Township Begins Process of Branding the Hartland Community

In an effort to improve communication with residents and raise community recognition and repute, Hartland Township will begin a new branding campaign that will involve multiple facets of the community including schools, businesses and government.

During Tuesday night's Township meeting, the board approved a proposal from Digitalliance in the amount not exceed $35,000 for the branding and website development.

The vision, according to the proposal, is to share a "common branding message across platforms that communicate the strengths of the community." 

According to Hartland Township Manager James Wickman, Hartland Schools and the Hartland Chamber have already agreed to participate in the branding process while meetings with the Cromaine District Library have been scheduled.

"From the very beginning the vision for the brand was not bounded by our 6 by 6 mile square, it's about the entire Hartland community," he said during the meeting. "So this is about promoting the Hartland brand."

Merging multiple groups, organizations and areas into one "unified" brand that promotes the community as a whole is the "bigger picture."

"What we're doing is collectively taking all those and raising the tide for all," Wickman said. "They don't need to change their logo, they don't need to change the things their doing-- this is added value."

During the branding process, two of the issues that will be addressed include:

• The current positioning and perception creates confusion between Hartland Township and the greater Hartland Community.
• The current logo lacks a unique distinction for the Hartland Community and visually seems too “small town.”

Phase 1

• Provide a comprehensive questionnaire to be used with various focus groups to help determine consensus on the current brand position

• Help summarize and distill feedback into actionable steps

• Provide concepts for a positioning statement and tagline

• Engagement with client and/or stakeholders as necessary to facilitate communication

Phase 2

• Provide concepts for a new logo

• Develop a modular corporate identity system based on selected logo; letterhead, envelop, business cards, Powerpoint template, presentation folder, etc.

• Design landing page with vanity URL for Hartland Community (linked to and managed by CMS of main Township website)

• Redesign website for Hartland Township and build all content within a new CMS (content management system)

• Provide training and support for new website