Benedictine students get the OK to rebrand Roeland Park

Students at Benedictine College are eager to get to work on marketing the city of Roeland Park.

The city council on Monday approved a branding agreement with Benedictine College to overhaul the city’s identity in order to attract new residents and new businesses in the future. Work on the rebranding project will begin as early as June.

Benedictine College, which has a satellite campus in Roeland Park, was chosen from 18 proposals. The committee picked the college over established marketing firms because it was affordable, local and would give students experience.

Out of the $18,500 budgeted for the project, the rebranding will only cost $3,000. Clay Johnston, the college’s assistant professor and program chair for marketing, will serve as the project director over the team of marketing students and intern selected to complete the work.

“The students are very excited about the opportunity to get out of the classroom into the real world,” Johnston said. “I think we have a very solid game plan of marketing research and gaining insight into the community. With the final launch we hope to be a strong new brand that will accomplish goals in the future.”

Over the next six months, students will conduct research, create a new brand image and develop a strategic marketing plan. A competition to design the new brand will begin in October with a design chosen in November. The winning design will meet five elements that include a name, sign or symbol; source of promise; be distinctive or add value; have personality and character; and include customers’ thoughts and perceptions. The council expects to adopt the new design, implementation plan and logo or tagline in December.

Conducting a community survey is included in the research portion of the agreement between Benedictine College and the city. The survey is an opportunity to collect data relevant to the branding process and establish a trend in citizen satisfaction with city services. All residential households in Roeland Park will receive the survey by mail in August, but data will also be collected online and by phone.

The survey was last conducted three years ago. The city had funds available to conduct the $15,000 survey this year due to the savings associated with choosing Benedictine College to complete the branding.

The council also reviewed its last special permit request for backyard chickens at Monday’s meeting. Permits for chickens will now be issued by city staff in the same manner dogs and cats are licensed. The council unanimously approved an ordinance that eliminates the requirement to get a special permit to keep chickens. The special permit process involved appearing before the city council for approval as well as an application fee of $80 and submission of coop location diagrams.

Councilwoman Sheri McNeil led the request to revise the city’s process on the matter. Previously, the council discussed the amount of authority they should maintain over chicken permits. Under the new ordinance, any chicken renewal permits with complaints on record will require approval from the council. There were eight Roeland Park families registered to keep chickens prior to the meeting.

In other news, the council is still finalizing changes to address new state legislation requiring that city elections move to the fall of odd years beginning in 2017. To comply with the new law, the terms of the mayor and council members that normally expire in April 2017 would be extended to January 2018 after a November election. The council has not received the additional information requested from the election commission so the changes will be reviewed at a future workshop.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Benedictine students get the OK to rebrand Roeland Park."