Worried about Panhandlers, Bag ladies and Wailing sirens? I had to recreate what I thought was the most clever downtown Marketing Campaign with a few istock photo’s

When you visit our downtown you will find the most panhandlers in the city

Bag Lady’s can be found walking in the street

And many nights Wailing Sirens can be heard

(They flicked the slides on for only a second so this was my best recreation, wordings aren’t exact)

Sure we have problems but when you go to these conferences you find that so many downtowns have so many of the same problems.

However the most important lesson to be learned from this marketing seminar was that we need to educate the businesses within our downtown to become destinations. A destination being something that is unique that people will travel miles to see. Shanfields is already that but has the potential to be even more, The TBQ with its famous sauce is another opportunity. Another way to become a destination is to elevate the owner/operators of these businesses to Experts or Celebrity Status.
The point is that we have to end the socialist mindset that we must promote all businesses equally. That by promoting the individual businesses that have turned themselves into destinations the surrounding businesses will benefit from the increased visitors to downtown. Through education we can create equality of opportunity to being a destination, but not equality of outcome.

Three ways to turn your business into a destination and spotlight your product

1. Micro-Niche - find a category and become the worlds best

I.E. store called “Let it Rain” Purveyors of Precipitation Pleasures - sells only rain gear

2. Signiture Items -

3. Create a monument - Piece of art in the store that stands out

Of course this was a 3 1/2 hour seminar that I hope to recreate in Windsor and what I’ve posted above only scratches the surface. However the Next Incarnation of the Windsor’s Tourism Board should be following this strategy with its membership as well.

When they say that Walkerville is becoming the new downtown, its not because the Walkerville BIA is doing anything different or better than the Downtown BIA, its because their members are carving out niches for themselves that are Elevating the entire area. The Gourmet Emporium, Taloola are examples of whats making Walkerville Great