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Just Do It
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Business New Haven
9/6/1999
By: BNH
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Greater New Haven is fortunate indeed to have such a wealth of brainpower among its advertising-and-marketing community, as evidenced beginning on page 21 of this issue.
Last month we asked virtually every ad agency in the New Haven area to outline how they would undertake a new approach to marketing the city. This came in the wake of the hiring of a high-priced, out-of-town marketing consultant by the city, the chamber and Yale to, in essence, tell us locals how it's done in the big leagues.
The responses we got demonstrated that 1) New Haven's marketing talent is big-league, by anyone's standards; and 2) marketing New Haven ought not to be harder than marketing any place else.
In fact, it ought to be easier.
Carol Cheney, Wil Bradford and the Ad Infinitum duo of Carl Ek and Patches Earle reminded us that New Haven's singular cultural, architectural and historic treasures can sell themselves as long as the marketing-by-committee mentality doesn't gum up the works. Bradford and maverick ad man Russ Madison noted, perceptively, that the city - not the region - needs the marketing push ("Treat the patient - not his second-cousin," wrote Bradford). Madison urged exiling the "usual suspect" committee types from government, quasi-government entities and Yale to marketing Siberia. Based on past performance, that seems like a good thought.
Charlie Mason pointed out that, if what you identify as your target market isn't buying the "products" you're selling, either the target or the products - or both - must be rethought.
Finally, Chuck Mascola perhaps said it best for all by noting that there may be an infinite number of ways to market the city successfully; above all, he wrote, we must "just do it."
That means (we presume) a sustained, committed, long-term, coherent marketing message aimed at the minds of those whose perceptions must be altered before real revitalization can take place.
We recommend beginning by aiming close to home.
The Lesson of Filene's Basement
There may be a cautionary lesson in the August 23 filing for federal bankruptcy protection by Filene's Basement, which operates 54 stores in New England and the Midwest, including one in Orange.
No one would suggest that Filene's Basement's troubles originated in Orange. But for years we have heard local political officials say that our region is "under-stored," often as justification for building silver-bullet projects such as the proposed Long Wharf mall.
Looking at the New England region coupled with the Filene's Basement experience, it is clear that, if anything, the six-state region is "over-stored" with ever-more retail giants competing for a consumer population that is growing hardly at all. Four years ago there were 45 Wal-Mart stores in New England; now there are more than double that. The soft-goods Target division of giant Dayton-Hudson has begun to operate in the Bay State; the company says it could have two dozen stores in the region in a few years.
Meanwhile, life isn't getting any easier for retailers. The rise in Internet commerce guarantees a whole new group of rivals for existing companies. If they command only a small portion of the discretionary-spending pie, that leaves corresponding less for the bricks-and-mortar stores to divide.
Here in greater New Haven, shifting demographics likewise cloud the future, with a 0-24-year-old population nearly 30 percent smaller than the 25-to-49-year-old group. When adults enter their 50s and beyond, they tend to have more money than younger peers, but spend less of it. And, barring massive in-migration to Connecticut, there aren't sufficient young consumers behind them to fill their shoes.
Further, if the region's economy rapidly sours, those retail dollars will dry up even more.
The lesson? Over the next decade, only the strongest and fittest big retailers are likely to survive and thrive. And communities such as New Haven will add to the growing retail glut at their peril.
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