With an international recruitment program and a new location in partnership with Holland College in Charlottetown, the former Collège Acadie expanded its footprint significantly in 2016. The Sharp Group was commissioned to develop and pre-test new name, branding and marketing communication plan for the Collège, positioning it squarely as a player in the province’s post-secondary landscape. In this process, we consulted extensively with Collège staff and management, as well as with Holland College. We constructed a Brandscape® that surveyed some 55 post-secondary institutions in eastern Canada and conducted wide ranging competitive analysis. The new brand was successfully launched in December, 2016. Community leaders have been enthusiastic about the name change, noting that it “paints much broader horizons for current students, potential students and French postsecondary opportunities in Prince Edward Island.”

The Sharp Group was commissioned to develop a Strategic Plan for the City of Bathurst, the northeast New Brunswick anchor city facing multiple economic and social challenges. The plan was designed to guide the city’s future by articulating vision that is clear, mission that is focused, goals and objectives that are achievable, strategic actions that are doable and accountable, and measurement tools that are effective.

To make sure this was a plan the community could own, we designed, facilitated and reported findings from extensive bilingual consultation involving one-on-one interviews and stakeholder workshops among City staff and elected officials at municipal and provincial levels, as well as community leaders across all economic and social sectors. The findings were then validated via an online public survey. The resultant Strategic Plan was presented to a group of 38 City managers in November, 2015, than shared with City Council at its meeting of November 30, 2015.

Eric Riordon and Keith Hansen, accompanied by Stan MacPherson and Don Baker, were engaged by the Town of Sackville, New Brunswick to complete a strategic plan for the municipality to guide its operations from 2017-2022. The Consulting Team was tasked with assisting and guiding the Town through an intensive examination of short and long-term priorities. This included a project kick-off survey, two strategic planning workshops with employees and one with Town Council and senior staff, 23 key informant interviews with community leaders, a Mount Allison student focus group, a community open house and an online survey. The resulting Strategic Plan outlines a Vision, Mission, Corporate values, six strategic directions and 15 action items with corresponding deliverables, accountability assignment and key metrics. The Strategic Plan was adopted by Town Council in February, 2017.

Following a competitive bidding process, The Sharp Group was hired to review and recommend changes in TTPEI’s marketing communication and branding approach. Research and analysis covered best practice among parallel government organizations across Canada, and consulted current and potential exporters in four stakeholder focus groups. As a result, changes in communication and branding were recommended in line with this positioning statement:

As the first point of contact for companies interested in exporting from Prince Edward Island, TTPEI is the government partnership team that delivers a comprehensive range of services to bring single-minded focus to international export and to assist PEI businesses to navigate successfully in the global marketplace.

The project addressed creative strategy for consistent communication of this proposition to tightly defined target audiences, and suggested how branding could evolve within a very fluid strategic environment at federal and provincial levels.