EDITORS' NOTE: This letter has come to us and it is being published in fullSir,
Tourism investors and business hopefuls must have read this headline “Launceston defined for the world through branding,” with some hope.
Well now that they have they seen the “branding” there are a lot of people with their fingers crossed that Launceston’s latest effort isn’t going to brand them for life.
The sentiment "Start Something Special" is okay so far as it goes but sadly the city’s aldermen were sold a pup. A lame pup at that! Excuse the cliché’s but someone must have seen them coming and they made some hay while the sun shone on this opportunity.
For this bit $7,000, who knows what for the rest of it and for what is likely to come. Has anyone, an alderman even, asked about any of this? My bet is NO!
This “brand” puts Launceston in a time warp. It has all the attributes of a faded postcard printed in The Depression. It is very depressing!
Tourism investors and business hopefuls must have read this headline “Launceston defined for the world through branding,” with some hope.
Well now that they have they seen the “branding” there are a lot of people with their fingers crossed that Launceston’s latest effort isn’t going to brand them for life.
The sentiment "Start Something Special" is okay so far as it goes but sadly the city’s aldermen were sold a pup. A lame pup at that! Excuse the cliché’s but someone must have seen them coming and they made some hay while the sun shone on this opportunity.
For this bit $7,000, who knows what for the rest of it and for what is likely to come. Has anyone, an alderman even, asked about any of this? My bet is NO!
This “brand” puts Launceston in a time warp. It has all the attributes of a faded postcard printed in The Depression. It is very depressing!
It has been charactorised as “ looking like a dirty smudge on a brown paper bag with a pin in it” and there is a bit of truth in that.
General Manager, Robert Dobrzynski, has been quoted as saying that this Depression imagery “sends a clear message.” It sure does! They are loaded messages and none of them all that encouraging and most rather depressing.
For anyone for whom Launceston’s “brand” matters, it must be a worry to read that Mr. Dobrzynski thinks that Launceston now has “a clear corporate brand and style guide to support it.” If that is this dirty brown stain we need to worry.
However Mr. Dobrzynski is dead right when he says Launceston “lacks a destination branding tool”, its just a shame that his, one assumes that it’s his given his enthusiasm for it, first attempt is so depressing and relatively speaking, so bloody expensive. It’s also a pity that the city’s aldermen support this stuff almost without question. Are they snoozing?
That old, old saying that “I know nothing about art but I know what I like”springs to mind here. Someone, preferably a bunch of aldermen, needs to get educated in the “art of branding” as it's just not possible to put a glossy spin on crap, and that goes for dirty brown stains too.
General Manager, Robert Dobrzynski, has been quoted as saying that this Depression imagery “sends a clear message.” It sure does! They are loaded messages and none of them all that encouraging and most rather depressing.
For anyone for whom Launceston’s “brand” matters, it must be a worry to read that Mr. Dobrzynski thinks that Launceston now has “a clear corporate brand and style guide to support it.” If that is this dirty brown stain we need to worry.
However Mr. Dobrzynski is dead right when he says Launceston “lacks a destination branding tool”, its just a shame that his, one assumes that it’s his given his enthusiasm for it, first attempt is so depressing and relatively speaking, so bloody expensive. It’s also a pity that the city’s aldermen support this stuff almost without question. Are they snoozing?
That old, old saying that “I know nothing about art but I know what I like”springs to mind here. Someone, preferably a bunch of aldermen, needs to get educated in the “art of branding” as it's just not possible to put a glossy spin on crap, and that goes for dirty brown stains too.
Bruce Mountford
Launceston
Launceston
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
1 comment:
What happened to “clean, green and clever”? What’s wrong with sharp and smart? What wrong with looking forward rather than backwards? Yes Launceston is the third oldest city in Australia but that doesn’t mean that it needs to be marketed as dull, dusty and old.
The idea that near enough is good enough is creeping in and the Council shows every indication that this what drives its bus.
I’m sorry, but it’s not something I’m signing up to and unless the city lifts its game, and soon, I’m out of here and heading for somewhere to invest my money and energy where there is a forward vision.
Launceston has a few inherited laurels but there are not enough to rest on. Yesterday’s achievements are just that and this branding smacks more of yesterday than tomorrow.
This Council needs to get its act together!
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