The Creston Valley is strengthening its brand and it needs help from the public. No steer wrestling experience is necessary. Gloves and jeans aren’t needed. There’s no cattle or branding irons. All that’s needed are your thoughts about the Creston Valley.
Our brand is our story: It’s who we are, who we want to be, what we do and what we’ve done. If you live in the Creston Valley, your story is part of our story. And our story is the story of the Creston Valley and the people who live here, the activities we do, the way we live our lives and how we share our region with others. Our brand is our story and it’s how our story is told. A brand strengthens our story and provides tools to tell the story, like brochures and websites, as well as guidelines to ensure it’s told consistently and effectively. We want to ensure that our story is told best and in order to do that, we need you.
A brand is not simply a logo. A logo is a symbol that represents a brand but a logo is not a brand. A brand is a story and it is told in many different ways to many different people. A logo’s job is to make the brand consistently recognizable to these different people over time.
Brands are about telling a story. A brand is simply about expressing the story as we would like it told. In the case of the Creston Valley, that may mean expressing the pride of people who live in an incredible place. And it might mean discovering areas of our story that can be improved. The Creston Valley’s branding initiative needs your thoughts and comments to ensure our story is authentic and reflects who we are today and who we are tomorrow. It doesn’t mean our story changes, as much as how we tell our story changes.
The Creston Valley is an incredible area, with exceptional places, people and stories. However, there are many other areas in British Columbia, Canada and the world that also boast incredible places, people and stories. A brand helps to identify and strengthen those things that differentiate us from other areas and it helps us to express the attitude and feelings of our region.
A brand is an expression of who we are to the rest of the world. It’s what makes us distinct and what differentiates us from others. A solid brand offers compelling reasons to be proud of our region and to participate in the Creston Valley experience. A solid brand means our story is not just heard but that it is remembered, retold and, most importantly, experienced.
As the Creston Valley begins to strengthen our brand, we’re looking for feedback from our story’s most important people, the people who make the Creston Valley the Creston Valley — and that’s you!
A survey is online until March 9 at www.crestonsurvey.com, asking questions about what makes the Creston Valley special and what you think is important about our area, and paper surveys are available at the chamber.
For questions or more information on the Creston Valley branding, contact chamber executive director Jim Jacobsen at manager@crestonvalleychamber.com or 250-428-4342.
— CRESTON VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE