Herald Democrat

With a thick stack of survey results and town hall and interview responses in hand, Denison is moving into the creative portion of its branding process.

Community leaders and North Star Destination Strategies, the consulting firm hired to conduct the process and develop the brand, have spent the past five months surveying Denisonians and those outside of Denison on the city’s strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities.

“It’s just a lot of data that’s going to point us in the right direction,” said Denison Chamber of Commerce President Anna McKinney.

A few words and phases emerged that both Denison residents and non-residents thought describes Denison: Lake Texoma, close to U.S. Highway 75, history, friendly, family and affordable.

From the data North Star will develop a branding platform, which is a summary of the data that will guide the creative portion of the process — development of the logo and tag line.

McKinney said, overall the survey results confirmed what she already believed about Denison’s assets, but said that adds credibility to her beliefs and situates the chamber to better promote Denison and the Denison Development Alliance to better attract businesses.

“This definitely tells our strengths and weaknesses and what we need to do better, and one of those is how to get our local people to serve more as cheerleaders,” McKinney said. “I was shocked that we had a large percentage that said they would not recommend Denison as a place to live or visit.”

According to the survey, many residents said they thought the outside perception of Denison was that it was run down and dirty, followed by being close to Lake Texoma.

But that didn’t seem to be the outsider’s perspective at all. Of those survey from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex who had visited Denison, their perception after visiting was that Denison: had more to do than expected, was bigger than expected and cleaner than expected.

“If we can get them here, they like us. (That is) basically what this is telling us,” McKinney said.

Of those surveyed in the Metroplex, 91 percent said they were at least somewhat familiar with Denison. And of those who had visited, 50 percent said they went to Lake Texoma, 46 percent said they ate at restaurants, and 22 percent said they went shopping.

“That is really good information because we know when they’re coming, they’re pumping tax dollars into our economy because they’re utilizing the service industries,” McKinney said.

The next step for the process is for the core committee of community leaders to approve the branding platform. Then North Star will move forward with development of options for the logo and tag line, which will go back to the committee for approval. McKinney said she hopes to unveil the brand and tag line in December.