By Emily Yeap
Modern office buildings, independent mom-and-pop stores, trendy restaurants, eye-catching sex shops — Bank Street offers a mix of everything.
But with diversity comes marketing challenges.
As a result, the Bank Street Business Improvement Area is considering branding the street — giving some sections along Bank Street from Wellington Street to Gladstone Avenue distinct identities — if the City of Ottawa approves a revitalization project.
Bank Street BIA executive director Gerry LePage says there are three separate zones on Bank Street: the financial zone in the north, the commercial and residential areas in the centre and the emerging gay village in the south.
“We have lots of different configurations, so it makes it almost impossible to kind of find one thing that fits all. So this is what has led the board to think about branding,” LePage says.
He adds that branding has been done in some cities in North America like San Francisco and Toronto, with impressive results.
“We have healthy growth scenarios for Centretown that are projected, and we want to get into the new millennium with something that’s consistent with other urban markets and urban cores in North America,” Le-Page says.
Steve Onyschuk, an account manager for a marketing firm on Gladstone Avenue called H3 Creative, says branding involves creating a clear set of values about a product, service or event that people will respond to.
“If you take Bank Street, it’s really trying to create a certain emotional connection with people — trying to elicit certain feelings about their visit to that area,” Onyschuk says.
He says branding a street is more than just changing its outward appearance.
“You can remodel the storefronts or you can set up different signs or different street lamps, but the underlying perception is trying to set a certain tone.”
Mark Vidalin, director of Savvy Marketing on Newton Street, says branding a street helps present a common model of what people can expect from the area. He says the most important strategy of branding is finding common strengths and building them into a general theme that fits the community.
“Sometimes a brand comes out of the strongest component, sometimes it’s sort of a melting pot of a number of things, so it would depend if there are some principal players in the whole exercise,” Vidalin says.
LePage says there are challenges in branding Bank Street with respect to which zones to brand and how to effectively communicate and market the brand so people will recognize it.
He says the easiest branding opportunity would be the gay village because it’s the most distinct area.
Onyschuk says the main hurdle in branding a street is getting a consensus.
“In order for a street or particular area to be able to maintain a consistent brand, you have to have people to buy in from all corners.”
LePage says the branding idea is still in the exploratory stage, and it’s just a small part of a larger revitalization project the BIA hopes to launch in 2004 or 2005.
Besides branding, the project, which will cost between $2 million and $4 million, would include improving infrastructure, increasing on-street parking and putting up new fixtures like lights, trash receptacles and benches.
The BIA has had preliminary discussions with the city’s economic development representatives about what’s involved in the project and the funds that are needed. But nothing has been approved yet.
“The city has had considerable pressures at this time and that’s why we’ve allowed a window of essentially two years,” LePage says.
“But I think it’s safe to say that as soon as we get past this budget hurdle and staff gets back to some normality, then certainly we’ll be looking to intensify our discussions to substantively get on the project.”
LePage adds the project is essential because the last revitalization was done 15 years ago. He says since then, the landscape of the area, including dwellings, businesses and residents, has changed significantly, and the physical components of the street, such as sidewalks, parking and furnishings, should change as well.
Robert Giacobbi, owner of Wilde’s, a Bank Street sex shop, says just a few years ago the gay village was a notorious area where people were afraid to walk on the streets. But now, he says, it’s a vibrant, multicultural place thanks to a joint effort by local businesses, the BIA and the city.
Giacobbi says revitalization and branding will attract more people and businesses.