St. Albert needs to get out and grab the businesses it wants if it wants to put some substance behind its image as the botanic arts city, says a marketing expert.
Roger Brooks dropped by the Enjoy Centre Friday to give about 35 city and business officials a report card on St. Albert's marketing strategy. An agent with Destination Developments, Brooks was hired by the city in 2008 to develop a brand for St. Albert. That brand, 'Cultivate Life', seeks to shape the city into a centre for the botanic arts.
St. Albert gets an A+ when it comes to promotion, Brooks says, having shown off its brand everywhere through street signs, pamphlets, seed packets and more.
"Everywhere I go, I show off St. Albert," he says, "… and the first thing I hear is, 'Well, they're way up there near by Edmonton. We can use that Cultivate thing too, can't we?'"
But brands are built on substance, not style, he continues. The Enjoy Centre could host major conventions, for example, but won't until St. Albert gets the hotel rooms necessary to host convention goers.
"For the Enjoy Centre to really become a conference destination, they need your help," he says, and that means drawing specific complimentary businesses to the city. "You need to recruit them."
Permanent market
Brooks urged council and administration to get into "product development" and add more features to St. Albert so it lives up to its brand.
"I think you need to do a permanent year-round public market, and I do believe it needs to be downtown."
He says Sparks, Nev., used to draw about 500 people a day with its once-a-week seasonal market, until it established a room-sized year-round facility for it. That same market now runs twice a week and draws about 20,000 people.
A similar market could become the anchor tenant in St. Albert's downtown, Brooks says, especially if backed with entertainment.
"Every day from 11 to 2, you have a musician there," he suggests — someone to make downtown a place to hang out.
St. Albert has a strong anchor tenant with the Enjoy Centre, Brooks says, but needs to build on it. That means drawing in complementary businesses such as health food restaurants or even other garden centres.
"Competition does not kill a brand. It reinforces it."
California's Napa Valley started with just one winery, he notes, and is now famous because it attracted many more.
Get a recruiter
St. Albert should make a list of 10 complementary businesses it wants to attract, such as hotels, Brooks says, and match each business to a specific plot of land where it wants it to go. Once the city has that list, it should turn it over to a recruiter whose sole job is to go one-on-one with potential business owners until he or she finds an interested client who fits a spot on the list.
This is not a matter of ads or incentives, he emphasizes. He helped Whistler, B.C., find some $3 billion in investment over 10 years with just $60 worth of advertising.
"The way you do recruitment is by knocking on doors," he says. "You pick who you want and you go after them."
Clients should be drawn by the city's strengths, Brooks says, and the promise of free promotion though the city's brand efforts. The city should focus on just 10 clients a year so they can handhold them through the regulatory process of setting up shop.
This recruiter can be a city employee, Brooks says, but he recommends an arms-length contractor because if it's a city staff position, "they're wound up in all the politics."
Council is already looking for such a recruiter for its new economic development position, says Mayor Nolan Crouse.
"We have to get somebody on board to recruit, knock on doors … a juggernaut that's going to make it all happen."
Council and local businesses have to stop lobbying each other and start lobbying new businesses, Crouse says.
"Ultimately, branding is really about people coming here and dropping cash. Either they're going to drop cash as tourism money or they're going to come here and spend money starting a business."
