Brand launch and growth
The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) had built one of the most impressive cooperative buying groups in the Canadian public sector by collaborating with its sister associations across the country. Each collaborating association could opt into any of the RMA’s standing offer agreements (with the appropriate legal requirements met, of course), and RMA staff would assist with implementing that particular program in that province or territory.
Things had started with a handful of offerings like fuel, tires, and office supplies. Soon, though, the group had expanded to include major capital purchases like firetrucks and construction machinery.
As the Manager of Marketing & Communications at the RMA, one of my roles was to assist with this operation by leading the development of marketing materials that could be used throughout the country.
Initially, my team and I worked on developing materials that could be easily updated to use local branding as needed, but the permutations grew quickly as the group’s reach and catalogue expanded. We needed a different solution.
We started to develop materials that were branded “collaboratively” — they featured the logos of all the associations collaborating with the RMA on procurement initiatives.
Despite some minor pushback initially, the approach was well received. “It also provides a framework to work from for whenever we get the green light on a national brand,” I told my team. I was optimistic.
Then, in late January 2021, our Board of Directors and Business Services leadership determined that the market had shifted in such a way that they felt necessitated a unified national brand in order to maintain and grow the program.
Over the next few months, my team and I scrambled to mock-up logos, meet with stakeholders, pitch unified plans, create stakeholder guides, hire contractors, develop websites, and prepare a launch. Our collaborative branding approach that we had been phasing in previously was now the foundation for the new brand. I also like to think that it was one of the catalysts.
“This process took a similar organization two years. You did it in four months.” The words came from senior leadership after the launch on June 1, 2021. I wasn’t expecting that my team and I would be praised publicly for our efforts, but I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment.
Since then, the Canoe brand has continued to grow its market position and brand recognition from coast to coast to coast. While there is likely no single secret to its success, our Executive Director remarked to me shortly after launch that “...the inclusion of the logos of our sister associations across the country is a stroke of genius. Everyone feels like part of it!”