Published November 2002

Brand strategy links county with innovation

If asked to describe Snohomish County, one key word would be “diverse.”

We are rural. We’re urban. We’re forested, coastal and mountainous. We work in laboratories, hospitals and clinics to heal and save lives. We design and manufacture airliners that span the globe. We are storekeepers, farmers, manufacturers, teachers. We drive trucks, buses, ships and trains that move people and goods. We work in government, in small businesses, high technology and information services.

Snohomish County’s assets are so varied, in fact, that the challenge accepted by the EDC to create a single, powerful identity for the area that captures an image of what we all have in common required extensive thought, analysis and debate among our staff members and partners.

With the help of Leonhardt Fitch, a Seattle image-building firm, the Snohomish County Economic Development Council recently adopted a brand strategy for the county that illuminates innumerable breakthroughs in invention and great thinking that take place daily throughout our community.

To support this strategy, the tagline “Snohomish County: Innovate Here” was selected because it captures our exciting diversity and invites the world to join us as we go about doing our jobs better every day.

No matter where you go in Snohomish County, you’ll find people working to improve products, services and increase knowledge. It’s about:

• Boeing machinists working with designers and engineers to streamline production-line efficiencies and enhance productivity to increase competitiveness.
• Engineers at specialty electronics firms developing the next generation of new and more powerful products.
• Police and fire departments minimizing response times to keep us all safer.
• Governments working with builders, construction firms and other private and public entities to create regulatory processes that are expedited, flexible and efficient.

The list is endless.

We believe that an identity for Snohomish County founded upon the concepts of innovation and great thinking incorporates the spirit and feeling that’s alive here, reflecting what was true yesterday, true today and what will be true for many years to come. It is not just about biotechnology and high tech but instead represents a mosaic that includes all business, industries, schools and government.

In working with Leonhardt Fitch, we discovered to our dismay that so few people realized the magnitude of innovation that occurs here every day, invention that puts Snohomish County at the forefront of today’s global market.

Even our own residents often fail to realize that the county is home to:

• Twenty-five percent of Washington state’s biotechnology and biomedical market, including firms such as Icos, Seattle Genetics, Sonus Pharmaceuticals, CombiMatrix, Eden Bioscience and many others.
• A thriving cluster of electronics companies.
• The Boeing Co.’s largest commercial aircraft facility, several leading-edge aerospace companies and the design and engineering team working on the Sonic Cruiser.
• Increasingly diversified rural communities that have worked hard over the last 10 years to attract new industries.
• An agriculture community broadened beyond traditional truck and dairy farming, to include agri-tourism, specialty food and organic products.
• A growing arts community, including the world-famous Pilchuck Glass School.

The EDC will incorporate this new brand in all of our communications and marketing vehicles. It will be an important component of our effort to increase business recruiting and retention in Snohomish County in 2003.

We urge everyone to embrace this identity for our Snohomish County community. We sincerely believe it reflects our rich diversity — our past, present and future.

“Snohomish County: Innovate Here.”

Deborah Knutson is president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. She can be reached at 425-743-4567 or by e-mail to dknutson@snoedc.org.

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