I love Economic Development. It is essential in helping build a thriving community with the amenities people want.
One of the projects I have been working on is developing a brand for Bannock County to help with our Economic Development efforts. The term Place Branding is used to help regions define who they are and their value proposition to the world. In simpler terms, Place Branding is how you would describe our area to someone who had never been here before.
The challenging part of creating a brand for a County is capturing what makes your place unique. Every community claims to have an excellent quality of life or a great work/life balance, so what separates one area from another? For some, it may be a historical feature, a geographical feature, or an activity. The key is to tap into what makes the community unique.
We have been working with Bannock Development Corporation to do this for Bannock County. We have held a series of meetings with focus groups to get their input on what makes our community unique. We have also met with students from Century, Pocatello, Highland, and Marsh Valley High Schools to get the perspective of our area youth.
We’ve talked about what makes us unique is our closeness to Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, the Tetons, and Salt Lake. Another fantastic set of features is our proximity to a world-class trail system, a ski hill, fishing, and the Portneuf River. The final thing making us unique is Idaho State University and its students.
After all of the meetings and reviewing what we offer, we have developed a tagline that seems to sum everything nicely. The motto is, “Access opportunity and experiences in Bannock County.”
This tagline allows us to promote the assets we have in various ways. It speaks to what the younger generation wants and what businesses are looking for in a new home.
We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we are heading down the right path. Bannock County is a wonderful place to live and offers so much. We are on the precipice of unprecedented growth and expansion. I’m humbled by the opportunity to serve the community during this pivotal time in our history.
I look forward to working with all of our county communities to grow responsibly and create a place our kids can come home to.
