Think Hopkins Marketing Strategy; Elverum
CITY OF HOPKINS
Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Jan Youngquist, Community Development Coordinator
Date: January 8, 2019
Subject: Think Hopkins Marketing Strategy
_____________________________________________________________________
PURPOSE
The purpose of the work session is for the City Council and community to participate in
a strategic briefing process led by Alan Schutte of Plat Hollow Road that will inform and
strengthen our city’s marketing campaign, Think Hopkins.
INFORMATION
As discussed at the December 11, 2018 work session, staff is interested in taking a
fresh look at the Think Hopkins marketing campaign, which was launched in 2006 by
the City of Hopkins with the Hopkins Business and Civic Association (HBCA).
City staff has hired Alan Schutte of Plat Hollow Road to guide the community through a
strategic briefing process to help shape the branding of Hopkins. It is important that
stakeholders and other interested people be involved throughout the process, beginning
with completing a strategic brief worksheet. Participants will be given three weeks to
complete their worksheet. Alan will go through all of the completed worksheets to find
key statements and themes.
Invitations to the community meeting were sent to stakeholders, including the Think
Hopkins Marketing Committee, HBCA Board, Planning Commission, Cultivate Hopkins
Committee, Blake Road Corridor Collaborative, Hopkins School Board, and Hopkins
Historical Society, as well as other individuals and organizations. Additionally, Alan and
City staff will lead another session of the strategic briefing process at the HBCA general
membership meeting on January 15.
For those who are not able to attend these meetings but are interested in participating
in the process, City staff will email strategic brief worksheets to complete and return.
The initial results will be presented at a follow-up meeting. With additional community
input, a final document will be delivered. Staff will then decide if additional work is
needed to develop a positioning statement and/or tagline. The strategic briefing process
will also help determine whether additional graphic design or a new logo is
recommended.
Planning and Economic
Development
FUTURE ACTION
The results of the community strategic brief process will inform future action. Based on
the direction of the final briefing statement, it will be determined if the current logo,
marketing strategies, and image are supportive of the desired message or if alignments
are necessary.