January 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 24

Member to Member
Outgrowing Your Tagline
An Arizona agency reinvents its brand to
encompass its broadened role in the community
By Brooke Peterson

he city of Chandler, Arizona's Parks and Recreation Divisions recently navigated through the challenging and exciting process of rebranding with a new logo and tagline. Although the logo had gone
through a few updates, the tagline hadn't changed in more than 20
years. The city learned several important lessons during this process, namely
knowing when it's time for a change, what to consider before taking the plunge
and how to successfully launch the new brand.
lation more than doubled,
changing its landscape. The
time had come to establish
a tagline that expressed
the lifecycle of parks and
recreation, spoke to the
residents and was relatable
across the board no matter
an individual's age, race, or
socioeconomic standing.

Time to Change
Considering one of the most common synonyms for parks and recreation is play, the city's former tagline
of " Come Out and Play Chandler "
was a natural fit. Chandler Parks
and Recreation believes in the power of play, but agencies today offer
so much more than just play to their
communities.
Noted economist and park and recreation enthusiast Dr. Lowell Catlett
spoke at the 2012 NRPA Congress.
The underlying theme of his remarks
spoke to the impact park and recreation services have on a community.
This resonated with Chandler staff
and moved them to action.
In the 20-plus years since the tagline
was first introduced, Chandler's popu22 Parks & Recreation

Things to Consider
Before Taking the Plunge
Upper Management. Have conversations with the appropriate managers
and directors early on about staff intentions and reasoning for wanting to
rebrand. It's important to have their
support and for them to feel like they
are part of the process.
Internal vs. Hiring a Company. Decide
if this undertaking is going to happen using resources within the organization or if funds will be allocated
to hire an outside company. On paper, it may appear cheaper to have
staff work through the process and
do the project internally, but at what
cost? Are other projects that staff are
working on OK to move to the back
burner? Will staff members be able

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to look at the project objectively and
remove themselves and their biases
from the process?
Budget
Rebranding can be an expensive and
lengthy process. Be prepared to not
only budget financial resources to
update all necessary items, but staff
time as well. Assign a project manager to take ownership and ensure the
project stays on track, within budget
and on deadline.
It's OK, Even Important to be Picky!
After serious thought and consideration, Chandler decided to hire an
outside organization. Requests for
proposals were sent to local branding companies; a small committee
reviewed the responses and interviewed two firms for consideration.
Once Chandler's partner, Creative
Brand Consulting (CBC), was selected, an exploratory meeting with
them, as well as representatives from
all areas of parks and recreation, was
held to establish a base level of understanding about the services Chandler
offers. From there, the committee
dialed back to six members meeting
regularly with CBC.
CBC then went to their drawing
boards, drafted, and worked through
more than 100 tagline and logo directions. They presented 25 options to
the core team for consideration before the committee selected the final
direction. CBC then worked that one
logo option dozens of times, chang-

January 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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