Now that the Carbon County Office of Tourism has its new tourism branding in place, deemed the Carbon Corridor, the desire arose for the community members and visitors to be able to purchase branded merchandise in local shops and eateries.
Several discussions took place on how to best partner with private businesses in a public/private partnership. Carbon County Tourism Specialist Tina Henrie took time to connect with other tourism directors throughout the state to receive feedback on whether or not they sold merchandise, offered consignment or let anyone use their logo.
None of the other directors stated that they had the time or resources to manage that, causing a lot of them to create agreements with local retailers wishing to carry their branded materials to allow them to be able to purchase and sell the products themselves. That leaves the counties out of having to manage, but gets the branded merchandise in the shops and eateries.
Henrie stated that it is a great way to boost business for the local economy as well. With that, the wish to ensure that the branding was protected also came to light, as well as the need for easy guidelines to follow.
Henrie remarked that there is no fee or cost involved with the county in order to do this; rather, there is a simple agreement that the brand will be represented in good taste. The county also wished to highlight local vendors that could provide the merchandise to those that wish to participate.
The county’s marketing agency spent a great deal of time and effort connecting with local vendors to gather information and then drafted the designs as well as the layout of the merchandise catalog. The catalog will ensure ease for retailers to place their orders.
Henrie said that, they even came up with a pet line so that our furry friends can rock the Corridor brand too.
For more information on how you can partner with the Carbon County Office of Tourism to carry Carbon Corridor merchandise in your establishment, please call Henrie at (435) 636-3701 or email her at tina.henrie@carbon.utah.gov. Henrie will then respond by sending out the agreement followed by the catalog.
