Burleson Texas Issues Branding RFP

The City of Burleson is seeking a qualified advertising/marketing firm to assist the city in developing an overall brand identity. The City of Burleson is a full-service city providing residents with all of their basic services and many amenities like The Burleson Recreation Center and Hidden Creek Golf Course. The City of Burleson is interested in protecting its identity as “your hometown” while positioning itself for additional residential, commercial and industrial growth. The city’s goals are to build a dynamic future, while preserving the city’s rich history. The city is dedicated to establishing a great place to live, learn, work and play and to be a sustainable community for all, through every stage of life.

In 2016, the city’s marketing and communications department completed a strategic plan with action goals. A copy of the strategic plan is attached. As part of the strategic plan, one of the goals identified was re-access the city’s brand. The objective of this effort is to develop a clear, strong, and resilient brand identity that represents the varied attributes of the Burleson community. The resulting brand messaging should support goals from the Marketing and Communications Strategic Plan along with city council’s vision.

Background:

Burleson is an established city whose borders lie within southern Tarrant County and northern Johnson County. Burleson has experienced tremendous commercial and residential growth in the last twenty years and is poised for more due to its location along Interstate 35-W and an additional 28.29 square miles in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Burleson has a deep history which is very evident in the amount of founding families that have descendants who still live in the community and the preservation of founding family’s homes and Burleson’s Old Town area.

The city provides a large variety of services to the community which includes your common city services such as water, streets, library to specialty services such as a golf course, senior center, farm and art center, recreation center and a restaurant at the golf course. City departments are located throughout the city in a variety of buildings which tends to lead to a lack of inconsistent branding and communications. Maintaining an accurate and consistent flow of information about the city to internal stakeholders is necessary for the communications plan to be successful.

The city would like to bring more awareness to its amenities, success stories and community events. Burleson is fortunate that the community is served by a local newspaper, Burleson Star, to help distribute information. However, the city does not have a dedicated media representative at The Star-Telegram or other major broadcast media outlets.

Burleson has introduced new communication initiatives in recent years and is always exploring how to deliver timely information about city council activities, initiatives and other news. One of the recent tools launched was a redesign of the city’s website. The challenge that the website creates is the branding of the site does not match the current Burleson logo and there are no plans to integrate the website branding citywide.

There are opportunities for improvement with the branding of current communications vehicles (website, social media, e-newsletters and signage, etc.) and consistency of a message with the development of a city mission statement and official tagline adopted by the city council. The city’s brand will need to be fully embraced by the city and better known among key audiences, including both internal and external stakeholders.

The City of Burleson has a strong history and a bright future, the goal is to communicate this flawlessly to its key audiences.

Scope of Work:

Task #1 ‐ Research & Foundation:

This task encompasses the initial research necessary to define target audiences, identify what value the city offers to the targeted audiences, develop a brand positioning statement and test recommended brand concepts using targeted focus groups, surveys, and other methodologies as appropriate. It is anticipated that the selected firm will review research results with staff and the City’s Community and Intergovernmental Relations Committee as appropriate. To complete these tasks, the successful firm will be expected to draw from existing research and community planning documents as well as conduct their own research and focus groups. Community engagement and input from Burleson residents, businesses, members of the development community, visitors, partner organizations and any other identified key group is critical to the success of all tasks. It may be necessary, as part of the community engagement process to educate groups on what branding means and why it is important for the City of Burleson. This task should answer the question, “Who are we as a City and how do we relate our ‘products’     and services in a way that’s meaningful to our customers and the values they hold dear?”

Deliverables:

• Brand assessment – evaluate the City’s current brand and anticipated redirection
• Brand Discovery Document – results of brand assessment and clarification on how/if we incorporate other department’s logos into the re-branding (specifically Hidden Creek Golf Course, Burleson Recreation Center, Economic Development, Old Town, Fire and Police).
• Brand positioning statement
• Review of city’s mission and vision with potential for new mission and vision that implements new branding
• Review of city’s tagline with potential for new mission and vision that implements new branding
• Creative Brief – which shall establish relevant information about the City and its messages and services, values, target audiences for the logo and brand creation, the City’s goals and expectations, as well as other relevant information which shall guide the development and creation of a new logo and brand for the City

Task #2 ‐ Branding & Message Development:

In this phase of the project, the selected firm will create the messaging, the expression of brand, and visual elements that will effectively communicate the City’s identity to target audiences. Messaging should connect to the hearts and minds of our audience and be believable, relevant and simple. Consistency will be key, but flexibility that allows use by the wide variety of departments, programs and services that make up the city is also important. Visual elements will include recommended logo, colors, fonts, graphic style and elements that are adaptable for use across a variety of media applications, including the City website.

Deliverables:

• Brand Messaging
• Mood Boards – shall create and present to the City various mood boards for the City’s new logo and brand creation, the purpose of which is to display various images, text, colors, and other design elements intended to evoke or convey a particular style, concept, or message in connection with the new logo and brand creation.
• Logo concepts, at least three concepts which shall be revises based upon feedback from the City
• Color Exploration

Task #3 ‐ Strategic Brand Implementation & Community Engagement:

This task will define the activities designed to effectively establish the City’s new brand identity to the target audiences

These strategies should:

• Employ a variety of communication tools.
• Engage Burleson’s citizens, businesses & visitors.
• Effectively tell the “Burleson” story.

Deliverables:

• Brand Strategy
• New logo with additional iterations of the logo for city departments
• Style Guide
• Design of e-mail signatures, business cards, and letterhead, each of which shall incorporate the logo and brand
• Design of a flag, which shall incorporate the logo and brand
• Design of wayfinding signs, monument signs and entry signs which shall incorporate the logo and brand

Task #4 ‐ Final Report and Presentation:

The selected firm will deliver one (1) unbound copy, seven (7) printed bound copies and one (1) electronic copy of their final report, including style guide and related graphics, to the city. Graphics designed to be used for placement in letterhead, folders, handouts and other marketing materials shall be in an electronic form commonly used by most computer software and shall not require the purchase of Adobe Photoshop or some other marketing-based software to enable such use. In addition, the selected firm will be required to make a formal presentation to the City’s Community and Intergovernmental Relations Committee and the City Council at the completion of the project to present their final report.

Date:

November 1st

Address:

Attn: Purchasing Manager

141 W. Renfro

Burleson, Texas 76028

Tourism focused PR firms include Coyne PR and 5WPR.