The City of Florence is facing the angry masses following a rebranding rollout this week that most feel missed the mark — with an exclamation point!
The new logo, unveiled Tuesday night, met with immediate community backlash and lots of questions.
WAAY 31 has been following the money and looking into how the city landed with their new branding at a cost of $25,000, paid out to a Birmingham marketing firm named Tatum Design.
But there's more.
The WAAY 31 i-Team has reviewed city council meeting notes and talked with city staff and citizens.
There’s still a yet-to-be-completed $75,000 contract that the city awarded to the same company for a new website.
Florence city leaders stand by the process they used to arrive on "Live For More" as the city's new tagline. They are pushing back on claims that they didn't consider hiring a Shoals area firm to complete the work.
They claim a request for proposal went out, and none of the local companies responded, but WAAY 31 spoke with several marketing companies who report having no knowledge of the RFP and only learning about the rebranding in the wake of the public outcry after it was revealed this week.
In August 2021, Florence city leaders set forth on a path of rediscovery, saying they wanted to "craft a strong brand image that would be recognized and representative of the city as a whole.”
In a media release Wednesday, following the backlash from thousands on social media, they said residents were engaged early in the process through a community survey sent out to hundreds. WAAY 31 could not find a copy of that survey on file on the city's website, social media or elsewhere. Our request of a copy was not answered by the city.
WAAY 31 also asked the city Thursday for information regarding the website redesign, but our requests were not answered as of 3:45 p.m. Thursday.
The city is standing by this rollout and rebrand, saying the new logos will be used alongside the existing city seal and logo. They are defending the process.
But Florence City Councilmember Kaytrina Simmons posted an open letter to residents Thursday, saying she has requested a meeting with the mayor and full council to discuss and revise the logo:
"To the citizens of Florence, I want to apologize for the logo that has brought so much disappointment to our great city. I acknowledge the calls, texts and all messages, and I heard you. I have made the request to meet with the mayor and the full council to discuss and revise the logo with something the city can get behind and be proud of! I am taking responsibility and will do what I can to get this situation rectified as soon as possible. I hope we will meet next week to discuss a resolution."
Florence isn't the first North Alabama city to experience such negative reaction to a rebranding. In 2019, Decatur announced its "A Little Different" slogan, which cost the city nearly $120,000 and was abandoned after public outcry against it.
Now, Decatur has partnered with local marketing agency Red Sage Communications to revisit their community branding.
