Why revitalizing quickly takes comprehensive plans.

Letter to the Downtown Everett Business Owners

Why revitalizing quickly takes comprehensive plans.

Starting small verse’s going for the gold, that’s what I want to talk with you about today.

A friend of mine said, maybe you should do some single events so people can have a demonstration of how events make a difference. I thought about it for a while because on face value it sounded like a good idea, until I remembered the facts and reality.

Facts are that many places downtown have good events all the time, although only benefiting their own business most of the time. That few of the events create a feeling of community, or bolster the vibe and brand of Downtown Everett as part of their objective.

We have the 4th of July parade, we have sports events, we have the Car Show on Colby, we have symphony and the arts, bands in the bars, all of which bring people in, so what is the missing part to make it stick? COMMUNITY, CONSISTENCY and MESSAGE!

People want authenticity for the most part which means they want to hang out in a community that gives off a vibe of partnership, relationship. An event tossed here and there won’t create that feeling genuinely. People also like to have constancy. Look at Mcdonalds and Starbucks or any successful franchise and you’ll notice that rarely are they the best around, but they are the most popular. That’s because consistency of the total experience matters to people more than many other singular benefits of a product. If what we do as a business community does not have consistency in the total experience we provide, we won’t pull off revitalization quickly and perhaps never as well as we want.

Now message, what is that exactly? Message is more experience than words. When you go to one of the events in Leavenworth WA, you’ll experience something that etches Leavenworth into you mind. When you go to Santa Fe you’ll get a feeling that is specifically Santa Fe, when your down at Pike Place Market or the Ave, well you get the idea. Those places all have a unique identity, forming an impression that you remember, they’ll brand themselves into your memory. That’s why they call it a Brand Message. You can’t achieve a Brand Message with one off sporadic events and marketing.

Many of you have told me how you did that advertising and this one, and none of it worked. Right, most times singular marketing attempts standing alone don’t work, because getting your message to stick takes an army’s effort to get past the tidal wave of information and advertising a person experiences each day. It takes a connection, an experience, and those in consistent repetition to break through and reach that new customer.

This is why an event here and there won’t help downtown Everett revitalize more quickly. They’ll be cool for sure, but the impression won’t last. Especially with the heavy competition we have around our city and in it. This is why we made such an ambitious comprehensive strategy to help downtown revitalize. We must have a historic, authentic brand which is positive and classy, throws off any poor impressions of the past. Attached to that is ‘home cooked’ relationship marketing for each business, to create a real community, people working together in a positive vibe. That then needs to be exposed to the surrounding community through great consistent events, which are thoroughly advertised through multiple avenues, which will help bring new people downtown to give you the opportunity to build new relationships – customers. People in the streets folks, activity is like gravity, when you make it people will be drawn toward it.

How many people would say to themselves, “I’d like to build an apartment complex, one room at a time and I’ll stack them all on top of one another, but I don’t want to work with plans to make sure it stands up, I’ll just build on gut feeling.” Sound like a good plan to you?

I’m not buying that apartment. Same thing goes for moving our downtown economy forward. We made the strategy, it’s huge, it’s bold and it will evolve with all of us. We need you to join the team and get onboard. If you want to know how you can join us without affecting your budget we can show you how in minutes. Call us when you have a minute to talk about it and we’ll connect you with a team of downtown Everett businesses who are determined to create lasting community and prosperity.

Thanks again for building our community.

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