MARION MERCH
What does it look like to design a business model that has the goal of creating vibrant living and love for a city?
The following text was taken from a case study that was written by the Marion Merch team. You can read that study in full here:
THE CLIENT
Layla Price-Bodkin, City of Marion Director of Marketing and Community Relations, approached Marion Design Co, a community-based design studio, with the idea of creating a merchandise line accessible for the people in the Marion community. Two years ago the city went through a rebranding process, and this identity system is still new to people in the community. Her hope was that through creating a merchandise line, the brand would become more accessible for community members and help instill pride in Marion.
Before brainstorming how this entity could function on its own, Sara Krock, Sophia Hawkins, and I audited ten surrounding cities in northeastern Indiana. All of the cities we visited had some sort of functioning Visitor’s Bureau, which is how we initially imagined Marion Merch would function. It would be a central location to provide maps and guides, Marion branded merchandise, and information on the history of Marion. We also thought it could highlight local artisans in the City of Marion, and their pieces could be sold in this store.
During the ideation process, we came to the realization that this would be a stark startup as there this no inherent brand equity for Marion Merch. This would mean that the ultimate vision of Marion Merch is greater than simply placing the city logo on various products. We were aiming to encompass a shared community pride, not just people wearing or using products. The current brand has been acting as “for the people” but has been lacking “by the people.” The City of Marion brand was created for the people as a “gift” but the people have not been given an opportunity to take ownership of the brand for themselves. So how does Marion Merch act as a way for people within the community to take that ownership and show their community pride through doing more than simply wearing a t-shirt?
The Marion Merch mark is directly derived from the City of Marion mark. A notable difference, however, is that the three pieces have been separated to highlight the idea that the people of Marion are individual parts of the whole of Marion. As well as the mark, we came up with values to stick to in the creation of a business model.
Mission: Promote Marion pride by providing Marion products, information, & resources.
Vision: Vibrant living in Marion.
Why: There is an opportunity to have a dedicated entity to the promotion of Marion and for the furthering of Marion Pride and Marion Living.
What we thought would act solely as a business structure turned into a series of events and campaigns to create a unifying movement in the City of Marion. To make the brand truly “by the people,” their voice needs to play a part in its creation. Pride would be spread through events, which would be promoted by Brand Evangelists. With these events, the mark will become stronger as pride has been associated with it. The movement would be implemented in three phases with the hopes of creating a strong foundation first, followed by a unifying love of Marion, resulting in a personal ownership of living in Marion. With the brand identity established, Marion Merch will then be able to approach businesses about the sale of items through their business, as well as sell products directly through the use of pop-up shops.
As a deliverable, we created a guide for others to be able to follow to guide the development of Marion Merch. This guide provides an outline of the roll out of Marion Merch, including event ideas and products to have available for purchase at each event, a loose timeline of the 3 phases, and goals for each phase.
Marion Merch is still in the midst of being implemented in the City of Marion. The city plans on having its first event with Marion Merch involved in the upcoming months. We are excited to see more people taking pride in their community and loving where they live!