OFF-THE-CUFF
Historically, summer has been a slow season for Mankato retailers. Thousands of college students have gone home and many permanent residents are out vacationing. The rest of our reading area doesn’t see such a decline. As for this column, I discuss a new way cities in our region could market themselves to help overcome these slower summer months. Buckle your seat belts and away we go.
As for marketing, I don’t mean the process of selling industrial park lots, but marketing a city to America, as in increasing tourism. I had an idea a couple months ago that still sticks to my brain like an overdue invoice to a small claims court docket. Tell me what you think.
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Most people become familiar with a city—any city—through its businesses. For example, I was raised in Cincinnati and during summer months still listen to Reds games after sundown when the signal here from 50,000-watt 700 WLW becomes clear. Over WLW this very night perhaps, while out driving, you can learn a great deal about the Queen City, including its unique business mix and culture. WLW—and the Cincinnati Reds, for that matter—are highly successful businesses.
You may remember Cincinnati from the old 1970s television show, WKRP in Cincinnati, a fictional media business owned by a real-life business. Other places you may have seen the name “Cincinnati” include Crest toothpaste tubes, Jif peanut butter jars and US Playing Card decks, or your business may have coverage through Cincinnati Insurance.
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Then I moved to Baltimore. Before moving to southern Minnesota and Vernon Center in 1995, I often brought up with Baltimoreans, a.k.a. Balti-morons, the reasons behind our proposed relocation and was surprised how many had heard of southern Minnesota or Mankato through its businesses.
For instance, I played third base then for a softball team sponsored by the owner of three Baltimore-area Subway restaurants. The owner played second base. When I mentioned our move to Mankato to him, he immediately replied that a Subway restaurant in Mankato had been best in the U.S. in terms of store sales—the Riverfront Drive location. He had heard of Mankato through a business.
Later, when I mentioned Mankato to our pitcher, his wife listening nearby brought up another connection. For several years, she had been a printing store employee and had mailed many wedding invitation orders to a company called Carlson Craft. Several others had heard of Mankato on television through Little House on the Prairie—a media-related business. A business colleague knew southern Minnesota was home to Hormel.
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Now the marketing opportunity. Imagine the economic growth possible if virtually every business in your city locked arms to actively promote your city. Take New Ulm, for example. Imagine J&R Schugel and D&A Trucking and their 1,000 or so trucks as traveling national billboards with “Come See What’s Brewing at NewUlm.com” painted onto every trailer. Imagine every business card, email signature, invoice, website, product label, company car exterior, Youtube video, company logo, voicemail, stationery, and advertisement tag line of every New Ulm business touting the same reinforcing slogan—“Come See What’s Brewing at NewUlm.com.”
What would happen? People all over the country would hear a consistent message about New Ulm through hundreds and hundreds of businesses reaching into every American nook and cranny.
The city likely would break free of all the advertising clutter to become the next Wall Drug in terms of heightened public awareness, being a destination spot, and number of visitors. And why has Wall Drug succeeded? For decades, its army of billboards has dominated South Dakota’s highway media clutter. As for New Ulm, just the initial media coverage over businesses uniting behind a common goal could create incremental tourist growth. The same could happen for Sleepy Eye, Fairmont, Waseca, Mankato, St. Peter or Blue Earth—you name it. It’s there for the taking. But some awfully persuasive and persistent souls would have to sell hard, business by business, over many years.
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On a side note, Connect Business Magazine over the last eight months has sought out a sustainable business model to keep this publication going for years to come. The solution to our situation was Wasecan Steve Persons, our new sales manager. He is an ethical and likeable sales veteran working part-time. I had been the interim sales manager. No longer chained to sales, I can joyfully continue as editor of the magazine I joined 17 years ago and now have much more time to practice as a licensed professional counselor and freelance writer.
Thanks again for reading southern Minnesota’s first and only locally owned business magazine, the one reaching 8,800 business decision makers in nine southern Minnesota counties.
