Last edited on Wed May 7th, 2008 10:09 pm by JEPHTHAH

• Peoria, Arizona, recently entered the Canuck-copying frenzy with its new tagline "Naturally Connected."  The line is, of course, already in use by Canada's Victoria County.
• Not content to swipe one Canadian tagline when two could be had for the same price, Peoria's alternate tagline during the comprehensive branding process was "Come to Life... In the Desert".  "Come to Life" has, of course, been used for years by the province of Nova Scotia.
• For those of you thinking this is nothing more than an odd coincidence, it will seem even more odd when you realize that Victoria County is located in... Nova Scotia!
• How does a branding process in the American desert end up choosing between two taglines from Canada's east coast?  Maybe they just figured we wouldn't notice.  Or that we're so darn nice we just wouldn't mind one bit thank you very much.
• Peoria's local media have picked up on the "Naturally Connected" connection (though they haven't yet caught on to the Nova Scotia connection to the alternate tagline) and some folks are asking smart questions.
• The answers, unfortunately, aren't so smart from the folks who were hired to create the brand and tagline:  Don McEachern, CEO of North Star Destination Strategies, a leading(?) US brand firm that has done work with more than 80 American cities, said "he would be hard-pressed to find a negative to two communities having similar slogans."  Huh?  Isn't that the very reason why cities hire branding firms - to differentiate themselves?  And isn't that the very definition of a brand - a unique mark that identifies a unique product?  Someone should direct McEachern's attention to his own website where the firm claims "each North Star client faces a unique challenge that requires a unique solution."  Unless they meant that to read "a solution that is unique within the continental United States (offer not valid in Canada)."
• North Star was apparently behind another branding campaign that resulted in the launch of a slogan for Longview, Texas ("Pure and Simple") that was already in use by South Walton, Florida.  The South Walton slogan was, of course entirely original and was created by ummm... wait a minute... North Star Destination Strategies? 
  
• Scratch the previous edit.  When they said "a unique solution" on their website they must have meant "a solution that is unique within at least a few hundred miles of city hall unless we've forgotten something we did a couple of years ago and then hey, all bets are off, and you guys are pretty much totally differentiated by having a different name for your city already anyway, right?  Taxi!"
• Why don't we just cut out the middle man here and license our taglines to the American market?  I'd be hard-pressed to find a negative in that.
  

Last edited on Wed May 7th, 2008 05:44 pm by skyhawk