Branding Jersey - an update

25 November 2005

Members of the public who’ve contributed to the work of developing a brand for Jersey have produced some high quality ideas which will be used in the project.

Senator Frank Walker said that 60 people had attended ‘drop-in’ discussions held last week and many more had attended workshops arranged for different sectors of the community which meant that the development of the Jersey brand would be a good reflection of what people in Jersey think about the Island.

Senator Walker said: “I’m delighted that these meetings have attracted a wide cross section of the community, with people of different ages and different backgrounds wanting to participate. Encouraging the people of Jersey to feel proud of their Island is an important objective for the government and these discussions have helped us to concentrate on what’s good about Jersey. The team leading this work will now think further about the ideas they have captured in the last few weeks and how they can be translated into a single powerful message which will demonstrate that Jersey stands out from the crowd.”

The purpose of the whole exercise is to come up with a single, clear brand  which can pull together all the various identities which are used to  promote Jersey and can be used by industries, teams,  businesses and individuals, so that there is a single high-level statement which expresses what the world can expect from the people and the businesses of Jersey.

All of the ideas which have been discussed at the public workshops can be summarised in some emerging key themes:

·        A desire for the world to see Jersey as a world leader in a particular field;

·        Wanting to demonstrate that Jersey is open to new ideas;

·        A greater understanding that Jersey possesses great diversity and depth in the choice of things available to do and see in a small place;

·        The fact that Jersey is very aware of its unique identity;

·        Wanting people to see Jersey is able to adapt and change;

·        Jersey has unexplored potential and could do more to develop unique festivals and events which would show off the Island to its visitors;

·        A desire to stop Jersey becoming too much like other places; to embrace new ideas which the Island can use to its benefit, but to hold onto the important things we have which are different.

 

Senator Walker said: “The next piece of work in Jersey is a meeting of the steering group in early December, when the branding experts will be able to present their initial ideas for consideration.”