Context and challenges

The City of Sherbrooke and its various institutions and organizations are facing increasing competition in their respective fields of activity. In a context of economic globalization, competition is not limited to our geographic borders, but comes from every continent. To ensure economic growth and improve the quality of life of its citizens, a city must stand out from the crowd to attract investors, tourists and new citizens. Sherbrooke, like other cities, must determine its identity, establish its positioning to differentiate itself, and then implement communication actions to disseminate its brand image to target clienteles.

Over the past decade, cities have taken a number of steps to determine their distinctive competitive edge and implement strategic communications initiatives to “brand” the City to target customer groups.

In 2013, the City of Sherbrooke planned to work with communications experts to determine its positioning, differentiate itself and communicate its brand image. At the same time, the organizations Commerce Sherbrooke, Destination Sherbrooke and Sherbrooke Innopole were also concerned about their respective positioning, as well as being sensitive to the city’s brand image. In the course of discussions with these three partners, and prior to defining the city’s positioning and deploying it, it was agreed that a global reflection should be initiated to bring out the city’s specific characteristics (distinctive elements). It was in this context that our firm was called upon to collaborate on this mandate.

Results

Various consultations with socio-economic players, elected officials and residents of Sherbrooke, as well as with Quebec marketing experts, provided food for thought and identified the strategic elements on which Sherbrooke could focus its brand image. These strategic elements constitute the potential distinctive strengths on which Sherbrooke can base a representative, unique and credible communications strategy.