Economic Development Marketing
We recently received a copy of the book “Economic Development Marketing: Present & Future”, by Anatalio C. Ubalde and Eric Simundza. The book investigates changes in marketing over time and the effectiveness of the strategies used by economic development practitioners across the nation to market their communities. Many aspects of marketing strategies are examined, including which are most and least effective, geography and industries targeted.
Some of the key findings include:
- Economic development organizations’ budget allocations for marketing strategies do not always correlate with the effectiveness of each strategy. For example, print advertising, which received very low effectiveness ratings, receives the second highest average budget allocation.
- The most effective marketing strategy for economic development is the organization’s website.
- The website was reported by site selectors to be the first point of contact with an economic development organization during the site selection decision making process.
- Manufacturing is the top industry target for economic developers even though it is a declining employment industry. High-growth employment industries such as business services, information, and finance/insurance were all significantly lower priorities for economic developers.
- Large, urban communities targeted industries that create jobs for those in the knowledge economy, such as finance, science, and high-tech. Smaller, rural communities, and to a lesser extent suburban communities, targeted industries that create amenities that attract visitors and provide quality of place for residents, such as retail, accommodation/food service, and arts/entertainment/recreation.
This book is a great resource that can be used by economic developers to better understand the changes in the practice of economic development marketing on a national scale.
To learn more or to order the book, click here.
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