Wednesday, April 8, 2009

How Our Communities Introduce their Brand System

Downtown Branded

One of the recommendations that came out of last year's Downtown Market Assessment and Marketing Plan for Hendersonville, done by Arnett Muldrow & Associates, was to brand Downtown Hendersonville with a new logo that "represents the uniqueness of Hendersonville's downtown and portrays it in a classic yet fresh way."



The green color is reflective of our WNC environment, while the cross of the "H" is a nod to Main Street's serpentine path, and the leaves reflect downtown Hendersonville's location - surrounded by tree-covered land and mountains.

The tagline, "
RealGenuine", refers to downtown as a place where you'll find both the (real - "occurring or existing in actuality") and (genuine - "actually produced by or proceeding from the alleged source").



For instance; Hendersonville has
real apple orchards and it's a place where you'll findgenuine homemade apple pies. An alternate tagline, "The Mountains' Real Downtown" is also sometimes used with the logo.



Downtown Hendersonville Incorporated got busy immediately, offering merchants"matching funds grants" of up to $500 for using the new logo. Some have taken them up on the offer - have you seen the Pink Corsets billboard on Hwy 64 just east of downtown?



See this
Money for the Taking article for grant details.



After the basic logo design was developed, extensions followed for use during various festivals, events and seasons. See a few examples below:










You'll be seeing this logo more often and when you do, you'll know it's identifying a business or event downtown.

Merchants wishing to use these logos in their advertising should contact Lee Henderson-Hill, Executive Director DHI, by calling (828) 697-2022 or emailing
info@DowntownHendersonville.org A free CD containing a style guide - templates for ad layouts, digital copies of the logo, color specs and printing instructions is available for merchants, also.

Submitted by: Blog Hendersonville