"The branding project is a great idea," says Woodbury-born Mayor Ron Riskie, 63.
"We want to get to the root and the heart of what Woodbury really is," explains Ronda Abbruzzese, the city's economic-development director. "We don't want to be Collingswood or somewhere else. We want to be Woodbury."
The 24-week project will be paid for with a $20,000 grant from the Main Street New Jersey program at the N.J. Department of Community Affairs. Main Street funds downtown revitalization efforts in participating communities statewide.
Cindy Williams, a consultant who has worked with downtown revitalization efforts in Hammonton and Bridgeton, will oversee a series of public meetings to help produce a new logo, slogan, and multimedia marketing plan for central Woodbury.
"We don't have any preconceived ideas, and that's intentional," says Williams, whose design studio is in Berlin Borough. "We want to get responses and reactions from people who live there."
So what does she mean by a new "brand" for Woodbury?
"A brand is really an identity that's encapsulated for today's communications and media," Williams explains. "Woodbury was a historic town center. That was the identity that was stolen from it."
With a population of 10,500 in its two square miles, Woodbury offers history, pretty parks, and plenty of trees. Urban and suburban neighborhoods radiate from either side of Broad Street, where elements of an old-fashioned Main Street and a commuter highway collide (sometimes literally).
Sadly, downtown has dwindled since 1970, when the Deptford Mall opened in the next town over. Empty storefronts are everywhere, and plans for a Bottom Dollar discount supermarket, the biggest retailer to hit town in years, have sparked opposition from some residents.
