During their Zoom-hosted meeting, the Chattanooga Business Investment District Board (BID board) threw around the idea of possibly rebranding. This would involve changing not only the look of the logos and clothing, but also the colors too.
“With your current logo, that meant they look like green polos,” said Julia Bursch at the suggestion of having vendors wear green. “And green polos make them look like parking attendants from downtown.”
Steve Brookes suggested safety yellow or safety orange, two colors that would make workers instantly recognizable to people in the area.
Gordon Stalans suggested using any color other than the one Aquarium workers wear, in order to avoid confusion.
Aside from colors, the BID board also discussed the idea of renaming the BID into something that sounded more inviting.
“I think that doing a name like the Downtown Alliance of Chattanooga may be more appropriate than calling it a business improvement district, because we have more than just the businesses paying into the special assessment,” said Mr. Brookes. “I think in that case it serves the purpose to be an alliance where everyone is participating into the benefit of the program and what we’re about to do.”
“Your idea of the alliance is just right on the mark,” said Chairman Steve Hunt. “I think the Chattanooga Downtown Alliance has a nice sound to it. It does show a spirit of cooperation from all of the folks in the downtown area.”
Board member Charles Perry agreed with his fellow board members. The idea of renaming the BID was to make it seem more inclusive to anyone who lives within the BID area of downtown.
“It has a sense of purpose behind it that goes beyond business improvement,” said Mr. Perry. “It also implies the kind of outreach to people who are not property owners downtown to try to bring them in support of the movement.”
Chairman Hunt would interject every so often to voice his approval of an idea or to give an opinion of his own. However, he repeatedly mentioned that he is not an expert in graphic design or branding, and that he will listen to the experts on this subject.
“If we go with Downtown Chattanooga Alliance, the CHA could still be a part of the logo,” said Mr. Hunt. “But again, I’m going to defer to someone who is educated in these matters.”