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"Economic Development Marketing Letter"
A Blane, Canada Ltd. Publication
Nationally Recognized Experts On Economic Development Marketing and Retention
March 2001, Volume: 4, Issue: e/3
Image is Everything… except when the graphic promises something that the product doesn’t deliver. Then the product is in trouble! Images… are “stand-ins for a greater reality - picked out from a much larger set of candidate images on the grounds that they really “click” with the sum total of an informed person’s experience.” So, How valuable is that golf course shot in the ad? Source: “Crossing the Chasm” Geoffrey A. Moore, 1991. SOF “Rules”…*Take the initiative. Don’t wait for answers from the top because they are rarely available. *Truth changes. The first report is always suspect. *Expect the unexpected. Anticipate and prepare. *Plan and prepare as if there were no rules. Source: General Peter Schoomaker, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Forces The best product… is no match for a weaker product marketed well! Have recent stock market changes reflected cut backs, closures, or re-locations out of your area? You should have had Synchronist business retention software. Developed by Blane, Canada Ltd., it is built on the premise of evaluating a company as if it was part of your stock portfolio. What are the risks of Company ZYX leaving your community? What are the catalysts to cause this to happen? The Synchronist software goes well beyond any previous survey tool by analyzing data and generating over 40 different reports. Be a knowledgeable leader. Get Synchronist! <info@blanecanada.com> Guess that acronym… With the pending merger of the American Economic Development Council and the Council for Urban Economic Development, a new name will be needed. So, will it be ACED (American Council for Economic Development), or EDCA (ED Council of America), GEDC (Global ED Council)? Weigh in. Let us know what you think the new name for the national association of economic developers will be. Hey, that’s not bad - NAED. Oh yes, a new logo will be needed, too. Perhaps a swoosh (the curved logo so many are emulating)? Speak Up... Have a comment or marketing insight to share? Found a valuable new resource? Send a note and we will include it in a future issue of Economic Development Marketing Letter. ~~Upside down web page?… When faced with laying out a Web page most people do the obvious; they emulate print documents, e.g. newsletters and magazine layouts they’ve seen. They plunk a big graphic at the top of the page to make it interesting. Text content, links, and minor graphics are placed below. The ironic result is that the important stuff gets pushed off the bottom edge of the screen where it can’t be seen. Will visitors scroll down to find your key message? Patrick Lynch, http://patricklynch.net/viz/viz020100.html Never, never, never... give a slide presentation sitting
down. The audience will be elsewhere - like writing for their ED Marketing
Letter - and you will never know it. As a speaker, it is extremely difficult to
maintain vocal energy while seated. Without vocal energy, prepare for extreme
audience drift! Thinking e-mail for a newsletter... Keep in mind that more and more companies are interacting with their customers through e-mail publishing. Many customers are starting to suffer from “in-box fatigue.” They are seriously turned off by junk e-mail. If you tailor your list carefully and make sure your messages have real substance and relevance for the reader, e-mail could be the tool that makes your organization stand out. Source: Outsourcing Solutions, PC Magazine, 2/4/00 http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2425992,00.html Help with recurring critical issue... Community Technology Advisors will help communities obtain and use advanced telecommunications services. They act for a telecom provider to invest the necessary dollars to bring advanced services. Bill Coleman, Community Technology Advisors, 651-426-6885 ~ED web sites: Good, bad, and sometimes ugly. Let us know which ones make a strong impression, and we’ll include your observations in a future newsletter! ~You paid what?… Market research by Blane, Canada Ltd. has covered motorcycles, insurance, computers, electronic components, R&D, agribusiness, paper, medical devices, etc. When we read market research reports, it’s amazing how much comes from the same basic sources. But will the historic numbers, often several years old, really help distance you from the pack? Target research should always incorporate the current pulse and future trends, not just history. Pay accordingly. Great resource… Go to http://www.census.gov to get info on population, income, state & county profiles, maps, NAICS [North American Industrial Classification System], the latest economic indicators and more. For industry research, try http://factfinder.census.gov Source: Melissa Morgan, Paducah, KY Change... “If you’re not riding the wave of change...you’ll find yourself beneath it.” Successories catalog, 2000 http://www.successories.com The secret “... focus your marketing message on ‘what the client gets’ instead of on what you do. It almost seems too simple, but it makes all the difference.” Quote: Marketing Flash, Online Newsletter, 3/8/00, Robert Middleton Another ED directory... includes listings of Internet
sites in the US, Canada and most Latin American, European and Asian countries.
For corporate planners looking for new plant, office and business facilities.
Serves as a portal to detailed information. ~80/20 Rule... Use the 80/20 rule to analyze your marketing efforts. This rule says that 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your activities. This means you don’t have to use every strategy in the book. Just use the ones that work for your organization. Since each organization and community is just a little bit different, what works for one might not work for you. Find the ones that work and keep on doing them. Source: “Growing Your Market: Get Real” article, Daniel Janal http://www.efuse.com/Grow/marketing-get-real.html Be cautious… When having brochures translated into other languages, rely on an individual who knows the business side of the language, as well as having conversational abilities. From Japan Airlines’ superb newsletter, there is an excellent example to support this. In the Far Eastern Economic Review, a Chinese company marketed a lotion for mature women. They referred to this market segment as “senile women”. Roaming... That’s what you can do at a trade show. Observe new products/technologies. Look for domestic vs. international manufacturers. Pick up the literature of other ED organizations trying to be noticed. And wear comfortable shoes! Rankings... of cities hosting the number of large trade shows are: Las Vegas, Chicago, Orlando, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, DC. Source: Tradeshow Week Databook 2000
Blane, Canada Ltd.
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