Northampton’s controversial ‘Let Yourself Grow’ slogan could be replaced
THE controversial ‘Let Yourself Grow’ catchphrase which has featured on Northamptonshire‘s welcome signs for the past six years was ‘of its time’ and could be replaced in the future, the man in charge of promoting tourism in the county has said.
The slogan was launched in May 2006 following a two-year, £100,000, study to find a phrase which summed up the county.
It has since come under criticism from the Plain English Society for making Northamptonshire “sound like a bag of compost”.
Rob Purdie, who is now the executive director of the county’s business and tourism promotion group, the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (NEP), insisted the phrase still worked well on the internet, but said the street signs could be altered in the future.
He said: “With any branding, you often get to a point where you need to start refreshing it and looking at it again, and we’re certainly doing that.”
While the business expert has said NEP would not want to spend another large sum of money producing new welcome signs in the near future, he said he would like to know how residents thought the ‘essence of the county’ could be summed up better.
He said: “There’s no point in replacing it until we’ve got something better, that will be the key thing. But finding the essence of the county is not easy.
“I would love to think we could come up with something as good as ‘I Love NY”, but that’s a once-in-a-lifetime piece of branding.”
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There are 15 comments to this article
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dustonfats
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 11:35 PMdo you think the vietnemese people that live around here took the let it grow slogan a bit too literally
Links
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 12:22 PMFunnily enough, someone told me about the 'Let yourself grow' slogan to me last week and I'd never heard of it. I thought we still had 'Rose of the Shires' on all the signs, which I rather liked.
20SOMETHING
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:23 AMWelcome to Northamptionshire
willi eckaslyke
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:45 PM'WELCOME TO HARKER COUNTY - NO GUN TOTING'
lady muck
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:44 PMChrispy1...I thought it was 'Rose of the Shires'...at least that's how I remember it on the motorway. Whatever it was, it had been gone for years before I realised.
Tony Clarke
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:20 PMHow about "Northamptonshire, home of NEPotism"
SteveRiches
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:07 PMI've driven past the signs for the last 6 years without even noticing the stupid slogan at the bottom of them. What's worse is that I have now discovered that I've paid money for it to be there!
Common sense
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:25 PMNorthamptonshire God help us where the street lights are always out!
dwells8126
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:20 PMhow about 'Home of British Motorsports' - it may be a big claim, but we have Silverstone, Rockingham Speedway and Santa Pod - plus enterprise partnerships are trying to bring in high-tech engineering firms. Plus it doesn't take £100,000 to find someone who has some clue about making something look appealing! just don't leave the job to somebody who doesnt understand simple principles of design!
dwells8126
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:16 PMMy apologies, Santa Pod is on the Beds-Northants border, so slightly untrue, although Wikipedia really should update their entry in that case!
jimorourke
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:40 PMI think it should read "Let yourself Go" and go down Bridge Street on a Saturday night and that's what you'll see.
Chrispy1
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:09 AM"Heart of the Shires" was very nice...the meaningless drivel of "let yourself grow" was always idiotic from the start. As Finker says - how about "Welcome to Northamptionshire", that will never need replacing. These public bodies waste so much time and our money dreaming up slogans that no-one takes a blind bit of notice of, as we all know they means absolutely nothing at all.
Common sense
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:05 AMhe would like to know how residents thought the ‘essence of the county’ could be summed up better.----I'm not sure that would help his cause. Instead of PR and Branding which are subjective and immesurable but very costly--action speaks louder than words--answer these questions--can I get rich here? Has Northamptonshire got a can-do business political leadership? Does it have the best Education available for my children? Has it got the best leisure offering for all the family? Is its healthcare and policing good? Can I buy the choice of house I want and can I afford it? Do I have excellent transport links? Can I get a well paid job? We need to be honest..the potential is here but it has been for many years but weak political leadership has so far retarded Northamptonshire with very few exceptions.
Finker
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 09:32 AMBuy some white stickers, get rid of the slogan, have signs that say welcome to Northamptonshire. Job done, won't go out of fashion.
lady muck
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:14 AMA totally meaningless catchphrase that is just as relevant to any other county. Why is a 'catchphrase needed at all ? What happened to 'Rose of the Shires' ? Most importantly, how much does all this flim-flam cost ?
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