Turlock, California Issues Marketing & Branding RFP

The City of Turlock, California is located in Stanislaus County, on the eastern side of California’s San Joaquin Valley, 100 miles east of the San Francisco Bay Area. The City is on the State Highway 99 corridor, linking it to other Central Valley cities including Stockton and Sacramento to the north and Fresno and Bakersfield to the south. Turlock remains a stand-alone city surrounded by productive agricultural land. The “Jewel of the Central Valley” has long been coined to describe the community’s tree lined streets, friendly atmosphere and the charming Main Street which offers a unique taste of Hometown America.

They are seeking a marketing and branding agency to develop a marketing and branding strategy, assist with community marketing efforts that support the updated City of Turlock Economic Development Strategy.

In concert with community stakeholders and business community, the City has developed a Marketing Strategy (“Strategy”) to bolster the local business climate.

The Draft Strategy outlines the following key marketing targets:

• Resident consumers,
• Non-resident consumers,
• Existing Turlock businesses (retention and expansion), and
• New businesses (recruitment).

For each of these targets, the Draft Strategy should identify a series of marketing and branding tactics and implementation initiatives. The City is seeking a marketing consultant to finalize the Draft Strategy and begin efforts to create a Turlock brand and launch an identity and brand awareness campaign. The marketing consultant must have experience with developing a public sector brand, and with community marketing campaigns. In order to gain insights from Turlock residents regarding their consumer behavior, the marketing consultant must also be experienced with community outreach in order to assess current consumer attitudes and perceptions.

Project Overview

The City of Turlock is interested in protecting its identity as a pleasant place to live while positioning itself for additional residential, commercial and industrial growth. The City’s mission is to keep Turlock a pleasant place by providing a safe family atmosphere, superior public services, and policies that promote the highest standards of community life.

In 2014, the City completed an Economic Development Plan with annual action goals. A new update to the Economic strategy is also being conducted simultaneously with this RFP process. As part of the economic development plan, one of the goals identified was to create marketing materials which include a branding component for the City of Turlock.

The objective of this effort is to develop a clear, strong, and resilient brand identity that represents the varied attributes of the Turlock community.

The resulting brand messaging should support all goals of the City’s Economic Development Plan, with particular emphasis in the following areas:

• Attracting, retaining and growing businesses
• Building upon our successes in our vibrant downtown
• Transitioning the City from a “growth” model to one of long‐term sustainability
• Emphasizing the benefits of the City’s central location
• Maintaining and enhancing City’s high quality of life
• Encouraging residents of all ages to engage in community life, civic activities and
• Ideally, the brand package would consist of an overall brand identity, logo and messaging that effectively “tells the Turlock story” and can be used for the myriad of communication opportunities the City has with our residents, businesses, development community, visitors and other groups. The brand package should identify short and long‐term strategies and tactics for maximizing the brand’s value to the community.

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 consultant will review research results with staff and the City’s Economic Development Committee as appropriate. To complete these tasks, the successful consultant 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 Turlock 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 Turlock.

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:

• Research summary
• Brand positioning statement

Task #2 ‐ Branding & Message Development

In this phase of the project, the selected consultant 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:

• Style guide with visual and graphic standards, including logo

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 as well as identify ongoing strategies for communicating, maintaining and enhancing the brand’s value over the first three years following introduction.

These strategies should:

• Prioritize both short and long‐term strategies and tactics, including a timeline.
• Employ a variety of communication tools.
• Engage Turlock’s citizens, businesses & visitors.
• Enable target audiences to connect and interact with the City and use feedback
• To further build the City’s brand.
• Provide opportunities for target audiences to become advocates.
• Effectively tell the “Turlock” story.
• To ensure effective implementation, the brand strategy should recommend methods for tracking results and measuring success with target audiences.

Deliverables:

• Brand Strategy
• Tracking & Measurement Recommendations

Task #4

• Collaborate and interface with consultants that have been contracted to prepare the Economic Development Strategy as well as the consultants contracted to prepare the Tourism strategy.

Task #5

• Final Report and Presentation

The selected consultant will deliver one (1) unbound copy, five (5) printed bound copies and one (1) electronic copy of their final report, including style guide and related graphics, to the City.

Proposal due by December 2^nd, 2016

Maryn Pitt
Assistant to the City Manager for Economic Development and Housing City of Turlock
156 South Broadway, Suite 230
Turlock, CA 95380
mpitt@turlock.ca.us