FAIRBORN – The branding initiative by the City of Fairborn is still within the first stage, but is moving along and aimed to be completed by spring 2017. City officials hope to capture the aspects of the city, and give a positive feeling about the area to those who view the final product.
“This is a multi-year project that’s going to get the message communicated about who we are, who Fairborn is to other people,” Public Relations Specialist Katie Lewallen of the City of Fairborn said. “That’s the statement we’re trying to get to – who we are, what defines us, what makes Fairborn separate from others, the great things about Fairborn – we’re trying to get there for our citizens, for future families that come here, for people who are going to retire here and businesses.”
Go Upward, the company hired by the city to lead the initiative, has completed interviews with varying groups within the community, such as council, the Fairborn Ministerial Alliance and the Downtown Fairborn Betterment Association, and began individual interviews with some citizens earlier this week in order to gather insight about the city and avoid the group think process. Interviews, which are treated as surveys regarding what the groups and individuals feel when they think of Fairborn, are expected to be completed by next month, beginning the next phase of stage one.
“They’re working on individual calls, people like business owners, educators at Wright State, people who are retired in the military and are active in the community,” she said. “A cross-section is what we’re trying to reach.”
Officials recently gave Go Upward team members a tour of the community in order to gain an idea about the city. Lewallen said the team was thrilled with the amount of parks within the city, which gave the team the impression that Fairborn is a family-focused community.
Stage one is expected to wrap-up by spring 2016; stage two is thought to take the initiative into spring 2017 and stage three and the amount of time it will take is contingent on stage two.
“The government office doesn’t want to say ‘this is Fairborn, this is who we are’ because it’s the community,” Lewallen said. “We want to help and find a way to get the community to share and get the groups together so people can talk about why they’re here in Fairborn, or why they retired here … We want to capitalize on that – why? What was that good thing about Fairborn that bring you back or make you want to stay? We want to get that message out, but in order to get that message out, we have to get the input first.”
