Missoula organizers debate whether Buy Local campaign should foreground ‘Buy Local’ brand or Sustainable Business Council logo

Organizers with the Missoula Sustainable Business Council (SBC) spent much of a workshop Thursday debating how the group should brand a planned Buy Local campaign and whether the campaign should carry a separate name or prominently display the SBC logo.

Why it matters: members said the name and logo choice will shape public recognition, sponsorship solicitations and how people connect the campaign to the broader sustainability work the Council wants to advance.

Jeff Milton, outreach director for the American Independent Business Alliance, told the group that a campaign logo should be simple and recognizable at small sizes so it can appear on business ads, tote bags and receipts. “There are advantages to having something that can be easily recognizable at very small size, in black and white as well as color,” Milton said.

Susan Anderson, SBC board chair and co-owner of a software-development company, said the Council needs to ensure the public can identify who is behind the campaign even if the campaign’s outward brand leads. “We just want to make sure that nobody asks the question, ‘Who’s behind this?’” Anderson said, urging that any campaign materials carry a “brought to you by Sustainable Business Council” mark.

Board member Pete Talbot and other members argued for using a clear Buy Local name as the primary hook for the public. “Buy local is pretty straightforward,” Talbot said. “Sustainable still is kind of a tricky word… I’d like to use the Buy Local campaign to help springboard SBC out there to folks.” Members said a plain, repeatable slogan — examples mentioned included “Buy Local, Be Local” — would likely reach a broader audience than a more abstract sustainability logo.

Several participants raised practical design goals: simplicity (a single, small mark like a corporate “swoosh”), versions that work in one color, and consistent placement of a small SBC attribution. Jeff Milton suggested considering logo families and shared visual elements used by other communities to create recognition over time.

Next steps agreed by the group were to convene a follow-up meeting of the marketing and Buy Local committees to make naming and branding decisions, issue a brief request for proposals to local graphic designers, and circulate simplified mockups at the next steering meeting.

The discussion also emphasized that any Buy Local identity should be designed to serve as a “springboard” for future sustainability campaigns rather than be a one-off mark. That long-term view informed repeated requests that the mark be simple enough to appear on small merchandise and in black-and-white print.

Organizers did not take a formal vote at the workshop. They concluded by scheduling further work by the marketing committee on logo options and an RFP process to recruit local designers.