Tisdale’s new slogan and logo aims to leverage the community’s agricultural roots to attract new investors.
The Opportunity Grows Here slogan was unveiled along with the town’s new website at tisdale.ca on Aug. 22.
“We’re an agriculture community. We can’t dispute that,” said Al Jellicoe, Tisdale’s mayor. “We grow canola and lots of other crops: oats, barley, peas, faba beans, all that kind of stuff. There are opportunities here for value-added processing and that’s where we want to focus on in the next little while.”
The town wants to tell investors Tisdale is the perfect place for value-added processing and transportation of agricultural goods because it has the infrastructure for industry, two rail lines, two highways and the expertise to support those industries.
The slogan was developed through focus groups with youth, businesses and seniors; a leadership advisory group chaired by Coun. Marvin Wiese; and a survey conducted with five of Canada’s top branding firms. That information was digested by the economic development committee, which made the final recommendation to council.
The whole process cost the town less than $2,000, said Sean Wallace, the town’s economic development officer.
“It was done completely in-house, with in-house expertise,” he said. “Normally a process like this would be from $25,000 to $100,000 for a community this size. We did everything to the same professional standard but we got results with far less because we used in-house resources.”
The logo was designed by Kristin McGrath, who grew up in Tisdale but now lives in Alberta.
The new slogan replaces The Land of Rape and Honey, which became the town’s slogan in 1958.
“Why give up The Land of Rape and Honey? It’s outdated,” Jellicoe said. “I know through the town here when approaching businesses not familiar with the brand, their first reaction was, ‘whoa.’ They don’t know what rape is.”
The mayor added rapeseed accounts for less than one per cent of the province’s crops.
“When we’re trying to attract business from outside Saskatchewan, they don’t necessarily know what rapeseed is, especially if you’re talking to different countries,” Wallace said. “We found it a bit problematic and we needed an easier way, a less confusing way, a less misunderstood way to market Tisdale. This [new slogan] was the best way while keeping our agriculture traditions and expertise in the forefront.”
The town will place the new slogan and logo on letterheads, business cards, pens and other promotional materials, but it will deplete whatever they have before ordering new stuff. One of the signs with the old slogan will be going to the museum. In the coming months, the signs on the edges of town will be replaced with new ones. Wallace said he should be able to get access to grants so the town doesn’t have to pay for it.
The new website is visually redesigned and has an Invest Tisdale section, where there are documents marketing the town to investors in Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic and English. The town launched its effort to promote investment from outside Canada last year and has received delegations from India, China and Japan that came to specifically look at Tisdale.
