Monday, June 08, 2009

Open thread: Marketing unity, communication, cooperation and selling positive images.

First step: Read (or reread) Saturday's post.
Now more than ever, downtown marketing unity.

Second step: Consider the following comments in its wake.

Kerberos said...
I think the sign is a brilliant idea. Bluegill and I noticed your sign this past Thursday evening. Shouldn’t some type of association be doing this (i.e., unified downtown marketing as considered by the senior editor in the original post) for all downtown businesses? For instance, if DNA is a “Main Street” organization, should it not fall on them to help promote this type of information? Is there another downtown type of business organization that could be doing this? It seems to me that this is another “cheap” way to promote not only one’s business, but also downtown as a whole.
4:20 PM

dan chandler said...
First, I want to make one distinction. “Main Street” organizations are not intended to be “merchant organizations,” per se. Main Street organizations have their roots in historic preservation; historic downtowns have the best chance of survival if they are active centers of commerce and culture. To aid in downtowns' survival, Main Street organizations are organized around a Four-Point Approach: Organization, Promotion, Design, and Economic Restructuring. As for Promotion, the National Trust states that Main Street organizations should:

Sell a positive image of the commercial district and encourage consumers and investors to live, work, shop, play and invest in the Main Street district. By marketing a district's unique characteristics to residents, investors, business owners, and visitors, an effective promotional strategy forges a positive image through advertising, retail promotional activity, special events, and marketing campaigns carried out by local volunteers. These activities improve consumer and investor confidence in the district and encourage commercial activity and investment in the area.

I don’t know that it “falls on” Develop New Albany to organize, alone or with partners, a downtown marketing campaign; we are volunteers with no official government mandate. However, I believe it is very clear that such a campaign is consistent with Develop New Albany’s mission.

Ok, enough of the hair splitting.

Develop New Albany historically has handled Promotion in a number of ways (and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few). Our “First Tuesday” events bring anywhere from 100 to 200+ people to a New Albany business each month. Our email blasts, which reach a few thousand people, promote various downtown business events such as Grand Openings/Ribbon Cuttings, etc.

Develop New Albany recently has become much more focused on the advertising side of Promotion. While everything at Develop New Albany is a group effort, I in particular would like to single out Board Member Dave Clark of D-Zine as someone who is helping give new life to our Promotion efforts. For the past six months, Dave has been working on a downtown marketing plan that includes print advertisements in both the Tribune and a regional food/dining magazine (Food and Dining). A few of these ads have already run. Dave, who works in the advertising industry, is able to use his knowledge, contacts and his bulk purchasing power to ensure that downtown gets the best campaign possible. So far, that has been a pure Develop New Albany effort.
(continued at next post)
10:25 PM

dan chandler said...
(continued from prior post)
In joint meetings between Develop New Albany and the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association, marketing was indentified by board members as one of four areas where the two organizations can and should be working together. That decision was made just in the last couple months so it’s too early to tell exactly what direction this partnership will take. Personally, I’m very excited by the opportunities that may come about from this collaboration. If you see a Develop New Albany or Urban Enterprise Association board member, ask him or her about the joint project.

Can our marketing efforts be better? I believe I can speak for the whole organization when I state that we at Develop New Albany always are open to constructive criticism. We want to fulfill the Main Street organization objectives. Everyone may not always agree on how to get there, but we’re willing to have the debate.

Particularly troubling to me is that over the past month or so, I’ve heard a number of rumors that a particular individual involved in downtown redevelopment has been whispering into peoples’ ears that Develop New Albany is not a Main Street organization and should be dissolved. Through four emails, one sent each of the last four weeks, I’ve asked this individual what he believes the organization should be doing to improve itself and to better fulfill its mission. Like I said, we’re open to constructive criticism. I’m sad to say that I have yet to receive a response from this individual. In contrast, Bluegill and I have had several discussions on this blog and in person on the merits of Develop New Albany. While he and I sometimes disagree, Bluegill always is quick to articulate the reasons behind his differences with Develop New Albany. While I do not always agree with him, I respect him and his opinions. I value his interest in and passion for downtown. I wish everyone who spoke against Develop New Albany showed similar readiness to articulate his or her rational and was as eager to engage in constructive criticism. When hearing the unconstructive variant, criticism unaccompanied by articulated reasons, it’s difficult not to wonder if there are motives other than seeing that Main Street organization goals are achieved in New Albany. I’m waiting to be proved wrong. I hope I am wrong.

One of the “Promotion” elements is to “Sell a positive image.” That should be easier.
10:25 PM


Third step: Discuss among ourselves.

10 comments:

Christopher D said...

"sell a positive image"

One BIG step:
Next time you are on the corner of State and Elm, the highway entrance to our city, take a look around the bus benches.
PILES of trash, styrofoam drink cups, beer bottles, food wrappers, cigarette butts and empty packs, and the occassional dirty diaper.
This creates quite the welcome sign for those who come into town on the way to the boat.
Other entrances to town fair about the same, coming in from Clarksville across the Silver Creek Bridge, travellers are greated with the same, garbage, weeds, cracked and broken streets, and a bus stop inthe same shape.
The city itself needs to invest a little more time into these areas, and a little money for some freaking trash cans. (Not saying that would cure the problem, but problem right now there are NONE)
We have to be able to change the perception that New Albany is dirty before we can expect any real economic boom in the downtown corridor.
After a road trip this weekend I am truly perplexed as to why we in this situation.
Bloomington, Columbus, Nashville, and Madison all have thriving commerce areas in the downtown areas.
Buildings like the Grand are still set up as movie theaters, and are doing very well.
Columbus capitalized on its architecture, Madison on its historic ties to the river, Nashville on the artists in the community, things we all have here. But the one thing that stuck out in my mind that is different about these similarly sized and aged cities was simply cleanliness....

Iamhoosier said...

While the following comment is not directly related to NAC's request for discussion, I do think(hope)that it is at least a cousin.

Downtown New Albany and the Cassidy's Saturday.

Went to the Farmer's Market. Used ATM at bank. Made small purchase at J. O. Endris. Came home to the north side of New Albany.

In a non ecological move(should have combined trips), we decided to head back downtown and visit the Art on the Parish Green. Made small purchase. Hungry(and thirsty), we decided to have lunch at the Bank Street Brewery. Nice lunch, sitting "almost outside" and looking across the street at the Carnegie Center.

"How long has it been since we were in there?" Embarrassed, we can't recall. We decide to remedy that. Spent the next 2 1/2hours observing, learning, thinking, enjoying and feeling.

In case you have lost count, we patronized 1 seasonal enterprise, 1 annual event, 3 private business, and a non profit museum. All in all, a most pleasant day was spent in downtown New Albany.

Sorry for the length but I still have to emphasize the Carnegie Center. We saw the most amazing exhibit by Penny Sisto. An exhibit of Art Quilts entitled "Faces of Faith: the Search for the Divine".

I'm not a religious person. I know nothing about art. Usually, I look at few "items" and read a couple of descriptions and I'm ready to go. Not at this exhibit. I observed every quilt, then I read the artist's description, and stepped back again to study it. Every last one of them. When I wrote "feeling" above, this is what I was thinking about.

You gotta go.

Highwayman said...

Chris,

"Ask and ye shall receive..."

I have from a reasonably good source that a number of trash cans & benches are coming to downtown within a few weeks.

I'm told they are to be in place prior to the July 3rd celebrations!

Christopher D said...

Lloyd,
That is excellent news indeed. I had just really started paying attention to those places I mentioned after the road trips I had mentioned.
Even today at lunch, downtown jeff was bustling, and the streets are clean and the trees trimmed and in good shape....

B.W. Smith said...

On the trash issue, I'll share an anecdote.

When I moved into my house on the corner of Frederick and McDonald in Silver Grove, folks would throw a significant amount of trash in my yard just about every day. I attributed it to foot and car traffic from school kids.

I decided to become anal about trash in my yard, so every day I would pick up every single piece of trash, cigarette butt, etc.

Guess what? Over time, the volume of trash per day decreased to the point that I rarely have trash thrown in my yard, even on weekends. Nothing has changed other than the consistent appearance that my yard is not a place where one should throw trash.

I believe a similar strategy would work at the problem intersections and off-ramp areas downtown. We don't need more trash cans, we need to be consistent and aggressive about cleaning and sprucing problem areas.

While in Bamberg with Ted a couple of weeks ago, it was difficult to find a trash can, and those you could find were tiny. I don't think we ever, even once, saw someone leave trash, even in high-traffic pedestrian areas where everyone was walking around eating and drinking. It's all about expectations.

G Coyle said...

Bingo B.W. We used to have trash cans around Wellfleet and at the beaches, but it turned out that actually encouraged people to bring trash and leave it around. A few years ago a experiment was done and all the cans were removed. I was walking in the parking lot of Duck Harbor Beach this morning and there was not a butt to be found. So, what we learned here was trash begets trash, even if it's in cans. Or worse, the disgusting appearance I witnessed at the Thunder over Louisville event where every trash can on Jeffs riverfront was overflowing... My other comment re. public lettering: Here in Massachusetts petty criminals are put in orange jumpsuits and they pick up trash as community service. I mean, this is a political issue and I'm use I don't know the relevant laws, but is there some "good" reason NA is full of petty criminals and trash and the two have not been introduced? Community Service? Do they have that in Indiana?

John Manzo said...

Please do not forget that churches are part of the landscape downtown. We are actually showing a free movie at 9:00PM on the lawn behind our Education Building. People can bring picnic dinners or purchase hot dogs and bring their own lawn chairs. The price of admission is a package of new underwear or socks for our Clothes Closet.

St. Marks is right in the thick of the downtown and I do like to think we are doing our part in the downtown revitalization.

But then again, I am biased. :-)

Christopher D said...

so we forget the ideology of placing trash cans at the blight sites.
Who do we have keep them clean to discourage littering? Sanatation department is a contracted company.
Street department needs to worry about the streets.
While I would love nothing more than to see roving "chain gangs" of non-violent offenders "earning their keep" at the gray bar bed and breakfast, (which was the case this week end in Nashville, Indiana), the reality of that is with that comes liability, with liability comes the need for insurance, and the city and county can not even agree to disagree at most times, let alone county prisoners cleaning in the civil city of New Albany.
But B.W. is correct, if we can somehow manage to get it cleaned up and keep it cleaned up, then it would tend to reduce the problem. But how do we get there

G Coyle said...

re - liability. they don't put felons on trash detail anywhere. Do a cost benefit analysis of misc. offenders picking up trash... it's just like code enforcement, you shift a community "cost" onto the folks taxing (spending) community resources. It's free labor. It works other places where it's spotless.

Christopher D said...

R: "Re- liability"

previous post read:

"While I would love nothing more than to see roving "chain gangs" of non-violent offenders "earning their keep"...
Rgardless of the type of conviction or pending conviction, the liability insurance would be there. I non-violent, non-felon offender can be injured or cause injury just the same.