Archive for October 2011
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
Every once in awhile I read a newspaper article that I find genuinely profound. When that happens, it is typically an editorial from Tom Friedman, N.Y. Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner. I find he gets the right of a situation more often than not. But, this time it was an article in the Cincinnati […]
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
I want to make a serious point or two; but, then I also want to step out of character and have a little fun with this post. Serious Point #1 Naming a brand is one of the more difficult and important challenges for both products and corporations. It is one of the first things a […]
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
The 2011 Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index was released on October 12th. Brand America was once again ranked as the most admired country in the world. This is the third year in a row Brand America was ranked #1. This is in spite of the fact America doesn’t make the top 10 for either the […]
Monday, October 24th, 2011
In past posts, I have challenged the choice of using social media as a communication channel to promote your community to capital investment decision makers. The basic principle underlying that challenge is the need to preferentially invest your limited communication budget in channels where your target audience is active and is seeking the type of […]
Friday, October 21st, 2011
I had the opportunity to talk with a class of students at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio about the principles of branding your community. I always get energized when I get to chat with highly talented people who have a genuine passion for making a difference in their community. These are the leaders of […]
Monday, October 17th, 2011
The First Step in the Four Step Process for building a brand is to identify the strategic target audience that will be the most productive to pursue for sustainable capital investment and resultant job growth. The cost of capital attraction continues to rise while most economic development organization’s budgets fall. This places extra pressure on […]
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
I have been keeping tabs on the SELECTUSA Program since it was created by Executive Order in June 2011. One reason is because my friend Aaron Brickman is the Deputy Executive Director. Aaron is somebody I believe really “gets it” and I am excited to see the Invest in America Program he led so well […]
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Effective communication of your community’s promise requires you to make a strategic choice on the approach you are going to take. I am often surprised by how often that choice is left to chance versus being made thoughtfully and proactively. The approach you select matters. The choice has implications on resource requirements and the amount […]
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
I am concerned by the economic development profession’s unflagging reliance on incentives as a “must have” negotiating tool. In my mind, we are playing a game of iterated prisoner’s dilemma. Companies demand incentives and your community must provide them or jobs growth will occur elsewhere. After all, without a competitive level of incentive offerings, how […]
Sunday, October 9th, 2011
No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology, if we’re not solving the right problem, the project fails. Woody Williams Recently, I have been studying about the best ways to define the scope of Projects. In my experience, failure to adequately define scope is one of the reasons most Projects fail to […]
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