“So think about what is most important to you about this community. Put thoughts on the stickies.”
I am at the whiteboard, marker pens and yellow stickies distributed to the assembled stakeholders. The Mayor, two other Councillors, Council staff include the CEO, the Business Manager and the Tourist Officer. There were eight other prominent, ‘ordinary’ members of the community.
Morning tea had provided me the opportunity to mingle, to establish my can-do’s and we were now ready to start the distillation, drawing down thoughts, throwing marketing wizardry around the room, gaining stakeholder commitments.
It was 1987 and I was on a role. Six Local Government bodies completed, nine to go. It was “money for jam”, a consultancy to end all consultancies, and I had landed it. Recruiters had sought expressions of interest from suitably qualified marketers to assist Local Governments to identify, develop and promote their regional strengths.
Freshly graduated from my MBA, I was the full bottle, absolutely squeaky, an early convert with a website, and an email account. This was my first consultancy, but I was confident that I could nail it! I had won the Newell/Oxley delineated transport route – Shires covering Moama through to Byron.
It was a time where aspirational statements were all the rage – everyone needed a shorthand quip to reaffirm who and what they stood for. Psychic Telemetry had arrived from the States, along with the early forms of psychographic segmentation, new, essential tools with which to dazzle, refine target audiences, potential new investors, tourists most suited to your patch, zero in on the unwary!
“The Murray River is our core”, said the Echuca/Moama Mayor. “Proximity to Melbourne” said Sarah, the Business Manager, “Friendly people” said Alex. We were away, the yellow stickies were starting to flow, thick and fast. “We’re Country folk, and friendly, too”, said Phyllis. “We need to control where visitors wander. If ya let’em, they’ll leave poo tickets behind every tree” said Jim, from the Friends of Echuca Association.
“What do you think the visitors value about their visit?” I posed. “Riverside camping”, “a camp fire”, “access to shops”, “boat launch facilities”, “good coffee” “country hospitality”: yellow post-its filled the board. Lunch arrived. Informal chat as sandwiches were munched, juice glugged. Everyone engaged, exciting side play, even Jim, from the Friends group, was enenthused.
That’s it folks. I restated the process from here, a promise of a draft report within the month. I thanked everyone, collected the post-it notes and moved on to Deniliquin.
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· Echuca/Moama – “River Country” · Deniliquin – “Home of the muster” · Narrandera – “Gateway to the Riverina” · Bland Shire – “Nothing dull & boring about Bland!” · Parkes – “Home of the Dish” · Dubbo – “The hub of the west” · Gilgandra – “Linger, enjoy, grow” · Coonabarabran – “Discover new horizons” |
· Gunnedah – “Open new horizons” · Tamworth – “Opportunity & commerce” · Armidale – “Unleash the opportunities” · Glen Innes – “Celtic country” · Grafton – “First city on the coast” · Ballina – “Coast & hinterland” · Byron/Lennox Head – “Don’t spoil us, we’ll spoil you”
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