A Tennessee-based marketing firm is mining for data and anecdotes this week as part of Rowan County’s rebranding.

Chandler Thinks, based in the Nashville, Tenn. area, met with with policy makers, business representatives and various community members Tuesday and Wednesday to gather information about Rowan. The company will also be in Rowan County today. As part of its research, Chandler Thinks representatives also met with Rowan residents in November.

The meetings — one-on-ones or focus groups — are part of research involved in Rowan’s rebranding. Steve Chandler, owner of Chandler Thinks, said his firm would send out a community-wide survey in January to gather additional information and internal opinions about Rowan. In early 2016, Chandler said, his firm will gather external opinions about Rowan from residents of other cities, such as Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.

“The first thing people think of Rowan County is what, and at the end of this we’ll be able to tell you,” he said.

A branding task force earlier this year picked Chandler’s company as the top choice among three companies vying to oversee Rowan’s rebranding, which will involve a logo, slogan and comprehensive marketing plan. The Salisbury-Rowan County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is footing the bill for the rebranding, which has a total budget of $500,000.

When asked about his company’s work, Chandler said he stressed he isn’t interested in simply creating a logo and tagline. For a rebranding to be successful, Chandler said it’s important to engage the entire community.

“Salisbury probably has the greatest sense of place of anywhere in Rowan County,” he said. “But what about the other places. They’re all part of our story.”

Chandler was tight lipped about some parts of the research process to date, but said multiple Rowan residents he’s interviewed say they’re proud of Salisbury’s historic downtown. Others say Rowan County is geographically situated in a prime location for growth.

“We don’t claim to be the experts of Rowan County. That’s silly,” Chandler said. “Our process is dependent on listening to the people of Rowan County in a lot of different ways, but unfortunately it probably isn’t feasible to interview every person in Rowan county one on one. So, use a number of different ways to listen to the people who live here.”

He said Chandler Thinks would conduct 35 to 40 one-on-one interviews, some focus groups in various areas of the community, man-one-the-street interviews and the community survey. Chandler Thinks has conducted interviews with policy makers and community leaders such as Rowan-Salisbury School System Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody. Chandler said his firm interviewed a group of students on Wednesday.

It’s important to “tap into community pride” during internal research — information gathered among those who work and live in Rowan — and discover a community’s greatest assets or things that are unique.

“Part of branding is being distinct and it’s telling a story,” Chandler said. “We want to know the kind of stories that make Rowan County interesting for opening a business, moving my family here, or coming to visit.”

Sometimes the most distinct things about a community, however, aren’t that great, he said. A community with the largest ball of twine in the world, he joked, may want to look somewhere else for its greatest asset.

Following research work, Chandler said his firm looks for “brand truths.” He described the term as things that are the DNA of a community. They’re things undeniably true about a brand or community, he said.

“What we can’t do is try to tell people (Rowan County’s) entire story in a single thread,” he said. “The result of that is ‘a great place to live, work and play.’ That might be true, but nothing about that is distinct. Every place in the country thinks it’s a great place to live work and play.”

The entire rebranding is scheduled to take eight months.

As part of the branding process, Chandler Thinks created a website specifically for the project. It’s url is BrandingRowanCountyNC.com. The website contains answers to a number of frequently asked questions and a few project updates.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246