Downtown Quesnel is inviting residents and guests to ‘Walk, Talk and Shop’ in the city’s downtown core.
The business association launched its new brand, featuring the above, new tag line, a new official logo and new street banners, on Monday, June 15 keeping in line with the City of Quesnel’s recent rebranding with its own tag line: ‘It’s in our Nature.’
Donna Jacobson, director with Downtown Quesnel and chair of the promotions and branding committee, said the new initiative has been something the association has been looking at doing for quite some time.
“It’s a real upgrade,” Jacobson said.
“We’ll have our new banners hung downtown, and wanted it to be strong in that message of ‘Walk, Talk and Shop,’ so we worked with the city for the betterment of the whole in order to diversify tourism and shopping, and broaden our area.”
She said the tag line fits well with the feel of downtown Quesnel.
“Downtown is very walkable and it’s a very nice place to socialize,” she said. “We have all our restaurants, too, and lots of little coffee shops and, of course, the shopping. We represent a lot of brands. It’s quite amazing and diverse.”
The idea to rebrand the downtown business association came about after funding became available following the wildfires of 2017.
“We had some training funds and some of us merchants took part in an information session with an expert in marketing and branding, and I’d said to the board after that this would be a really huge opportunity for Quesnel to rebrand because the City had done it, and we were already talking about strengthening our strengths, so we decided to hire her,” Jacobson said.
“It was kind of a natural process.”
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The launch was conducted through the Downtown Quesnel Facebook page with the support of the Love Quesnel Facebook page.
She added the launch will include a welcome back campaign all while keeping respectful to the COVID-19 situation.
“We’ll have specials in the stores leaning towards the end of this week, which will depend on the merchants, or the promotions, that work for their business,” she said.
While the new logo, tag line and banners have been kept secret up until the beginning of this week, Jacobson said she hopes the community will appreciate it.
“I really hope the community loves it like we do,” she said. “Our downtown is pretty strong as is, so we’re very excited.”
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Sandra Lewis, the president of Downtown Quesnel, echoed Jacobson’s sentiments and thanked her for all the work that’s gone into the project.
“It’s going to be really nice,” Lewis said. “It’s going to look really professional, and we want to welcome visitors, and also encourage our whole city to shop in the downtown.”
Quesnel’s downtown area has roughly 200 shops and businesses, Lewis said, and noted 16 businesses will be featured through online, video, business profiles on its ‘Downtown Quesnel’ Facebook page. The profiles, which will feature interviews with owners and managers, will be rolled out over the next few months.
greg.sabatino@wltribune.com
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