City Slogan Narrowing Down to Three
By Robin Vinci | Editor at October 20, 2023 | 2:15 pm | Print
Soon New Britain City Journal readers will get the chance to cast their vote on which of the three slogans would be best for our City.
Back in April, stakeholders of the City such as the Mayor’s Office, the Economic Development Department, the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce, Central Connecticut State University, the Consolidated School District, the Community Foundation, New Britain Bees and members of the arts commission got together for a branding initiative.
Questions were asked of the public about the past, present and future of the City.
In the next few weeks the group is hoping to narrow down the decision to three. At that time, the answers will be on the City Journal website at www.nbcityjournal.com and readers can vote for the one they like the best. If you have another idea, they will be welcomed in our Facebook group.
“The roundtable looked at the good, the bad and the ugly. You can’t build a branding campaign without figuring out your weaknesses,” said Mayor Erin Stewart. “We found out is that we have a lot to offer and visitors are amazed at the amount of entertainment, services and other very unique features.”
Some of those features included Little Poland, the New Britain Bees, CCSU, the Arts, the Rose Garden, Go Ape and more.
The main theme that emerged out of all of it was that the City’s Central location to everything made New Britain most attractive.
The group took an in-depth look at what people are thinking. They found the City offers a lot for families and challenges include perceptions in education, property values and taxes.
“We had extensive discussions as a group over the last couple of months,” said Stewart.
Kim Villanti, marketing and branding professional was hired to help the process. Her main task has been coordinating with the group to come up with a new image. The last time this was done was under Mayor William McNamara in 1985.
“It’s been a long time. As we are looking to grow and market ourselves to a wider audience, branding is a huge piece. It is more than throwing a slogan together,” said Stewart. “We talked about the “Hard Hittin’ New Britain” slogan. It refers to football, but to outsiders it is not appealing. They see it as a place where fights happen often or people are abrasive. With all the new developments and projects happening, that we haven’t seen in decades, it’s time for us to tell our new story.”
There will be a new logo and new tagline to attract people to New Britain. It will tell people about the past of the City as well as who the City is as a community.
“We’ve had lively discussions. We went back and forth a lot,” said Stewart. “We are really hoping to role out the initiative by January 2017. We are coming to the end.”
The themes have been recurring. Many have included the Bee theme. The group will meet several times in the next few weeks to narrow down the slogan.
“We want the residents to help us choose which logo we will go with,” Stewart added.
