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Brand discovery and positioning
A re-imagining of how Chatsworth and Murray County should be seen, felt, and remembered, presented to the chamber and its stakeholders.
Case study · Murray County, Georgia
Chatsworth and the Cohutta Gateway
How a real North Georgia town beneath a mountain began telling its own story.
The place
Chatsworth is the seat of Murray County, a working town sitting beneath Fort Mountain at the western threshold of the Cohutta Wilderness. Thousands of travelers already pass through on their way to the mountains, and for years most of them kept driving. The county had real scenic force and a fragmented, yellow-pages presence that quietly encouraged pass-through rather than stops.
The work
Townward began on the ground, reading the county and its traffic and talking with the people who run it. The through-line that emerged was simple and true. A real North Georgia town beneath a mountain, the front door to one of the South's most compelling landscapes. From there the work mapped where visitors lost interest, where the evening and the lodging and the reasons to stay were missing, and which openings were worth pursuing.
What we delivered
A sequence of practical pieces, each in service of the same through-line.
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A revitalization action plan
A three-pillar strategy for strengthening the local core, capturing the existing pass-through traffic, and attracting selective investment that enhances the town's character.
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A visitor's guide
“The Quiet Mountain County,” a narrative guide written to let a traveler feel the place before arriving, and to begin building the county's email list.
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A destination site
A basecamp guide organized around trails, food, itineraries, and the stories of the county, owned by Townward and licensed to the community, with a simple CMS so locals can keep it current.
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Workshops
Practical storytelling sessions for chamber members and local business owners.
See it live
The clearest proof is the one you can click.
The Chatsworth destination site is live, built and owned by Townward and licensed to the community.
Visit the live site →Image placeholder: large screenshot of visitchatsworthga.com
The outcome
The engagement gave Murray County a clear, compelling identity, a stakeholder base and local business owners aligned around it, and a living destination platform the county uses today. What makes the work hold is that the identity was already true. Townward made it visible and gave it somewhere to live.
If you lead a community wondering what its own story could become, start a conversation.
Free for communities
The Stayover Test, seven reasons visitors leave your town too early.