The Wall Street Journal on Chattanooga’s Turnaround

by on April 18, 2012 in Economic Development, This Just In

“Chattanooga Reinvents Itself, At Its Own Pace” is the headline of Dawn Wotapka’s story that appears on page A6 of today’s Wall Street Journal. 

The article takes a balanced but positive view of the use of incentives – a mix of tax breaks, land grants, infrastructure and training funds – to successfully woo businesses that range from Amazon to Volkswagen.

We’re pleased to be part of this story having worked with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce on its media relations program for more than a decade.

Click here for a link to the full article.

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4 Economic Development Buzzwords that Kill Your Community’s Buzz

by on April 18, 2012 in Economic Development, Marketing, Uncategorized

Is your marketing message as predictable as a local news broadcast?

In watching a marketing video for a Midwestern city this week, I was struck by how all such videos – with a few exceptions – are as predictable as a local evening newscast:

“Now let’s check that weather forecast. Bob, tell me you’re bringing us the sunshine and warm temperatures this weekend!”

I’m pretty sure you could transcribe the first 90 seconds of most economic development videos—and the first 10 slides of a PowerPoint—without even seeing the content. It usually starts off with a word about how much “opportunity” exists in said city, then quickly mentions “quality of life” as the number one reason to do business there. Some vague reference to “technology” follows, along with “business friendly environment” and so on.

In many cases, I have no doubt that the claims are true, but from a marketing perspective, they also offer very little value to decision-makers. There’s a reason why DCI’s Winning Strategies survey shows an almost complete lack of interest in this medium among the C-level and location advisor community—videos tell them absolutely nothing.

Be it online videos or other marketing collateral, here are four buzzwords that are sure to attract a disengaged audience quicker than an actual project:

  • Quality of Life: This is the most common, yet most subjective and unprovable phrase in economic development. Everywhere has it, and you can’t do much about it. You should focus on selling the business case first, second and third. Once the dialogue begins, maybe then you’ll have an opportunity to talk about museums, the new opera house and how few traffic jams you have during rush hour.
  • High-tech Hub: You aren’t Silicon Valley, so vaguely positioning yourself in this light will lead to an instant hit to your credibility. Instead of claiming you’re the “Silicon Valley of…”, try a different approach. “We have the largest concentration of technology workers in the U.S.” That’s Boulder, CO. Or “Twitter, eBay, Oracle, Adobe, Electronic Arts, EMC and IM Flash have announced projects here in the last two years.” That’s Utah, and that’s worth listening to.
  • Advanced Manufacturing: Doesn’t this really mean manufacturing today, as opposed to manufacturing in 1950? “Advanced” is essentially a marketing word, so drop it. While you’re at it, drop manufacturing too…it’s so broad, you might as well say “We have an economy here.” If you don’t have a true cluster like automotive or aerospace manufacturing, tell a story that paints a picture instead of using vague terminology. Who’s your most successful company? Why do they succeed in your community? And what does your organization do to help them?
  • Skilled Workforce: Like quality of life, this is another hard-to-quantify phrase that populates every region’s marketing messages. Obviously putting prospects in touch with current employers to assess productivity and workforce quality is the best way to communicate this, but from a marketing perspective, can you say “highest rate of bachelor’s degrees in the state,” “No. 1 ranked workforce training program in the U.S.” or “Top 10 state in hiring IT workers?” Otherwise, when a decision-maker hears you say “skilled workforce,” they just hear “workforce like everyone else.”

Are you an economic developer who disagrees? We’d love your thoughts below. Are you a decision-maker who agrees? What other buzzwords have you heard?

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Silicon Valley? This is Detroit Speaking. Let’s Talk…

by on April 11, 2012 in Economic Development, Marketing

What has happened in Detroit during the last five years to reverse the city’s seemingly inevitable downward spiral is truly astonishing.

And the positive vibes continue, with the latest development in the form of ValleytoDetroit.com, a website created by several business leaders to recruit recently laid-off Yahoo! employees from Silicon Valley. In case you missed the news, the company announced last Wednesday that is cutting 2,000 jobs.

Spearheaded by Quicken Loans—a guardian angel for the city in its darkest days due to its chief revivalist, Dan Gilbert—and joined by Detroit Venture Partners, Fathead.com, and Rockbridge Growth Equity, the website was established within a week of Yahoo!’s news. Now Detroit is positioned to absorb talented techies to the city’s already booming IT and startup sectors, promising an opportunity to “be a part of something really big.”

While Detroit has several zealous caretakers that are setting it on a new and more prosperous path, it’s just one example from around the country of the power that a passionate and successful business leader has over the future growth of his or her city. Other noteworthy examples include:

  • The Kalamazoo Promise, an anonymous fund created by community leaders that will send students to Michigan colleges and universities for free or reduced cost, all in an effort to keep talented individuals in the state and, more specifically, in Southwest Michigan.
  • The Sanford Project, which received a $400 million gift from businessman Denny Sanford to identify and deliver a cure for type 1 diabetes in his lifetime. While the research process will involve several organizations within the Sanford Research family, the initiative is being spearheaded in Sioux Falls, SD, subsequently attracting hundreds of top-flight researchers and scientists from all over the country.
  •  The Downtown Project, founded by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh in an effort to transform Downtown Las Vegas into a vibrant business and entrepreneurial capital. Allocating a mere $350 million of his own money to the revitalization initiative, Mr. Hsieh has set very clear goals that include creating residential density of more than 100 people per acre and becoming the coworking capital of the world, all within five years.

What other communities have had one or more passionate leaders that have refused to let a region slip further into decline? We want to hear your stories below!

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NPR Wants Your Submissions on the Heart of Your Cities

by on April 10, 2012 in Digital Marketing, Uncategorized

One submission to NPR's Cities Project shows San Francisco through a heart-shaped view.

One of the main things I love about my job is that I have a chance every day to see first-hand people’s passion for a place. Whether it’s about a company that is growing and bringing jobs, a favorite restaurant, a favorite place to run or hike or a favorite spot to watch the sunset, there’s always something that fires up a person’s love for his or her city.

So, when I saw that NPR had sent out a call to its audience to show the station the thumping, pulsing heart of a city, I couldn’t help but think that those in our industry would have a few photos and sound bites to add to the discussion.

Started last month, NPR’s Cities Project has already had 200 submissions on Flickr, Tumblr and SoundCloud.

“This dovetails with a coming series of stories which will run on NPR later this spring called the NPR Cities Project, covering issues that confront our cities and towns at the outset of the 21st Century,” said Franklyn Cater, project leader for the NPR Cities Project.

The station isn’t looking for obvious landmarks such as the Liberty Bell, but instead wants to hear from its audience about the places that make their cities unique.

“We all identify with our cities on some kind of gut level,” Cater said. “For each of us there are places that make a city feel like home – spots we love to go, places we want friends from out of town to experience, places that say something about the communities we live in.”

As for Cater’s favorite submissions so far? They include the inside of Broadway Café in Kansas City, Mo., a heart-shaped view of San Francisco and Jerry’s Sno Cones in Memphis, Tenn.

Given our work in place marketing and our passion for places, I hope that I’ll be seeing some of your submissions shortly.

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Place Marketers Say Measurement Is Biggest Challenge

by on April 6, 2012 in Economic Development, Marketing, Presentation

Tweet In preparation for an economic development marketing course that I periodically teach for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), I conducted an informal online survey of economic development marketing directors across the country as to the current “state of the industry.” While the sample size was fairly small (25), I think the findings are [...]

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March Madness: Breakthrough Result Competition at DCI

by on April 5, 2012 in Uncategorized

Tweet On the heels of Kentucky’s win against Kansas on Monday, we wanted to share with you a bit of DCI’s own March Madness with our monthly breakthrough competition. Click here if you need a refresher on the guidelines for our breakthrough hits. Team 1 For the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, Dariel Curren and her [...]

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Lessons from Utah: Location Advisors Praise “Tombstone Announcements”

by on April 4, 2012 in Economic Development

Tweet At last week’s Summit, a two-day gathering of several of our economic development CEOs with a dozen of the nation’s top location advisors, we asked a pretty simple question: “What economic development groups are catching your attention these days?” One of the consultants piped up: “You know, every few weeks I get a card [...]

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This Just In…The Wall Street Journal reports “American Manufacturers Pick Up the Pace”

by on April 3, 2012 in Economic Development, This Just In

Tweet There’s been an awful lot written about the re-emergence of American manufacturing in the past three months. Today’s Wall Street Journal story by Ben Casselman cites favorable reports from the Institute for Supply Management and Markit Economics of the U.S. manufacturing sector. In contrast, Europe’s manufacturing sector is contracting and China’s rapid growth from [...]

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Structuring Incentives: Four Simple Questions

by on April 2, 2012 in Economic Development

Tweet DCI recently sponsored “The Summit 2012,” a two-day gathering of several of our economic development clients with a dozen of the nation’s top location advisors.  Over the next few days, we plan to share a sampling of some of the learnings that came out of the event. Here’s the first post, which comes courtesy [...]

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The Lead Gen Process: 5 Tips and Techniques for Your Community

by on March 27, 2012 in Best Practices, Economic Development

Tweet “You Like Me, You Really Like Me!” Just as Sally Field said these words when she won an Emmy for Best Actress in Norma Rae, every community hopes to utter this same phrase after working to identify and land a prospective company. During the prospect identification process, there are several steps that can be [...]

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