The city doesn’t know how much it is going to cost to rebrand itself.
“Implementation has not been discussed yet,” said city manager Dennis Shewfelt.
The cost of changing the logos and slogans was raised at Monday’s council meeting.
“It seems unnecessary,” said Vanessa Brault, who questions both the pace and cost of the proposed changes.
The cost of rebranding the city would be spread over time, said Coun. Dave Austin.
But this would add to one of the problems that the rebranding was supposed to solve, said Brault.
“If we’re not doing it all at once, then we’re just adding to the problem of too many city brands,” she said.
The city paid Waterloo-based consulting firm eSolution $60,000 to design a new logo and slogan for Whitehorse.
But none of the three proposed logos are as unique as the sternwheeler graphic, said Brault.
“I didn’t realize how attached I was to it until I saw that it wasn’t an option,” she said. “I see the options provided and it looks like a pharmaceutical company logo.”
“When we did the individual interviews with the stakeholder groups most didn’t feel that the sternwheeler was the way to go,” said Whitehorse’s public relations manager Matthew Grant.
Of the 681 people that responded to the initial survey, 21 per cent liked the sternwheeler.
That minority included both Brault and Coun. Doug Graham, who shares Brault’s affinity for the old logo.
However, in that same survey more than 40 per cent of respondents disliked the logo.
Now that the final decision is close at hand, councillors are getting some push-back from the public.
“The rebranding was a response to what council heard from the business community at the 2009 business meeting,” said Coun. Ranj Pillai. “I think people are forgetting what the catalyst was.”
Whatever the motivation, Brault said she wants to see more debate before any decisions are made.
“If it’s really an important issue, lets talk about it,” she said. “Do you want a logo at this price, or a bus that runs on Sunday?”
Contact Josh Kerr at
joshk@yukon-news.com