FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Heather B. Habelka, Office of the Mayor, 203.385.4001

Mayor Miron Unveils the Town of Stratford’s Marketing Campaign

Stratford, Conn. (March 9, 2007) – Mayor James R. Miron today unveiled the Town of Stratford’s marketing campaign. The campaign includes the Town’s newly redesigned website; online citizen and business service center; and new logo and tagline.

The Town selected QScend Technologies, Inc. to redesign and host the Town’s new website (www.townofstratford.com). QScend, a Waterbury-based company, provides web-based software solutions and services to municipalities.

“The Town’s newly designed website will provide complete, accurate and up-to-date information to the public in an effort to exceed customer service
expectations,” said Mayor Miron. “It is also part of my personal ongoing effort to make Stratford’s government more open and accessible.”

A notable feature of the Town’s new website is the Citizen and Business Service Center. This is a citizen relationship management system that allows Stratford
residents to submit concerns and suggestions, online and at any time of day. The requests are then routed directly to the town department and personnel
responsible for addressing the issue. The citizen submitting the request is notified as their request is processed, handled and closed.

In addition to utilizing the on-line Citizen and Business Service Center, residents are invited to subscribe to the Town’s monthly e-newsletter. The e-newsletter will keep residents informed about a myriad of issues including upcoming events and meetings, public works schedules and weather cancellations.

An on-line poll, which each month will ask residents for their opinions on a multitude of subjects, is also a feature of the new site.

To further support the local business community, a complete listing of all Town Request for Proposals (RFPs) and Request for Qualifications (RFQs) are listed on the website.

The website also hosts information on Stratford’s Channel 79. Residents can access the programming schedule, which includes Stratford’s community pages, Town special events and Town meetings. Residents can also link to Soundview Media and watch Stratford programming on-line. Currently, Stratford is the only Town in Cable Television Area II that utilizes this “Video-on-Demand” service.

To date, this project totals approximately $45,000 and has been approved and funded through allocated funds in the IT Steering Committee’s budget. This cost includes six software packages, approximately 60 hours of design and content migration, three training sessions, 12 months of website hosting, database hosting and 24/7 support services.

The second feature of the Town’s marketing campaign is the newly designed logo and tag line. In addition, the design of the Town Seal has been revised to comply with the design as outlined in the Town Charter.

Kroha Direct, a Rocky Hill based and award-winning agency, was selected by the Town to facilitate this branding effort.

The new Town logo and tag line were created to symbolize both the town’s environmental diversity, specifically the Town’s miles of both river and Long Island Sound shoreline and Roosevelt Forest, and the Town’s social diversity. The graphic icon, together with the tagline, “offering more from forest to shore” highlights this diversity.

Over the next several months, this new logo will be applied to Town letterhead, documents, signage, banners, etc.

To date, this project totals approximately $28,500 and has been funded through the Economic and Community Development budget.

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