SOUTH BEND, Ind. (July 15, 2019) — The South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership is pleased to announce their engagement with Resonance Consultancy to develop a comprehensive Place Brand Storyline, Identity, Guidelines and Marketing Plan for the South Bend – Elkhart region.
With its broad, high-performance economy, connected across two states through technology, education, transportation, tourism and R&D, the South Bend – Elkhart region has an opportunity to identify, position and promote itself as an unrivaled place to live, work and visit.
“South Bend – Elkhart, and the South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership, are in a unique position to identify their strengths and weaknesses and develop a vision and strategy for the future that preserves the coveted quality of life in a fast-rising, diverse region, and improves the region for both residents and visitors,” says Resonance Consultancy President Chris Fair.
“With Mayor Buttigieg shining the global spotlight on South Bend – Elkhart, it only expedites the need for a distinct, unified positioning of the region to the nation-and the world.”
As leading advisers in tourism, real estate and economic development, Resonance helps places understand market trends, assess their strengths and weaknesses, engage local communities, plan for the future, and create branding and communications in order to realize their full economic potential.
The ultimate goal is to attract talent, tourism and investment to the South Bend – Elkhart region while also projecting a cohesive message and consistent feel that expresses the unique identity of the region, both to residents of the community and to people located outside of the region.
“People often ask what it is that makes the South Bend – Elkhart Region unique. We look forward to working with Resonance and stakeholders from across the region to define and articulate our brand in a way that will resonate with people as they consider and evaluate places to live, visit, or invest,” said Regina Emberton, President and CEO of the South – Bend Elkhart Regional Partnership. “Developing and articulating a breakthrough brand identity will support increased population, business growth and income levels in the 47 communities comprising our region.”
The brand positioning and identity that Resonance will create as a result of this project will provide long-term direction for the South Bend – Elkhart Region and its partners that identifies key differentiating characteristics, the target audiences and a brand proposition that will resonate with those audiences both today and in the future.
A clearly defined brand strategy then helps organizations like South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership and its partners to align their marketing, advertising, public relations and social media to consistently and accurately reinforce the destination’s character and message among its target audiences while also ensuring that industry partners and strategic stakeholders do the same.
Over the next several months, Resonance will facilitate the development of a Place Brand Storyline, Identity, Guidelines and Marketing Plan, and will provide resources to help stakeholder and partner organizations articulate, position and promote the South Bend – Elkhart Region.
About Resonance
As leading advisers in tourism, real estate and economic development, Resonance combines business strategy and marketing creativity to shape the future of communities, cities and countries. Our services span place development strategy, place marketing, placemaking and place branding. Our team has completed more than 100 visioning, strategy, planning, policy and branding projects for destinations and developers in more than 70 countries. We work with developers, planners, architects, DMOs, economic development agencies and others to help places realize their full economic potential. To learn more about us and our services, please visit ResonanceCo.com.
About South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership
The South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership is a collaboration of the economic development partners from 47, smart connected communities in Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan. The Regional Partnership focuses on a long-term systemic approach to advance the region’s economy by aligning the efforts of various stakeholders around five key areas: Educating a world-class WORKFORCE, Recruiting and retaining great TALENT, Attracting and growing new economy companies in complement to our remarkably strong manufacturing INDUSTRIES, Promoting INCLUSION and sparking opportunities for minorities and Helping ENTREPRENEURS thrive. The Regional Partnership seeks to unify and collaborate so that together, the communities across the region work together to achieve what cannot be done individually. For more information about the Regional Partnership, visit SouthBendElkhart.org.
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Media Contact:
Regina Emberton
South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership
574.344.4686 ext. 4802
remberton@soutbendelkhart.org
