Problem

Historically, Terre Haute/Vigo County had a disjointed economic development effort with many different entities providing economic development services. Several years ago the community embarked on a strategic planning initiative to work out those issues. As a result, the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation, which is the community's lead economic development entity, was born, and parallel with that a branding initiative, which features the ‘Terre Haute A Level Above' logo and tag line, was begun.

Solution

Working with a branding subcommittee, MillerWhite donated development of a brand and integrated marketing plan based on MillerWhite's MW Fusion® formula. Steve Witt, president of the THEDC, said, “What we were looking for was something that was unique to the city of Terre Haute, and what we realized was the thing we had that was unique is our name, Terre Haute – high ground – is an unusual name. That's what we focused on.”

In the logo MillerWhite developed through its Unlocking the Power of Your Pledge® exercise, the swoosh embodies the ‘high ground' terminology. The “Terre Haute A Level Above” tagline represents the ‘high ground' reference in the community's name and shows the effort to achieve a level of success higher than was enjoyed in the past, perhaps even higher than people believe is possible.

Other tactics implemented by MillerWhite included a community video, which Witt said does an excellent job of providing a snapshot of the community and its assets, along with an improved web site and cohesive printed materials that have helped achieve the level of excellence in our image and our marketing materials the community was trying to convey to the international community.”

Results

Witt said, “Economic development's a team effort, and we work closely with several entities in different facets of economic development. We work very closely with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, financial consultants, bond counsel, attorneys. We work very closely with MillerWhite in our marketing effort. It's a multi-faceted effort. Since working with MillerWhite, we've had some very significant successes for our community. We've attracted two world-class companies to Terre Haute/Vigo County. One is CertainTeed Corporation, which is part of Saint Gobain, the French manufacturing conglomerate which is a Fortune Global 50 company; and Boral Bricks, with their  parent company Boral Limited from Sydney, Australia. Those two projects alone total about $135 million in new investment.”