Small city, loves slogans
New slogan to help tell the Saint John story, city says
It's the Port City. It's also been the Loyalist City and the Biggest Little City in the East.
When hashtags were all the rage, it was #SaintAwesome.
When you drive into Saint John, you see signs that proclaim the city is "Always Moving Forward."
So prepare yourself: another slogan is about to take over this foggy coastal town: Small city, big heart.
"In Saint John, it's really about telling the Saint John story," said Lisa Caissie, director of external relations for the city.
"Who are we, understanding who we are, knowing who we are, and really having a way to communicate that outward."
But why does Saint John feel the need for slogans and comparatively frequent branding?
"The stakes are higher in Saint John because there's the perception that we're lagging behind other areas," said Greg Marquis, a history and political science professor at University of New Brunswick in Saint John and a local historian.
Marquis said Saint John was on the same economic level as Halifax a century ago, but now it competes with Moncton and Fredericton for biggest city in the province.
At the same time, Saint John suffers from an old reputation.
"A lot of outsiders regarded it in sometimes negative ways, as a gritty industrial town, that type of thing."
As for the need for slogans, Marquis suggested it as a "morale-building" exercise of sorts, to bring confidence to the community and cheer it up.
"I think there's a view out there that cities compete for things, there's maybe only so many investors or immigrants, or newcomers to go around. So how do you get noticed?"
"So I think that's kind of the bottom line in this place-branding."
Slogans for other N.B. cities
But how does this slogan-centric city on the bay compare to her sister cities in the Picture Province?
Fredericton Capital Region tourism uses the slogan "Life Well Crafted."
"We're a place where harmonious contrasts don't just co-exist, they entwine, mixing together in unique ways to create a place filled with memorable experiences," the website goes on to proclaim.
Capital Region tourism spokesperson Stacey Russell declined an interview request about the slogan, citing a lack of interest in comparing "municipal brands with tourism brands."
As for Moncton, the websites for city hall and tourism promoter Destination Moncton-Dieppe are bare of any catchy, attention-grabbing slogans, although Moncton for years has borne the nickname Hub City.
"The City of Moncton has never had a tourism specific slogan," city spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc said in an email.
This wasn't always the case, the email said. The city once used "Our Tide is Rising" to describe itself.
"However, with climate change events occurring more frequently, it was felt that the tagline was no longer appropriate," LeBlanc said.
More regional promotion
As Saint John prepares for its rebranding, will the flashy "Always Moving Forward" signs and promotion stick around too?
"Yes, absolutely," said Jillian MacKinnon of Envision Saint John, the regional growth agency that uses that slogan.
She explained that economic promotion is like a funnel by region. At the top is Canada, which aims to attract foreign investors and businesses to invest in the country.
Then there's the provincial growth agency, OpportunitiesNB, followed by Envision Saint John, which represents seven local communities.
"'Always Moving Forward' is still absolutely the place brand for the region, and we're still very excited about it and still getting great feedback from our partners, stakeholders, and municipalities," MacKinnon said.
But will the competing slogans create confusion? MacKinnon doesn't think so, because other communities in the Saint John area already have their own slogans.
"Quispamsis has the tagline 'There is No Other,' Hampton uses the tagline 'It's Our Nature,' and now you've got the City of Saint John tagline 'Small City, Big Heart.'"
She said "Always Moving Forward" has become a marketing tool for Envision Saint John and has been helpful to attract residents, entrepreneurs and talent to the area.
"Marketing and sales is part of what we do, so for us it was really important" to have a brand people identified with and was reflective of the assets the Saint John region has.
Agency helped develop new slogan
Moncton-based marketing agency Hawk is responsible for both "Always Moving Forward" and "Small City, Big Heart."
"In anything that we do in our business, coming on down to something simple is often the hardest thing to do," Chris Choiniere, the project lead at Hawk, said of Saint John's new rebrand.
Choiniere said the process began with meeting with the city to find out what it wanted to convey, which ended up being a welcoming community and the development momentum Saint John has been experiencing.
He said it's more than a slogan, as the brand will soon start to infiltrate city communications, its website and social media, and even how city employees speak on the phone.
"The brand covers all of that," Choiniere said. "The slogan is the memorable representation of that, but there's so much more to it than just those four words."
Back at city hall, Lisa Caissie said the research and surveying first done by Envision Saint John for "Always Moving Forward" was shared with the city and was pivotal in coming up with the new slogan.
While Caissie said the slogan will help with tourism, she also believes "this is mostly for locals, for Saint Johners, it's a tagline developed by Saint Johners for Saint Johners."
Despite several requests, Caissie would not provide a number for how much the work by the Moncton marketing agency cost Saint John taxpayers.
There were "some costs involved," she said, but the city was able to keep them down because its external relations team "was able to work on the majority of the work, just with some guidance with Hawk."
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