I've written quite a bit lately about the difference between a destination brand and its accompanying logo, and the perils of focusing too much on the logo at the expense of communicating the broader meaning behind the brand.

So I was really pleased when a news item out of Oregon provided a great illustration of how to launch a logo in a way that is true to the spirit of the destination brand and communicates its broader meaning.

Sisters, Oregon, recently completed a destination branding project in which they identified the town's "pioneering spirit" as its unique selling point.  True to the brand, the logo that was developed is a simple "S" inside a circle, modeled to look like a cattle brand.

And when it came time to launch the brand and logo, the folks of Sisters hit on a stroke of sheer brilliance: rather than invest in fancy new roadsigns or an expensive advertising campaign, they simply enlisted the help of a local blacksmith to create an actual cattle brand and travel around town "burning" the brand into the front porches of local businesses, park benches, and any other surface willing and able to be branded.  Wooden planks were also branded and handed out to tourists as a unique souvenir from Sisters.



By employing an ingenious grass-roots, do-it-yourself, old-school approach to launching the logo, the true meaning of the Sisters brand was effectively and impactfully communicated.

Something to keep in mind for future destination branding projects: when it comes time to launch your logo, HOW you launch is as important as WHAT you launch.