District Council Request For Quotation: Place Branding

Thetford Place Branding Specification

Executive Summary We are looking to appoint a specialist place-based branding agency to develop a ‘brand’ for Thetford to change the local and regional perception of Thetford, whilst establishing the town as a community destination for residents, business and visitors alongside supporting the wider economic development and regeneration ambitions.

The appointed agency will build evidence of what the narrative should be by establishing a brand perception baseline, engaging target audiences on what Thetford is and could be, collating the strengths and considerable assets Thetford has and then drawing on this rich insight to develop and test a unifying authentic, compelling narrative that town partners, residents and businesses can champion and support.

Background Thetford is a located in the Breckland district of , with a population of just over 24,000 residents and an area of just over 11 square miles.

Thetford is positioned on the A11 road between and London and centrally located between Norwich and . With future development expected over the next 25 years; delivering 5,000 new homes and employment land which links the wider rural catchment to create the Greater Thetford area, through the Sustainable Urban Extension.

Purpose The purpose of this is to develop a strategy to stimulate Thetford’s long-term sustainability, economic growth and regeneration, whilst building on Thetford’s reputation as a great place to live, work, visit and invest. • Create a compelling brand proposition and positioning that is adopted by key stakeholders, partners, businesses, influencers and interest groups • Stimulate economic investment, attract visitors and footfall and raise awareness of our offer • Improver perception and awareness • Raise the profile of Thetford as a place to live, work, invest and visit, that positions the town positively, and secures buy-in from residents, businesses and stakeholders. • Attract inward investment to strengthen the local economy • Grow the visitor economy to increase the number of day and overnight visitors and repeat visits • Provide a clear and common focus for all local stakeholders • Provide a positioning that will introduce a strong sense of pride amongst residents, communities and businesses • Create a brand proposition, positioning and messaging based on Thetford’s unique and distinct qualities to position the town for the future • Deliver an authentic narrative about the Thetford offer based on research and insight that all key audiences can relate to and that all key partners can adopt • Create a high quality, consistent, motivational brand platform that is succinctly flexible for all partners to use, through which all place related marketing and communications activity can be channelled • Provide a framework from which ideas and impetus for action and investment will be developed

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

• Be a catalyst for change

The proposed development of a branding exercise for Thetford has been identified by local partners and businesses to help establish Thetford as a destination for all and which joins all heritage together.

Discussions in recent months have highlighted how local stakeholders talk in different ways about the town, in particular; what it has to offer, what attracts people to the town and how to make the most of opportunities, build resilience and develop capacity for the future.

Project Brief Agencies are invited to tender for the development of a brand strategy for Thetford. The branding development aims to establish Thetford as a destination which increases visitor footfall, encourages extended visitor stay and extends on local community buy in to ensure the maximum economic return for the town.

This brand strategy is needed as Thetford lacks any cohesive, consistent town-wide brand proposition, positioning and narrative. Thetford requires the development of a consistent, motivational brand for the town to attract people to live, work, invest and visit.

The project will add to a portfolio package of mutually supportive measures which will deliver high quality and memorable visitor experience. Collectively this brief will help to redefine the towns visitor offer, promote new visitor product developments and enhance the towns current events and activities programme by creating a range of opportunities, events and products, developed by businesses and the local community, in celebration of Thetford’s distinctive heritage, culture and environment.

The package includes: 1. The project will establish a Thetford destination management function and launch a new destination marketing approach with refreshed information, targeted advertising and campaigns to drive visitor numbers, footfall and spend to the town within the context of the wider strategic approach. 2. An events programme – the project will develop an extended visitor season through centrally coordinated product development celebrating the towns character, distinctiveness and location. 3. The project will deliver local training and skills attainment to support businesses and community enterprises to fully engage with and realise the economic benefits of the refreshed visitor economy. 4. The project will contribute to the delivery of a refreshed and enhanced visitor wayfinding scheme which will re-orientate and improve the way visitors experience the town upon arrival, connecting key tourism sites and the retail heart of the town to public transport.

This brief for the brand strategy will form part of a wider place delivery plan which will incorporate economic growth and regeneration for the Greater Thetford area, so needs to take the wider place context and considerations into account.

Objectives 1. Engage residents – connect residents to the whole town, building their confidence, harness their energy, curating their stories to show how they are the story of Thetford.

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

2. Evolve Perception – Build on the town strengths to enhance local and regional perception of Thetford, so it’s widely recognised as an heritage destination that embraces the future. 3. Attract Investment – draw on the shared perception to build an understanding amongst inward investment and development for future opportunities. 4. Attracting Visitors – increase spend in the tourism sector by continuing to attract a higher value and longer staying visitor.

Supplier Quotation Instructions

• Your Quotation must be submitted on this form and be fully compliant with the instruction contained within this RFQ

• Any costs incurred by the supplier in the preparation and submission of a quotation will be borne by the Supplier.

• Successful quotations will be notified in writing by the RFQ Contact.

• Purchase orders are subject to Breckland Council’s Terms and Conditions (Appendix D).

• Breckland Council reserves the right not to make any purchase following receipt of quotations.

Evaluation

Part one – RFQ response

Quotes received will be awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous proposal, evaluated by the following criteria;

Section Award Criteria Weighting (%) Quality (%) Give two examples of your previous success, including before-and-after place- based branding with evidence of how you 1 20 changed the perception of either towns, cities or countries, either in the UK or overseas. Evidence of the benefits and impacts of place-based branding. Demonstrate your 2 15 in-depth understanding of the opportunities and constraints. What is your approach to leading 3 25 engagement activities with different

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

audience groups, including the hard to reach or traditionally disengaged. Give examples and evidence of when you have done this previously. Commercial (%) 4 Fixed price for the entire contract 40

Appendix A listed at the back of this document has full details of price and quality scoring methodology

Quotes will be evaluated and responses to each tender will be sent within the dates stated in the procurement timetable in section 4 below.

All quotations and any points for questions or clarification1 should be submitted electronically via In-Tend.

Procurement Timetable

Listed below are the key dates and milestones throughout the procurement process;

Procurement Timetable RFQ sent out 25/02/2020 Clarification questions deadline 06/03/2020 Deadline for return of RFQ 13/03/2020 Evaluation of RFQs 16/03/2020 to 23/03/2020 Final results & feedback 25/03/2020 Contract Award 27/03/2020 Contract Start Date 01/04/2020

Supplier Declaration

• I confirm that this quotation is open for acceptance until

• I agree that Breckland Council’s Terms and Conditions will apply to any contract formed by acceptance of this quotation.

• The Supplier will be bound by the said Terms and Conditions and no variation will be valid unless agreed by both parties in writing.

Supplier’s signature………………….…………for and behalf of

1 In the interest of running a transparent tendering process, any questions raised may be shared with other candidates

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

Appendix A – Evaluation Criteria Methodology

All tenders will be scored out of 100, split into two main criteria; quality and price. The amount of points available from the price and quality criteria is determined by the importance of these criteria to the goods, services or works being purchased and is dependent on the risk and value of the contract to be awarded.

Quality – 60%

The quality response is broken down into 3 questions which have a total weighting of 60%, so the maximum score would be 60 points. All responses will be marked from 1-10, on the following criteria;

Score Marking Criteria 0 Completely unsatisfactory response – Nil response to question. Unsatisfactory response – Limited information or Respondent would not have 1-2 ability in delivering to the required standard. Poor response – Respondent would only meet some of the requirements of the 3-4 contract some of the time. Acceptable response – Respondent would be likely to meet basic contract 5-6 standards but further work may be required to ensure standards are met consistently. Good response – clearly indicating Respondent has fully understood and can 7-8 consistently apply and deliver all the required contract standards. Excellent response – Comprehensive understanding of the requirements and 9-10 demonstrates that they are likely to exceed the required standards of the contract.

Scores out of 10 will be adjusted for weighting to give the overall score.

Price – 40%

Price has a total weighting of 40%, therefore the maximum marks available for this part of the RFQ will be 40 and will be awarded to the lowest price submitted by the potential supplier. The remaining suppliers will receive marks on a pro rata basis from the cheapest to the most expensive price.

The total price submitted by the potential supplier as part of the Commercial Questionnaire will be used for the purpose of this evaluation.

The calculation used is the following: Score = ((Lowest Tender Price/Tender Price) x [40]) (Maximum available marks)

For example, if three tender responses are received and Supplier A has quoted £3,000 as their total price, Supplier B has quoted £5,000 and Supplier C has quoted £6,000 then the calculation will be as follows: Potential Supplier A Score = ((£3000/£3000) x [40]) (Maximum available marks) = [30] Potential Supplier B Score = ((£3000/£5000) x [40]) (Maximum available marks) = [24] Potential Supplier C Score = ((£3000/£6000) x [40]) (Maximum available marks) = [20]

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

Appendix B – Quality Questionnaire

The information supplied in this section will be used to assess how your organisation meets the Specification and will be assessed by the evaluation panel. This Section is worth 60% of the final score.

Previous Experience

Give two examples of your previous success, including before-and-after Weighting: 1 place-based branding with evidence of how you changed the perception of 20% either towns, cities or countries, either in the UK or overseas.

Understanding

Evidence of the benefits and impacts of place-based branding. Weighting: 2 Demonstrate your in-depth understanding of the opportunities and 15% constraints.

Approach

What is your approach to leading engagement activities with different Weighting: 3 audience groups, including the hard to reach or traditionally disengaged. 25% Give examples and evidence of when you have done this previously.

Timetable

4 Please provide us with an estimated timetable for the branding exercise. NOT SCORED

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Breckland District Council Request For Quotation: Thetford Place Branding

Appendix C – Commercial Questionnaire

This section is worth 40% of the final score.

Our Tender Price for the provision of the goods/services referred to in the Specification is:

This price does not include any element of Value Added Tax and is for the full Contract Period.

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