand for
- When you’re asleep at night, your image continues to ‘talk
about’ your brand
- We call your logo, corporate colours and typefaces as they
appear on signage, publications, vehicles, events, etc. your
visual language
- We call the visual language that makes up your image your
Brand Identity

8. Logo
+
Visual
Language
=
Brand
Identity

9. Your logo is the
point of entry to
your brand
- Your logo (or brand mark) is the cornerstone of your
brand identity, it is the foundation upon which you build
consistent and meaningful visual language for your brand
communications
- Visual language includes; typefaces and type styles, brand
colours, photographic or illustrative imagery, and associated
visual elements such as patterns and textures
- It is our role as Brand Image experts to create unique brand
properties for our clients, distinctive visual language they can
own and that provides a stand-out presence in their market

11. The best brand
identities are
memorable.
Recognition is
immediate,
across cultures
and customs.

12. Sub-branding,
Co-branding,
Schmo-branding

13. Sub-branding
Co-branding
- Brand Architecture is the way your brand, sub-brands and the
brands of your products, services, departments and events
relate to each other
- More importantly how they communicate this relationship to
their audiences.
Do the people who live and work in your cities understand the
relationship between Council and your events, facilities, parks
maintenance contractors, local laws officers, etc. ?
- A unique element of local government is the complexity of
brand architecture. Typically we find a web of sub-brands and
brand relationships with facilities, events, services, contractor
relationships
- All the pieces are part of the picture that make’s up your brand

14. You have to manage your
Corporate Templates/
Forms Presentations
HR/Trainin
Programs
Annual Corporate
Report Plan
Corporate
Stationery
Faxes /
Memos
Corporate
Environment
Corporate
Signage
Streetscape/
Boundary Environment Bra
Signage
Facility
Sub-brand
Retail
Precinct Ser
Facility
Sub
Signage
Facility Serv
Collateral Colla
B2B Comms/
Programs

15. brands from the inside out
Promotional
Items
HR/Training Advertising
Programs Styles Publications/
Brochures
Website Brand
Corporate Rituals
Stationery Identity
Guidelines Newsletter
Co-branding
Central Idea Signage
Co-branding
Guidelines
Staff
Brand Identity Uniforms Co-branding
Collateral
Event Vehicle
nd
Sub-brand Livery
Service
Sub-brand Event Image
Signage Library
Service Event
Collateral Collateral
Bold
s/ Gestures

16. Building a brand
sounds like a really
painful process...
Why would we
bother?

17. The value of
brand to local
government
organisations
- As many of you would know, the Municipal Association of
Victoria met in February this year to discuss the development of
a campaign strategy to enhance community understanding of
the importance of Councils in the provision of local leadership,
infrastructure, services and advocacy.
- When it comes to a compelling rationale for developing your
brand image, the initial conclusions from the MAV campaign
strategy reinforce what we’ve been talking about with our
clients for years;
- Image and perception are value drivers for every organisation;
Without an image there is no perception.

18. You get
the picture

19. We certainly weren’t surprised that a number of the key objectives
set by the workshop were directly brand related:
- Raise awareness of Council’s role in providing leadership for
local communities
- Increase understanding of the importance of community
infrastructure and Council’s significant role as guardians of that
infrastructure
- Strengthen Council’s branding
- Increase visibility of small scale capital works/asset
maintenance and we’d add to that visibility of contractors
working on behalf of Council
- Raise awareness of Council’s role in providing valued
community services.
- Use emotional imagery and language to connect Council with
valued services
- Strengthen council’s branding at service points
- To raise awareness of the excellent employment and career
opportunities on offer in local government
- Evoke personal relevance to messages about local
government’s roles and functions.
- Use inclusive language that helps communities ‘own’ their
council ie ‘your council’, ‘our community’
- Use emotional imagery to depict the roles of councils

21. One of the natural laws of
business is that in lieu of any
structured brand identity every
otherwise intelligent employee
becomes a designer.
- The number of hours we witness spent across our client’s
organisations on the constant re-creation of presentations,
templates, letters, brochures, flyers, newsletters and internal
communications is astounding
- This activity not only diffuses the professional presentation of
an organisation’s image, but costs thousands of hours and tens
of thousands of dollars each year in lost productivity
- A well executed brand not only creates more productive and
profitable organisations, but the consistency of brand message
and visual language absolutely maximise the return on your
communications investment

23. So what do we know?
Since 1995 we have developed a particularly affinity with, and
understanding of Local Government through our work with;
The City of Dandenong, The City of Glen Eira, The City of
Melbourne, The City of Port Phillip, The City of Stonnington, The
City of Whitehorse, The City of Whittlesea, and The City of Yarra,
We spend a lot of our lives working with organisations on their
brands. As a group our Local Government clients are faced with a
particularly unique set of challenges;
- Non-corporate organisational cultures that is resistant to the
types of changes that are part and parcel of branding projects
- A complex web of stakeholders
- Confusing brand architecture relationships, often with an
additional layer of contractual complexities relating to service
providing contractors
- The natural tension of Community involvement
- The impact this has on rationalising non-essential spending for
projects such as branding
- Challenging project budgets

25. The greatest
roadblock to
brand-building
is getting
a complex
organisation
to execute a
simple idea.

26. There’s more
than one way
to skin a cat

27. Best Practice is
only best practice
when it gets
results.
– The process of branding needs to be pragmatic. If we don’t
engage the right stakeholders at the right times, the whole
project can end up a waste of time and energy. Often in Local
Government, the idea of creating a Brand seems too huge a
task to contemplate. Who in their right minds would embark on
a process that would require corporate and Councillor approval
of such substantial change?
– In our experience, a flexible approach to building a brand piece-
by-piece has proven to be a methodology that suits the nature
of Local Government organisations.

28. Ten Tips for
building Local
Government
brands

29. 01. Get on the Same Page 05. Characteristics suited to
The earlier in the process key stakeholders develop successfully steering a branding project
a shared understanding of the brand and a central (without losing your marbles)
thought for its expression the better.
- Focus
As part of our branding process we run client workshops
- Discipline
that pinpoint an over-arching idea that guides the
energy of the organisation and provides staff with a - Strong Communication Skills
shared self belief system. - Empathy
When we fail to think strategically about our brand - Effective Management Skills
messages, we create a brand that will fail to achieve its - Flexibility
goals. - Creative Problem-solving
- Insight
02. Never Blame your Tools
Organisational tools save time, energy and are the key 06. Consistency
driver of a consistent and professional brand image; One Look - One Feel - One Voice
Templates and guidelines -easier, time saving, cost
saving. 07. Get Runs on the Board
03. Blocks aint Blocks The road to hell is paved with good strategy.
- Strategically select your brand building blocks Important to build momentum. As consistent
applications of a new brand image appears, acceptance
- What will provide easy wins? and enthusiasm follow.
- Which are the most popular communications tools? If nothing changes, nothing changes.
- Which are the pet projects for key stakeholders?
08. Demand Focus
- Which are the pivotal expressions of the brand?
ie. a swim centre sign rather than a garbage You can’t be everything to everyone.
collection flyer. A brand that tries to be a little bit of everything ends up
being a lot of nothing.
04. Maximise return on investment.
All brand Comms aren’t Born Equal 09. Crack that Whip
Select key statement documents On brand! / Off brand! Do you know the difference?
- Already budgeted for All brands require constant steering.
- Define the key theme through an agreed central Have you committed the resources to maximise the
thought return on your branding investment?
- Provide the opportunity to speak in the visual 10. FYI
language of your brand
Branding is at its best an inclusive process. Be strategic
Work out which actions provide your brand about how and when you engage those people who will
most leverage - Apply the 80:20 rule and leverage like be responsible for bringing your brand to life.
hell.
When you find your central idea, ask people how they’ll
help execute it. You’ll be surprised by the amount of
energy you release.

30. Bottom line;
Good brands build
organisations.
Ineffective brands
undermine success.