KDSB re-brands itself

News — 05 October 2011

By Ally Dunham

Kenora District Services Board (KDSB) is launching their new communication plan including a re-branding strategy of a new logo and tagline.

The KDSB board of directors approved the new tagline and logo at the regular board meeting on October 29.

The tagline, after much debate, is Caring/People/Community/Support. Dianne Schwartz-Williams, owner of REACH Marketing and KDSB consultant, says that the play on words can be used in many ways, putting words together, and changing the order to create different feelings for KDSB.

The newly formed logo consists of four, different coloured and sized people standing together next to the KDSB acronym, with the full name and new tagline listed underneath.

The symbolism of the people in the logo is to show people working together and the four divisions of KDSB including land ambulance (Northwest EMS), Child Care, Housing and Ontario Works.

Dan McNeill, CEO of KDSB says the re-branding and communication strategies are to reach out to the general public and KDSB clientele to ensure the communities know what KDSB does and what it offers to the region.

McNeill said, “Also part of the goal is to bring the four operating units together as a single entity, versus the individual operating silos.”

The re-branding strategy was on the agenda with the former board and CEO, but McNeill says they did not feel comfortable introducing such a large change with their mandate coming to an end. The former board agreed to postpone the decisions until the new board and CEO were in place.

A new document produced of over 100 pages was introduced to the board called the KDSB Communication Plan, with the highlights explained during the meeting.

Within this overview were topics such as background including research methodology and observations, implementation including communication strategies, campaigns, activities and an action plan.

Considerations were also listed in the overview, including a section on the budget.

“There is significant resources identified for this, and outside of the cautionary comments by the board of directors in regards to the amount of resources we are going to spend on this,” said McNeill. “The plan would be to review the implementation exercise, identify some priorities including priorities operational that can be implemented internally with existing human resources.”

McNeill uses examples such as some directors and staff having different responsibilities in regard to rolling out the plan and building a better internal environment from a communication perspective.

McNeill said, “I don’t anticipate that we’re going to be spending any more resources that we currently are. That will be the goal.”

The board is looking at this strategy in conjunction with the 2012 budget discussions.