City, chamber cement slogan sharing deal

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This article was published 21/06/2017 (2499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Steinbach and Steinbach Chamber of Commerce will enter into a formal three-year licence agreement to share “More For You Here,” a promotional slogan first created by the chamber in 2015.

The option to adopt the slogan was last discussed in May at a strategic priorities committee meeting. On Tuesday, city councillors unanimously supported Councillor Michael Zwaagstra’s motion to proceed with the agreement.

“Sometimes, there are situations where other organizations do some good work and it makes sense for us to benefit from it. This is an amicable agreement…and it’s a good slogan. There is ‘more for you here’ in Steinbach,” Zwaagstra said.

Councillor Susan Penner concurred, remarking, “We want to work with the business community to promote the community, and I think there’s a lot of synergy to be had from this.”

In response to a question from Penner, city manager Troy Warkentin explained the terms of the four-page agreement were drawn up by the chamber, and surmised the document’s formality stemmed from the slogan’s status as a registered trademark and item of intellectual capital.

The agreement authorizes the city to use the slogan in public communications relating to city facilities and events. Its terms expire on June 30, 2020, though either party can terminate it with three months’ written notice.

An accompanying terms of use document stipulates the city’s official logo should appear first on all city communications and pledged selective use of the slogan “to avoid diluting its effectiveness.”

“Initially, an advance copy of the slogan in use by the City is to be provided to the Chamber for review and approval,” the document continues. “With time, the expectation is that this will become unnecessary.”

Speaking after the meeting, Mayor Chris Goertzen said the cost of creating a new slogan can range from $5,000 to $20,000.

“We didn’t look at it extensively because I think there was a general confidence that we don’t want to duplicate anything that’s already being done,” he said. Councillors have toyed with the topic of city branding formally and informally for quite some time, he added.

Goertzen also expanded on his support for the move.

“We see the chamber of commerce doing good work, [and] we see something that makes a lot of sense and that we can tag onto…working together, we’re actually better off than if we’re all doing our own thing.”

Goertzen observed slogan sharing has precedent in Steinbach. “It’s worth the trip”—originally a Steinbach Auto Dealers Association slogan—was used by the chamber of commerce and the city, he said.

“It had crept into what the city was using from time to time unofficially,” he explained.

In May, a report prepared by city administrators expressed concerns about conflating the city’s strategic priorities with the chamber’s objectives, noting the former’s operations contained no “monetary incentive.”

While Goertzen allowed the possibility of potential diverging interests down the road, he said the informal public feedback received thus far has been generally positive.

“Everyone doing their own thing is not efficient, and it doesn’t send a clear message to the public,” he stressed.