August 7, 2017 at 3:40 p.m.
Beyond the Hodag: Forward Rhinelander looks to rebrand community
Goal is to develop unified message
Beyond the Hodag: Forward Rhinelander looks to rebrand community
Forward Rhinelander member Dave Heck said the branding effort is key in developing a message that differentiates Rhinelander from other cities and towns in the area.
"This has been going on for three years. We interviewed over 40 people and literally every single person said the Rhinelander brand is lacking. What is the differentiation of Rhinelander?" Heck said. "In fact, Pat Marquardt of Printpack said he is tired of hearing how Wausau has this or Minocqua has that or Eagle River has this. Can we all sit in a room together and say why we love Rhinelander, this is the three reasons or 10 reasons?"
Since then, he said the group has been working with various stakeholders, the city and others in charting a course that will help Rhinelander prosper. Alison Schiek of Schiek Consulting took the information gathered at listening sessions and prepared a proposed brand guide, which she previewed for those in attendance.
Heck said the proposed branding guide is intended as a compliment to other promotional efforts, including the work of the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce.
As part of her research, Schiek said she studied other brand messaging and consulted with other branding professionals around the country.
"It helped sharpen our need for better positioning with the community as we look at Rhinelander and assess ourselves in how we are different from the surrounding communities," she said. "Then, going further, how are we different from some of the larger areas like Wausau."
At this point, the plan is for internal use by Forward Rhinelander and some of the photos included in the document are serving as placeholders.
Schiek said the purpose of the guide is to help move Rhinelander forward through strategic communications and brand management.
"When you ask people who have lived here, worked in the Rhinelander community, including myself, what is it like to live here and what the people are like and what the work environment is like and what the natural resources are like, you really get passionate about it because you remember as kids skipping rocks on the lake or whatever it was like growing up in the Rhinelander school district," she said. "There is a lot of heart and a lot of passions and I really want us as a community to take that heart and passion and put it toward our communications so that people can see that passion come through, feel that emotion when we're communicating with people."
She noted there are a number of groups the city is seeking to attract including job seekers, people looking for recreational activities, tourists, families looking to relocate, people in mid-life seeking partial or full retirement.
"There is a variety of audiences that we are going after," Schiek said. "So we understand that this is not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution, but what we're trying to do is set a tone for the positioning and differentiation. Unlike other brand guides she has written, she said she doesn't have to decide how to tell the area's "story."
"The story is right here, the resources are rich, the people are wonderful, the community is strong. So are the jobs and businesses that are here," Schiek said. "The industry in our area is unbelievable. So there is so much to sell and Rhinelander really does differentiate itself."
The brand guide is essentially a style tool to help the various entities "sell" the area using a common message, she concluded.
"Forward Rhinelander is advocating that we all get on the same page and sing from the same hymnal as far as what we feel is going to appeal most to our target audience," she said.
The guide starts with a brief history of the Pelican Rapids settlers and goes forward to explain how Rhinelander is the commercial, industrial and recreational hub for all of the northern region. The key is to have a unified vision and voice in positioning the Rhinelander brand in the mind of the target audience. Schiek said other organizations can use elements of the brand guide to better communicate to their own more specific audience.
"Keep in mind, I'm trying to go with a broad brush because it is a broad target audience," she said.
The guide points out that Rhinelander is the only community to offer "genuine, authentic Wisconsin Northwoods living with the infrastructure of a regional commercial hub." It also goes into the various natural attractions and recreational opportunities that can be found in and around the city.
"What we're doing is connecting people to the outdoors and healthy living while we're simultaneously and innovatively pioneering new business opportunities and boasts in technologies, as well as ways of working," Schiek said.
In an era of startup businesses, Rhinelander is in a unique position, she added.
"How wonderful to live in a place where you can start a business, have everything that you need to connect to the resources that you need in the area, and still be able to get away from all the overstimulation," she said.
Schiek's guide lists five core values that best define Rhinelander's strongest attributes.
They are:
• Outdoor Life
• Innovative
• Adventurous
• Genuine
• Resource Rich
"When you think about what we have to give and what we have to offer, it's immense," she said. "We're very blessed."
To help reinforce these values, she suggested the brand message of "Live. Seek. Explore. Rhinelander." This is a variation of the "Live. Work. Play" theme that has been used by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.
"We understand that live, work and play are the key factors, but we want be able to adopt it and make it our own and differentiate it so when it is used with different imagery it really evokes a little more emotion," she said. "But we want to stay close to that because we knew that was kind of a favorite of members of the group."
Another suggestion she made was to decentralize the mythical Hodag in the branding effort. While the image has become readily identifiable, and will always be part of the city's history, there are negative connotations attached to the Hodag, she said.
"We spent a lot of time thinking about that and we certainly don't take for granted that the Hodag is part of our identity," she said. "So the challenge is how does the Hodag represent our brand identity best and ensure that it helps us rather than creates distraction?"
She said she surveyed over 1,000 advertising professionals in the other 49 states about the Hodag and how it fits into current branding. She said the overwhelming majority suggested the beast take a backseat to promoting the five key values.
"The Hodag is a mascot not a brand," Schiek said.
The guide also includes examples of other cities around the country with unusual branding, such as Forestville, CA. (poison oak capital of the world), Washta, Iowa (the coldest spot in Iowa), Allentown, Pa. (truck capital of the world), Baxter Springs, Kansas (first cowtown in Kansas) and Beaver, Okla. (cow chip capital of the world) about how something like the Hodag might be a turnoff to some tourists.
The guide also includes suggested words and phrases that could be used to describe Rhinelander, a color palette that includes green but more as an accent color among other earth tones. It also has two copy snippets that could be used in promotional pieces that describe Rhinelander in 55 or 125 words.
The guide also has a page of differentiating facts about Rhinelander that lists the area's advantages over other area municipalities.
Schiek repeatedly stressed the need for a unified message to tout Rhinelander to the various markets each organization seeks to reach. This would create clarity and uniformity to help Rhinelander compete with all the other municipalities trying to capture the attention of the same markets, she explained.
"The way to do that is to come together with a common tone and a similar voice so that we're all sort of unified when we talk about what we think is great about Rhinelander," Schiek said. "We're unified in how we are positioning Rhinelander. Together, we can make a bigger impact."
The group also got a preliminary look at the redesigned Forward Rhinelander website, which includes many of the items in the branding plan, with the themes of "come discover why Rhinelander is the capital of Wisconsin's Northwoods" and "The city of nature, the city of possibilities." While some sections aren't finished yet, the group voiced its approval of Schiek's plans for the website.
She added that the end goal is to have the Forward Rhinelander webpage come up near the top of the results presented when someone does a web search on the city.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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