Dear Bruce,
As Marketing Consultant focussing on the Garden Route, I came up with the idea for Martins Vleismark, who are well known on the Garden Route as well as by visitors in Gauteng who come here on holiday, for their Trademark “Dagbreek Boerewors”. With this in mind, I came up with the idea to find an “Icon Attraction” in the region and use that as a way to create a new brand that would have the legs to market the Garden Route.
This is where the Choe Tjoe®Brand came in. Even though the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe has not operated for the last 7 years, the memories and proof of its history is still rich and visible everywhere. It also remains a constant point of discussion whether it will be revived, what it was like to ride the Choo-Tjoe etc. So the Idea of creating a brand that will feature a Steam train, had all the potential to revive those great memories and maybe create hope for the future to have something like that again.
The concept that I thought would work well was to offer a free Sticker that people can stick in their car windows that indicate that they are a Choo-Tjoe Supporter. This means no more or no less than what it says, its not a pressure group to bring the Choo-Tjoe back, its merely an initiative to celebrate this wonderful Tourist Attraction that became synonymous with the Garden Route.
So the way that it becomes available to the public is that Vacation and the Holiday season is also a time when us South Africans like to braai, and the Car Window Stickers are therefore packaged in a product called the Choe-Tjoe Wors, and by buying it, you get your free Choe-Tjoe Sticker inside the product.
I approached Levona from the George Tourism Office, As well as Kees Este from the Friends of the Choo-Tjoe in Sedgefield, and they both came up with 100% support of the campaign. I also discussed it with SANPARKS Management who also liked the idea very much.
Currently my focus is to find as many Retail Outlets to stock the product so that we can start to see supporters stickers out there. We also make Sales material available to Retailers that would inform customers of the Campaign.
I think that it will really be something fun and constructive to see it grow and evolve, and I plan to expand the Campaign to other products as well. People who are interested can contact me and we can see what they have to offer and maybe we can end up with a range of products that would be available under the Choe-Tjoe Brand.
If anybody have further enquiries or need more information or marketing Services, they are welcome to contact me, Abri Le Roux, 072 119 4963, or email, abri@artmdc.co.za.
PS
I designed a new Logo, I changed the spelling to Choe-Tjoe, and I consciously tried to stay away from any Transnet Steam Locomotives. This made the campaign independent from the Trademark that Transnet own, and it gives us space to do what we want.
Below, please find some Graphics and I also pasted the communication from Levona and Kees below my email.
Kind Regards
Abrie le Roux
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Dear Abri,
thank you for the information, the stickers looks good, just 1 thing, our logo has changed. I have attached it to the document.
this is such a wonderful initiative, the George Municipality’s tourism section supports this idea
thank you and kind regards
Levona Feris
Manager: Tourism
George Municipality
044 801 9295
079 975 5650
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Hi Abri
Attached is a copy of a high resolution logo for your use.
Our committee members are in full support of your initiative. I think too, that it would be best to not use the Transnet logo which may just complicate things.
Our committee members are meeting shortly so if you would like to add anything to what you have proposed or make adjustments to what you have give me thus far , let me know and we will discuss that and come back to you.
Kind regards
Kees Estié
Sec: Friends of the Choo-Tjoe
P O Box 846
Sedgefield, 6573
email: friendsofthechootjoe@telkomsa.net
Tel: 044 343 1868
Fax: 086 606 6050
