MONROE - Green County tourism director Noreen Rueckert explained a new county branding plan to county supervisors at their monthly meeting earlier this week.
Rueckert is helping roll out an ad campaign for Green County based on a $91,000 branding concept developed by the Nashville-based firm North Star Destination Strategies. It was paid for with $39,550 in grants from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism; $6,450 from Colony Brands; $10,000 from Green County Tourism; $10,000 from the Green County Development Corporation; and from room taxes in New Glarus ($5,000) and Monroe ($20,000).
A new portal website was unveiled this week, greencountywisconsin.info.
Rueckert started by explaining how not to go about branding.
"You can't create a brand," she said. It has be based on qualities that already exist.
Clichés also don't work, so the county can't trot out yodeling and alphorns and expect a flood of Swiss-curious tourists. The brand the North Star team came up with goes "beyond yodel, and beyond alphorn," Rueckert said.
An example of this is the town of Fredericksburg, Texas, another location for which North Star developed a brand. Fredericksburg is known for its German culture, so North Star strived for an "upscale" and modern interpretation of that, beyond "oom pah pah" beer hall clichés, Rueckert said.
Green County also can't rely simply on cheese and beer to advertise itself, she added.
"We do not own the cheese," she said. All of Wisconsin does, and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has more money. By the same token, "we do not own the beer," she said. (Milwaukee does.)
So where to focus the brand?
On the craftsmanship. The brand is built around Swiss-identified but universally applicable ideals of precision, consistency, high standards, order, crisp thinking and "quiet self-confidence." These apply to the industries of Green County, from cheese to beer to sausage to trailers. Rueckert noted that Stoughton Trailers can build a trailer in 24 minutes - an engineering feat of precision and diligence.
The county brand will be a unified way to approach advertising in the coming years. Gone are the days of random, one-off campaigns.
"We're done with the shotgun approach," she said.
In other business at the meeting, supervisors:
• Approved transferring $16,739 from the general fund to various accounts within the county that had unexpected expenses in 2012, including $2,175 to the Green County Humane Society for the care of dozens of Great Danes seized in 2011 in an animal neglect case near Brodhead. The transfer is "about as small as we've ever had," chair Art Carter said.
• Approved the return to the general fund of $806,319 that went unspent in 2012 in various departments. The biggest saver was the sheriff's department, which spent $152,040 less than budgeted. Sheriff Jeff Skatrud attributes this to open positions, reductions in fringe benefits, wise use of overtime and "no major incidents that chewed up a lot of overtime."
The supervisors also heard annual reports from several departments.
• The Zoning Department issued 333 permits in 2012, everything from cattle bars to sheds to new houses, according to Adam Wiegel.
• County clerk Mike Doyle noted wryly that 2013 should be easier on his department than 2012 because "we're going to have two elections this year instead of five."
• Todd Jensen, head of Land and Water Conservation, said his department filled 43 old wells in 2012, a cheap way to keep groundwater clean. His department was able to return almost $10,000 to the general fund, due to receiving grants they didn't anticipate, he said.
• Treasurer Sherri Hawkins reported delinquent taxes were the lowest they've been in three years. She credits a new online system that makes it easier for people to look up tax records online. "It's taken a lot of phone calls out of our office," she said.
Rueckert is helping roll out an ad campaign for Green County based on a $91,000 branding concept developed by the Nashville-based firm North Star Destination Strategies. It was paid for with $39,550 in grants from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism; $6,450 from Colony Brands; $10,000 from Green County Tourism; $10,000 from the Green County Development Corporation; and from room taxes in New Glarus ($5,000) and Monroe ($20,000).
A new portal website was unveiled this week, greencountywisconsin.info.
Rueckert started by explaining how not to go about branding.
"You can't create a brand," she said. It has be based on qualities that already exist.
Clichés also don't work, so the county can't trot out yodeling and alphorns and expect a flood of Swiss-curious tourists. The brand the North Star team came up with goes "beyond yodel, and beyond alphorn," Rueckert said.
An example of this is the town of Fredericksburg, Texas, another location for which North Star developed a brand. Fredericksburg is known for its German culture, so North Star strived for an "upscale" and modern interpretation of that, beyond "oom pah pah" beer hall clichés, Rueckert said.
Green County also can't rely simply on cheese and beer to advertise itself, she added.
"We do not own the cheese," she said. All of Wisconsin does, and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has more money. By the same token, "we do not own the beer," she said. (Milwaukee does.)
So where to focus the brand?
On the craftsmanship. The brand is built around Swiss-identified but universally applicable ideals of precision, consistency, high standards, order, crisp thinking and "quiet self-confidence." These apply to the industries of Green County, from cheese to beer to sausage to trailers. Rueckert noted that Stoughton Trailers can build a trailer in 24 minutes - an engineering feat of precision and diligence.
The county brand will be a unified way to approach advertising in the coming years. Gone are the days of random, one-off campaigns.
"We're done with the shotgun approach," she said.
In other business at the meeting, supervisors:
• Approved transferring $16,739 from the general fund to various accounts within the county that had unexpected expenses in 2012, including $2,175 to the Green County Humane Society for the care of dozens of Great Danes seized in 2011 in an animal neglect case near Brodhead. The transfer is "about as small as we've ever had," chair Art Carter said.
• Approved the return to the general fund of $806,319 that went unspent in 2012 in various departments. The biggest saver was the sheriff's department, which spent $152,040 less than budgeted. Sheriff Jeff Skatrud attributes this to open positions, reductions in fringe benefits, wise use of overtime and "no major incidents that chewed up a lot of overtime."
The supervisors also heard annual reports from several departments.
• The Zoning Department issued 333 permits in 2012, everything from cattle bars to sheds to new houses, according to Adam Wiegel.
• County clerk Mike Doyle noted wryly that 2013 should be easier on his department than 2012 because "we're going to have two elections this year instead of five."
• Todd Jensen, head of Land and Water Conservation, said his department filled 43 old wells in 2012, a cheap way to keep groundwater clean. His department was able to return almost $10,000 to the general fund, due to receiving grants they didn't anticipate, he said.
• Treasurer Sherri Hawkins reported delinquent taxes were the lowest they've been in three years. She credits a new online system that makes it easier for people to look up tax records online. "It's taken a lot of phone calls out of our office," she said.