La Pine Seeks Branding & Communication Initiative

(Photo above | Courtesy of Central Oregon Visitors Association)

The City of La Pine is currently undergoing a branding effort to create a distinct identity and attract businesses, tourists and new residents. In fall 2015, both the La Pine Economic Advisory Board and the Oregon Rural Development Council Forum identified the need for La Pine to develop a branding, marketing and communicative initiative.

The Economic Vitality Road Map was developed and the City of La Pine received a grant from The Ford Family Foundation to fund an initiative to enhance La Pine’s economic vitality. The City identified top priorities and formed three Action Teams comprised of community volunteers.

The Beautification Action Team has been working to clean La Pine’s landscape, the Small Business Action Team is developing a stronger small business base and the Image Development Action Team was founded to enhance community marketing and promote image development for the community.

This year La Pine is celebrating ten years since being incorporated in 2006.
“With the city celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year, and Deschutes County celebrating its 100 year anniversary, it was a perfect opportunity to bring the community together to create this branding identity,” said Janet Burton, economic development manager for La Pine and Sunriver.

The City of La Pine was motivated by several new developments including the urban growth renewal plan and the fact that the city is poised for continued positive growth. In assessing La Pine it was clear that the city lacked a clear marketable identity and was frequently portrayed negatively in the press and media outside of La Pine.

“We needed professional assistance to identify the community’s value proposition, attract new businesses, and enhance our attraction to tourists, and to those looking to locate in Central Oregon,” Burton said.

The city recognized that a community branding initiative would create a strong community brand identity widely accepted by the La Pine community while resonating strongly with target audiences such as businesses, tourists and people relocating to Central Oregon. The intent is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of how La Pine competes and presents itself as a community.

After considering four branding agencies La Pine selected Mandala Agency from Bend because they believed Matthew Bowler of Mandala best understood the community’s needs and felt confident in his ability to develop a brand and strategy to represent La Pine’s culture.

Thus far the project has been funded by a $10,000 grant from Travel Oregon,
a $5,000 grant from City of La Pine and partner support from Central Oregon Visitors Association.

Bowler has conducted over 50 one-on-one interviews with community members and has sent out a survey to the wider community audience in an effort to understand what the community values and considers its best features and most marketable branding identity.

“We are drawing near the end of this listening phase. I met with a broad spectrum of community members includingcitizens, the mayor and business owners to gain an active insight into the way the people of La Pine perceive their city. The town hall meeting will bring a larger group of community members to open the discussion up. We want to understand and learn from the people who attend the meeting,” Bowler said.

Some trends have already emerged from Bowler’s interviews with the community.
“La Pine is an intentional community. People live in La Pine because they choose to and it is a very conscious decision to choose to live in La Pine. It is beautiful and has access to the outdoors but what sets La Pine apart is that every person will tell you it is a friendly and inclusive place where people look out for one another,” Bowler said.
On Tuesday, May 3, from 5-7pm Mandala will hold a Town Hall meeting at the La Pine Senior Center to gather input from a wider audience. At that time Bowler will provide an overview of the community feedback he has received.

Bowler will utilize community feedback to create a suggested brand identity for La Pine. Additionally, Mandala has committed to providing the city with a communication strategy to support economic development and growth of the residential community. The idea is to support residential growth to help make La Pine a place of retention where people grow up and stay.

“This is an incredible opportunity for the La Pine Community. Mandala understands that La Pine is not Bend, or Redmond, and has a unique and proud identity. Working with Mandala will help produce an identity that we can all verbalize and visualize, and highlight the great opportunities and strengths of the community,” Burton said.