Lansdale Branding: Approval Not Needed, Implementation Begins

With the branding package in effect in Lansdale Borough, various departments will begin incorporating parts of the brand narrative into their daily structure. 

For instance, the code enforcement department has begun using the logo as watermarks on interoffice memos. In the next couple of weeks, it will look at purchasing new clothing with the new logo, as other pieces of attire wear out.

Few borough council members are still confused as to the branding initiative; it is not something to be approved by council — thereby restricting the borough to its logo, the "Life in Motion" tagline and various other aspects of the narrative.

The brand is to be implemented via numerous recommendations by North Star Destination Strategies, and spearheaded by the Communications Commission and the Economic Development Committee.

Borough Manager Timi Kirchner informed the code enforcement and land planning committee last week that the borough will soon be receiving a full 100-page report from North Star, which will be turned over to the Economic Development Committee and Communiations Commission.

"(Those committees will) work through all of the different recommendations for use of the brand and emphasize the brand," she said. "The narrative we talked about at the last meeting, everyone is in agreement that that brand platform captured Lansdale very well and captured the results of the research."

Code Enforcement Committee Chairman Jack Hansen said there are quite a number of people who like the new brand. He said once implemented, he would like to see it on the streets immediately.

"If we are setting it up that way, that's fine. My concern was that we use it too soon," he said. 

Kirchner reiterated that the brand is not just the logo and tagline; it is who Lansdale is and how Lansdale defines itself as a community.

"(It's) what we say about ourselves to darw people into our community. That's essentially what the Communications Commission and the Economic Development Committee have been working on, so that story gets out," Kirchner said. "The logo and tagline are one form of the overall package."

Committee member Denton Burnell — who chairs the Communications Commisison — said council needs to be careful that it doesn't lock itself in by approving the brand package.

"That tagline, it could be anything 'in motion,'" he said.  

Kirchner said that was the whole point, and the report will suggest just that.

"Tom Meyer immediately put 'Minds in Motion' out for the library. This is not going to be an event. It will be a process whereby we are rolling the brand out," she said. 

Burnell reemphasized the stance of the branding initiative at the subsequent council work session last week, where he reviewed the agenda from the previous Communications Commission meeting.

"We run into trouble if we look at it from (an approval) perspective. What we approved as council some months ago was the brand platform. We did approve that. That was the springboard for the creative committee and North Star to generate ideas," Burnell said. "This 100-page report gives us a myriad of ways to implement all those ideas and all the things that surround the brand and bring it to life."

Burnell said Kirchner has been using the phrase "Lansdale — On the Move. It's Worth the Investment," which wasn't approved by council, but has been used in good effect in the borough for many months.

"We all bought into it," he said. "It made sense. If we approve 'Life in Motion,' does that mean we can't say 'Minds in Motion'? It makes no sense. We have to be carefu about what we approve and focus on how we implement it." 

Burnell said each councilmember has the responsibility to implement the brand.

"We can be very flexible with it," he said.   

Economic Development Committee Chairwoman Mary Fuller, in her report on the previous Economic Development Committee meeting, piggybacked Burnell's comments on branding with her own opinion.

"People shouldn't be fixated on the cost of the product and the 'L' logo. This branding is so much more than that," she said. "It's our responsibility to bring it to life in all we do, whereever we can. It needs to be a way of life, and how people think about Lansdale when they're not in Lansdale or if they are not from Lansdale."

Fuller said she has begun to hear reactions from people throughout town on the branding.

"People have stopped me and said, 'Thanks for what you are doing. You are moving in the right direction.' Something has already started and I think we can continue moving in the right direction," Fuller said. "It's a platform and something to move from."