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Leaders celebrate Clovis brand launch

CLOVIS - Community leaders on Wednesday celebrated the launch of the community's new brand, slogan and a promotion they hope will make Clovis a place where everybody knows your name.

The Clovis Industrial Development Corporation and Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce played host Wednesday to a launch of the city's new brand, based on the slogan of, "heartfelt connections. endless horizons"

Also announced Wednesday was the "hello! my name is ..." campaign, which will encourage citizens to wear personalized buttons everywhere they go and make new connections. Buttons can be requested by contacting the chamber at 575-763-3435 or [email protected], and picked up at the chamber office at 105 E. Grand when complete.

"As far as we know," Chamber Executive Director Ernie Kos said, "no other city has tried to personally recognize all community members in this way. I'm looking forward to saying hello and meeting a lot of new people in Clovis."

The launch event including an explanation of the two-year creation process and a giveaway of first merchandise featuring the logo, understandably light on decoration given the difficult task of illustrating "heartfelt connections, endless horizons."

James Glover, co-owner of Santa Fe-based Once A Day Marketing, cautioned against thinking a brand starts and ends with the logo, and invoked Nike. Everybody knows the "swoosh" logo, Glover explained, but Nike's brand cultivation means people also think of the athletes and teams that have played in Nike gear.

Chamber Board President Laura Leal spoke of her decades in Clovis, and how all she could think of were the people she'd connected with along the way.

"We all agreed," Leal said, "we needed to have the word 'connection.' It was the perfect slogan to come up with."

Glover noted he made a connection his first time in Clovis. He was at some public function, and had snuck off to a hallway so he could send off a proposal to a potential client. Raymond Mondragon approached him and asked what he was doing. Within minutes, Mondragon had set him up in an office with a reliable Internet connection, and Glover later landed that account.

Chase Gentry, executive director for the CIDC, said the process might not have been what everybody wanted with most of the planning meetings pushed to a virtual format, but he was excited an in-person celebration could be held.

"It's a community brand," Gentry said. "All of us own it, all of us manage it."

The CIDC and chamber have so far earmarked $85,000 for the effort - $30,000 from the CIDC, $55,000 from the city's lodger's tax funds - but Kos said much of the money is still to be expended.

Chamber Membership Development VP Jonathan Justus, wearing his "JJ" button at the podium, said many cities have worked with Once A Day and never followed through because either the city, the chamber of commerce or the lodger's tax board didn't join in.

"We have the best brand buy-in that we've ever seen going forward," Justus said.