Marketing partnership to promote Springfield opportunities

Springfield's image as a place where economic development and expansion opportunities can be found is being promoted nationally and regionally by Springfield-based Young & Company and St. Louis-based Millennium Communications.

The agencies were selected from among 36 applicants statewide to handle the communications assignment. They were selected by the Springfield Business & Development Corp., a not-for-profit subsidiary corporation of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Greg Williams, senior vice president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said the SBDC wanted to hire a firm with previous experience in economic or industrial development representation.

While there are some strong advertising and public relations firms in Springfield, Williams said that they "just, frankly didn't have that type of background or experience, so it was a logical approach for us to take, to hire a local agency, which we will do all of our invoicing to, but to have that agency seek a partner that had the background and experience in our field."

Mutual benefit

SBDC is the client, Williams said, but the one-year contract period won't just benefit that entity.

"We've been very clear with our other economic development partners in Springfield that this effort will mutually benefit the city of Springfield and the utility and the airport and the Convention & Visitors Bureau and Greene County," Williams said.

"It'll be an umbrella public relations program of which we are the client, but our main effort is to develop a much more clear marketing or public relations brand for the Springfield area to generate positive media editorial placement about the Springfield area in national trade media."

Such placement will be helpful in establishing contacts and one-on-one visitations with site location consultants and other business prospects, Williams said.

The agencies with their networks will help tell Springfield's story more effectively, reaching audiences that otherwise might be difficult to reach.

"Those networks are in those national and regional trade publications, newspapers from across the country, national magazines, et cetera, that they can help represent our interests in that perspective," Williams said.

The' Springfield

The SBDC has some specific goals for the marketing efforts of Millennium Communications and Young & Company.

"Right off the bat, one of our goals is to identify Springfield, Missouri, as not a Springfield, but the Springfield. We want to be in the minds and hearts of businesspeople; we want to be the Springfield that they think of when they hear that term," Williams said.

Promoting the advantages of Springfield as a business location will be key in that goal, Williams said.

"That's business climate, a very competitive cost of living, a very attractive cost of living, cost of doing business and just a thriving, prosperous, economy or environment that could be of benefit and value to any business or industry ," Williams said.

Tom Young, president of Young & Company, said that his firm is talking with business leaders who have expanded into this area, to further the goal.

"To brand Springfield is not an easy assignment, because you find out when you get in that there are other cities that have similar (benefits). But it's no different than a product. There are products where you can say the same thing," Young said.

The challenge, he noted, is working to find something, or a combination of things, that are as unique to Springfield as possible.

While there's no time frame for the completion of the research, Young said marketing efforts are moving ahead

"We are going ahead and starting some of our developing of press releases and releasing events and happenings and so forth in the national and regional publications, but as we develop this identity and as we get a clearer view as far as our brand, so to speak, we'll be making some changes in how we present our communications in the future," Young said.

Economic engine

Williams said the chamber and SBDC are using the tagline "Missouri's economic engine" to describe Springfield. That's based on recent coverage of the city in Area Development, a national industry publication, which noted that Springfield's diversified business base, low cost structure and partnership mindset are driving statewide economic growth.

"But for the economic activity that we're currently enjoying here in Springfield, the state of Missouri would be in much, much more challenging economic times. We are literally carrying the state's economy and have been for the last year and a half," Williams said.

"So it's those types of messages that we want to convey to companies and to people who are considering business expansion," he added.

The partnership

Barbara Pierce, founder and president of Millennium Communications which is marking a decade in business this year, said her company's role in the marketing partnership is national and regional media relations and making contacts with the real estate and site selection communities, which the company has worked with for many years.

"We'll also be working with Young & Company on special events and marketing programs generating out of Springfield," she said.

In addition to the ongoing research, Young said his firm, which has been in business for 30 years, also will handle local media contacts and local media relations.

"We know the local area. We know the local business community. We feel we have a pulse on this area," Young said.

However, he added that, "Millennium and Young & Company are going to work together as a team in several areas. I think that they have their strengths, we have our strengths. But we're working together it's not like we're dividing up a list and saying, You do this and we do that.'"

Moving ahead

Plans are already under way for some special events, Young said, including an economic outlook conference scheduled for late 2004.

"Those types of planned events are to bring in potential companies that would maybe look at Springfield as a place to expand and so there's going to be a lot of coordination and planning for those types of events, presentations things of that nature," Young said.

With Springfield's population growth and other factors, the city "has so many of the pieces already put in place, and (area economic development leaders) have done a phenomenal job of recruiting new businesses and expansion to the area. So that's what piqued our interest," Pierce said. "We just think there's a great story to be told about Springfield, and we love telling great stories."

Donna Erbs, senior account supervisor with Millennium Communications, added, "We're just very excited. We have been totally impressed by Springfield and what they have been able to do. Greg (Williams) told us the story when we were first interviewing with them, that when they actually get the companies to come in and look around the city, that seven out of 10 decide to locate there."

Erbs said that as she calls on contacts to talk about Springfield, that's a good story to pass along.

She recently had one contact the real estate editor for a large publication tell her that he thought of Springfield in terms of it being the entrance to Branson.

"And I said, Oh my gosh! You have to think of something totally different now.' And he said, I'm interested,'" Erbs said.

Erbs said marketing an area as opposed to a business or industry isn't much different because "we're still marketing developable land, we're still marketing a place to expand into whether we're marketing for a company that wants to build a building or whether we're working for a city or an organization that wants to bring a company in it's really very similar in our experience."

The marketing partnership is part of a five-year initiative of the SBDC. Williams said that at the end of the contract year with Millennium and Young & Co. the organization will evaluate the efforts and decide whether to proceed with the partnership for another year.