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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Paper 3 Annex 1 Date 04/06/04 

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK: BRAND DEVELOPMENT 

The Cairngorms National Park Authority is seeking to develop a brand identity to promote 
the Cairngorms National Park area to visitors and to promote a greater sense of identity 
within and between the diverse communities with the Park. 

Introduction 

The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA), working with stakeholders within the Park 
area, seeks to enable a coherent approach to marketing the National Park area to external 
visitors and local people. This will: 

• allow tourism-related and other businesses to market themselves within the 
framework of a Park-wide strategy; 
• present a coherent image to visitors; 
• contribute to the sustainable year-round prosperity of the area; 
• support the objective of creating a ‘Park for All’; 
• help to foster a greater sense of identity within the Park. 

Stakeholders have been organised and involved in the process of developing the marketing 
strategy through the Tourism and Development Working Group established by the CNPA 
Board, and through its Marketing Sub-Group. 

Developing the Cairngorms Identity 

Considerable work has been done to understand the ‘brand values’ of the National Park. 
This work is expressed through a ‘brand wheel’ (attached). 

Some work has been carried out to understand the key visitor groups that visit the 
Cairngorms National Park (see attached). Further market research is needed, and this 
research is envisaged as part of the implementation of the Marketing Strategy. 

The next stage 

The CNPA has undertaken to lead the process of turning this work into a visual identity for 
the Cairngorms National Park area and seeks an external partner to deliver this work. 

The visual identity should certainly include a logo. Consideration should be given to whether 
a single strapline (or a number of straplines for different audiences) should be used with or 
incorporated into the visual identity. 

The visual identity should be coherent with the logo that has already been developed for the 
CNPA. However, it should be understood that the CNPA logo is a logo for an organisation; 
what we are now seeking is an identity that can be used by a wide range of organisations in 
a wide range of ways to promote the area. 

The Cairngorms brand will be understood and interpreted by visitors within the context of the 
marketing work that is carried out for Scotland as a whole by Visit Scotland. Consideration 
needs to be given to this context in developing the visual identity for the Cairngorms. 

The identity that is created through this process will be widely used and will become familiar 
to audiences. It is therefore important that: 

• Key stakeholders are involved in the development of the identity; 
• Market research is undertaken to test audience responses to the identity (or several 
options for the identity); 
• That the identity that is created can stand the test of time. 

Use of Cairngorms identity 

We are seeking to develop an identity that can be widely used by organisations within the 
Park or related to the Park that have been licensed to do so because they meet certain 
criteria (through a non-bureaucratic procedure). These criteria have not yet been developed, 
but will relate to the quality of the good or service being marketed and to the way the user 
displays the identity. 

The Cairngorms identity could be used in a wide range of circumstances, including: 

• Leaflets, brochures, flyers, and other published material 
o Including promotional material produced by businesses within the Park as 
well as generic Cairngorms literature 
• Signage, interpretation boards, window stickers and other fixed visual displays 
o This may include point of entry signs to the Park and signs on footpaths 
managed by the diverse range of land managers in the Park 
• Packaging of goods and products 
o The National Park does not yet have a strategy in place for the marketing of 
locally produced quality foodstuffs (for example), but this may include using 
branding as a mark of quality 
• Websites, e-mail headers, and other electronic applications 
o We may well wish to allow other organisations to feature the identity on their 
websites 
• Print, TV, poster and other forms of advertising. 

In general, this means that the Cairngorms identity should be able to sit easily with a wide 
range of other identities without being compromised. Simple guidelines on the use the 
identity for the CNPA and partner organisations also forms part of the brief. 

Copyright and Management of the Brand 

It is a requirement of this process that the logo, imagery, and other outputs of this process 
should become the property of the Cairngorm National Park Authority. All copyrights, usage 
rights, and licensing rights should be assigned to the CNPA.