Chamber / City Unveil New Marketing Logo
The Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Pekin unveiled a new community marketing logo at the September 17th City Update. The new logo replaces the "Pekin What A Pleasant Surprise" logo and will be used by the chamber to market the community.
In early 2003, as a result of an updated strategic plan, the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce created a marketing committee. That group moved quickly to create our “Pekin What A Pleasant Surprise” campaign. In the past seven years the chamber has invested just over $176,000 in that campaign, promoting Pekin as a great place to live.
At last year's City Update, the chamber began asking if the "Pekin What A Pleasant Surprise" campaign had run it's course. Mayor Rusty Dunn pointed out that he didn't want Pekin to be a surprise any longer. At the same time the City of Pekin began asking if it was time to replace the City's official logo.
A task force was formed that included members of the chamber’s marketing committee and the city staff. With the help of McDaniels Marketing Communications, the committee developed a long list of attributes and marketing buzz words for Pekin, and over the course of several meetings began to narrow their focus. The staff at McDaniels then took those concepts and developed several different logo presentations. Much of the work done by McDaniels Marketing Communications was donated.
The committee then tested several versions of the logo with two different focus groups. The first group included central Illinois resident who were familiar with Pekin, while the second group consisted of people who do not live in central Illinois.
The focus groups provided great feedback and input, including what they liked and didn't like, about each logo. The focus group input was a significant part of the committee's decision making process.
The new logo artwork incorporates the marigold and the Illinois River - two attributes that many people thought were important. The words community, opportunity, and home are words that can be used in a variety of ways to represent and market Pekin. The chamber's marketing committee will now develop a marketing campaign around the new logo.
The City of Pekin may also consider adopting the logo as the City's new logo. The logo design is intentionally flexible enough that several different entities could use the logo.
At last year's City Update, the chamber began asking if the "Pekin What A Pleasant Surprise" campaign had run it's course. Mayor Rusty Dunn pointed out that he didn't want Pekin to be a surprise any longer. At the same time the City of Pekin began asking if it was time to replace the City's official logo.
A task force was formed that included members of the chamber’s marketing committee and the city staff. With the help of McDaniels Marketing Communications, the committee developed a long list of attributes and marketing buzz words for Pekin, and over the course of several meetings began to narrow their focus. The staff at McDaniels then took those concepts and developed several different logo presentations. Much of the work done by McDaniels Marketing Communications was donated.
The committee then tested several versions of the logo with two different focus groups. The first group included central Illinois resident who were familiar with Pekin, while the second group consisted of people who do not live in central Illinois.
The focus groups provided great feedback and input, including what they liked and didn't like, about each logo. The focus group input was a significant part of the committee's decision making process.
The new logo artwork incorporates the marigold and the Illinois River - two attributes that many people thought were important. The words community, opportunity, and home are words that can be used in a variety of ways to represent and market Pekin. The chamber's marketing committee will now develop a marketing campaign around the new logo.
The City of Pekin may also consider adopting the logo as the City's new logo. The logo design is intentionally flexible enough that several different entities could use the logo.
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