City of Powell River Council is hoping, with the success of its resident attraction campaign website, the world is its oyster, but pearls will no longer be part of the city’s brand.
Since 2004 the city’s tagline has been The Pearl on the Sunshine Coast. At the Thursday, April 2, council meeting, a motion was carried that Policy 205 - Use of Corporate Brand be amended to adopt the use of the new brand tagline, Coastal by Nature. The motion passed with Councillor Jim Palm opposed.
During the delegations portion of the council meeting, prior to council’s decision, Don Edwards, who described himself as a taxpayer born and raised in Powell River, said he would like to know who or where the idea came from to change the name from The Pearl on the Sunshine Coast to Coastal by Nature.
“I believe there are bigger concerns in this city that this council needs to address than wasting the money changing this title,” Edwards said. “As elected officials who are fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of this city, surely to goodness you can see how irresponsible this would be when there are more important issues to be addressed first.
“This idea is as irresponsible as someone who would go out and buy a 55-inch widescreen TV when his roof was leaking and needed replacing. If this city had lots of money and everything was in order it would be no problem. I’m not alone in thinking this is a foolish waste of our taxpayer dollars.”
Edwards said if one drives anywhere in the municipality there are potholes on every road. “For me, wasting one dollar changing a name we have had for all these years is ridiculous,” he said.
In introducing the motion, Councillor Russell Brewer said recommendation for the change came about as a result of the city’s implementation of the resident attraction marketing program rolled out before Christmas.
“As part of that marketing strategy they wanted to come up with a tagline specific to that marketing strategy and they came with Coastal by Nature,” Brewer said. “The marketing campaign, still ongoing, was so well received and they’ve received really good feedback on that tagline. That generated the recommendation to council to change our corporate brand.”
When the matter was first raised at a committee of the whole meeting on February 19, councillors decided to put the matter out to the public for feedback. One concern was the cost of implementing a change. Brewer said there was a comment about not going out and making wholesale changes to vehicles and signs, but rather, to change the branding when replacing items being phased out. There would not be significant cost changing business cards and stationery, Brewer said.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said the Tourism Powell River signage program that is being funded by the city and Powell River Regional District makes such a change in branding timely because new signage is being put in place and the change will be immediately reflected.
“I agree that if we do it over time as things need to be done then it won’t be much of a cost,” she said. “It’s quite catchy. I like it.”
Councillor Jim Palm said he’d asked about costs when the matter first came to council. He read the report from staff that stated costs were unknown.
“That doesn’t make me feel very good,” Palm said. “I know we are planning to do it in a gradual way but I still have a problem with the degree of consultation.
“We have far bigger burdens to bear, cost-wise, in this community. I know marketing is a big part of what we do in trying to attract people but I would really like to see further investigation along this line.”
He suggested that stations be set up at the budget open houses that were being scheduled to allow the public to weigh in further.
“I don’t see a problem putting it out there for another couple of weeks and then bringing it back to council when we have further input,” Palm said.
An online poll about the prospect of a change received a total of 343 responses, which city staff considers to be an adequate sample of the local marketplace. Of those responding, 243 preferred Coastal by Nature (70.85 per cent), 68 respondents preferred The Pearl on the Sunshine Coast (19.83 per cent), and 32 people left no comment.
