We had an interesting article get submitted to our site that is pushing for a movement to stop unsolicited delivery of Yellow Pages. I have blogged a couple of times over the last year or two making the point that the Yellow Pages of the 21^st century are the Search Engines. This post showed how this is the year when searches on local businesses were done more via the Search Engines than even print yellow pages — Marketing experts: “Reallocate at least 50% of your Yellow Pages budget”

I also posted one where the end of Yellow Pages was predicted -  Bill Gates on local advertising: Yellow Pages gone in 5 years. Despite being well aware of these stats, I was stunned with one datapoint from the 3^rd party research we commissioned on our audience. That is, with the SunValleyOnline audience which makes up a healthy chunk of the valley’s populace plus many 2^nd homeowners they stated that huge majority of them didn’t use the print yellow pages at all.

The reality is that the yellow pages industry is facing the most formidable competition possible. If it weren’t enough that Google was out to eat their lunch but Yahoo and Microsoft are investing massive sums of money to compete with Google. The yellow pages industry is simply collateral damage. The convenience and effectiveness of the search engines is improving dramatically. Call 800-GOOG411 (800-466-4411) and check it out yourself. It’s free and will connect you to the business and/or text message the details including a map of the businesses location. As phones such as the iPhone become ubiquitous and have GPS built in, this only accelerates the trend. I hardly know a person over 15 who doesn’t have a mobile phone on them at all times.

The local ordinances this movement is recommending (see article link above) sound pretty onerous. I wonder if they’ve gotten any traction. Has anyone heard about this movement and know if they are having any success? I have a hard time seeing too many cities taking this on right now with the other challenges facing cities but maybe I’m wrong. What do you think is the yellow pages future? I’m curious what business owners think.

#There are about 439 nuclear reactors operating in 32 countries.#In addition, 56 countries operate 284 research reactors and 220 nuke reactors power ships and submarines.# The U.S. Navy operates about 80 nuke powered ships and subs, accumulating 5400 reactor years of accident free nuclear operation.# about 34 reactors are under construction worldwide.#The U.S,operates 104 reactors and is expecting licensing applications for about 30 more soon.#Britain has announced that at least four new reactors and as many as 10 would be built as its existing 19 reactors head toward the end of their useful lives.#21 of the last 30 reactors to have been connected to the grid are in the Far East and South Asia.#Russia has 31 nuclear reactors, with seven more under construction.#India has 17 reactors and is building six more.#China and Taiwan have a total of 11 reactors and five more are being built.#The safety record of nuclear power is outstanding. Radiation from nuclear plants has not caused a single know death worldwide, except at the Chernobyl plant.#The known death toll from the Chernobyl accident is less than 70.# Chernobyl type plants are not being built anymore.#Less radiation is given off by a nuclear power plant than a coal-burning plant.#Nuclear power plants save thousands of lives every year in the U.S. This is because nuclear plants replace many coal plants, which emit tiny particulates in the atmosphere. These particulates are believed to kill thousands of Americans each year. Nuclear plants emit no particulates.#A new, nuclear plant was recently constructed in Japan in less that 4.5 years and below budget. Some American plants took over twice that long to build. The Japanese plant was designed by a team of American and Japanese companies.#All nuclear reactors in the west are insured.The are a sought after risk because of their high engineering and operational standards.# If you believe anthropogenic co2 is causing global warming, doubling the world’s nuclear output would reduce co2 emissions from power generation by about 25 percent.#Nuclear power plants use about the same amount of water as fossil fuel plants.#Nuclear share of electricity generation in selected countries and the world: World 17%, France 79%,Lithuania 73%, Slovak Republic 57%,Belgium 54%, Sweden 48%, Ukraine 47%, Bulgaria 43%, Armenia 42%, Slovenia 40%, South Korea 39%, Hungary 38%, Switzerland 38%, Germany 32%, Czech Republic 32%, Japan 30%, Finland 28%, Spain 20%, U.S. 20%, Russian Federation 16%, Canada 16 %.# The U.S., France and Japan have agreed to cooperate in deploying sodium-cooled fast reactor prototypes. A sodium-cooled fast reactor uses liquid sodium to transfer heat, burning the plutonium and other transuranic elements in the process producing clean, safe nuclear power producing less waste and increasing non-proliferation goals.#Nuclear power is here to stay and at least double in the coming decades because of the following: Low carbon energy technologies are preferred; Rising Gas and oil prices; political unrest in oil supplying countries; easily tapped oil supplies have peaked; Increasing electricity demand; Improved, safer, and more secure reactor designs; A growing number of aging reactors that must be rebuilt or replaced after decades of reliable and safe service.

It’s disheartening to see factories that churn out the most hellacious waste in the world plop down into Idaho lava fields, set up high-paying jobs, and then become integrated into the area via churches, spirited Little League ball teams and 4-H clubs.

When something dreadful occurs at a nuclear site, often our culture covers it up. Whistleblowers are terrified of repercussions, being shunned by society and worse. Few want to be known as killing the goose with the golden eggs, even if they are speckled with plutonium.

Three years ago, right before Christmas, there was a news splash at the Los Alamos, New Mexico laboratory. Five workers were exposed to the highly carcinogenic PU-239. It took several days before this information came out to the public. Then it was through the Project on Government Oversight that co-workers coughed this up to, rather than their own trusted government and contractor.

Ironically, of all the of jobs I’ve labored on, the rules insisted that every accident, no matter how small, be reported - even if it’s a cut from a piece of paper as tiny and insignificant as America’s Constitution. It’s not right that our best men juggling the most dangerous element under the sun should be skittish about reporting disasters that hold far-reaching ramifications. After all, would not the open reporting of near catastrophes aid in preventing similar events?

The same season as the 2005 New Alamos incident, some Department of Energy spokespersons drove over to Sun Valley, claiming they care about the environment and their grandchildren. If this is true, then they should invite aspiring scientists to join a contest designing foolproof double blind whistle-blower systems. A Rube Goldberg category could be included to generate interest among innovative high schoolers who (for the past eight years) have had more open dialogues than the highest levels of our own government. Unlike the exposed workers whose health benefits will likely be terminated once they are let go, the winner could receive a lifetime POGO magazine subscription.

Update2 (5/07): Density remains a topic that comes up periodically. Especially with Affordable Housing ordinances being deemed illegal, density is one way of solving affordability issues. Now that I’m an elected official (I hadn’t even contemplated public office when I wrote the post below 2+ years ago), I know this topic will come up and I’m interested in getting more feedback on what people do/don’t like about density.

Update1 (2/07): With the proposed hotel in Warm Springs, as well as the public meeting on February 15 for the proposed Bald Mountain Lodge, I thought this earlier post/discussion (original post was in June) was relevant to the discussion. Regardless of how you feel, you should attend the February 15 meeting so your voice is heard.

Originally posted Spring 2006:
I have followed, with interest, the developments with the in our community. Higher density (i.e., more residences in a given area) is often one of the topics that come up. While there are experienced planners and elected officials who have delved into this much deeper than I have, I thought I’d share the virtues of density from an average citizen (and tourist) perspective. My impression has been that some view density as a negative but my experience has been the opposite — it can bring charm, vitality and much more to a community. The facet of density I will focus in on is the very high density in-town developments.

Taking a step back for a moment, Europeans have been dealing with growth in mountain towns for decades and centuries. Many of us have been fortunate to have visited their alpine villages/towns and most people come away with great memories of how those towns felt to us. What can we learn from their experience? If you look at most of those locations, they have far more density in their centres than is even being contemplated in the master plans. There are often two common threads — 1)lots of dwellings that aren’t necessarily very big 2)very pedestrian friendly towns. In fact, many of them prohibit or limit cars from some streets. What facets of those experiences would play well here? I’d like to hear the community leaders talk about this. It sometimes seems like we think we have a one-of-a-kind challenge when in fact we’re following in the footsteps of many others.

One byproduct of having a large number of smaller dwellings in a given space is those places are naturally more affordable and they add year-round vitality to a community – a good thing for local businesses. It creates a virtuous cycle of more restaurants/shops leading to more people attracted to the area when there’s more going on, choices, etc. When people live in smaller dwellings, it’s important to have plenty of common and public spaces where people can congregate and kids can play. Let me draw from my own experience. As a late grade school aged kid, I lived for a few years in what was the most populated city in the world at the time – Tokyo, Japan. I was as active as any kid yet I never felt deprived of the ability to play even though I lived in Oregon before/after I lived there and had access to forests, etc. to play in. Why was that? I had my schoolyard and local parks that were safe and accessible to burn off my ample energy. For kids in our community, they have what I call the largest backyard in the world right out their back door they could be playing in even if they didn’t have their own large yard. This is a reason I’m a supporter of facilities for youth that are available even when there’s no daylight or the weather is nasty (e.g., Y Rocks, the Community Campus, the new Y, etc.) — they add to the community’s “backyard”.

Another similar experience was visiting a friend who lived an hour outside of Zurich, Switzerland. Rather than endless sprawl when driving from Zurich to where they lived, we drove through rural areas until getting to their community. Their village was surrounded by farming and parks where kids played yet everyone lived in what we’d call townhomes that were fairly small, though nice. The kids had a great common area they could all play, the homes were very nice and it was a very nice community with markets within walking distance to do their grocery shopping. As a kid or adult, I’d much rather live in a smaller dwelling (with lots of places outside to go) and have little/no commute than choose to waste an hour or two a day driving in my car while driving up my blood pressure. If you add up that commute time over the course of a year (200-400 hours), it’s the equivalent of 5-10 weeks of workdays that could otherwise be spent with family, recreating, relaxing, etc. I’ve done both and there’s no comparison in my book. Obviously, it’s up to the individual what trade-offs they want to make but I know my preference.
What has your experience been? Add your comments below or post pictures of places you’d like to learn from. Have you visited other communities who’ve dealt with growth in a picturesque setting? What would you like to replicate? If I was a retail or restaurant owner, I’d be pushing hard for greater in-town density. I’d love to hear their voices. If you are an elected official, are there models we’re trying to replicate? Are there pictures or anecdotes you can share. Dealing with growth can sometimes divide a community but it doesn’t have to. We largely share the same goals — let’s tap the wisdom of our collective experience to have something that will have growth be an asset, rather than a detriment in our community. Very, very few of us were born here so thinking we’re going to close the door behind us is unrealistic. The things that drew us here will drive more people here.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are a few pics of European towns like ours that are surrounded by mountains and rural areas. These are communities with more people than our own yet have maintained their charm.

Chamonix

Cortina

Kitzbuehel

St. Moritz

Zermatt

Lake Anne Nursery and Kindergarten (LANK) was located in Lk Anne Village Center in quarters especially designed for it over the supermarket.

The following is a post related to the density discussion — Debunking higher density myths

[Note to commenters since this is still a somewhat new medium: Most of you have put your real name vs. a "call sign" on your comments (thanks). Your voice will be heard by your fellow citizens and elected officials much more if you sign your real name. SunValleyOnline allows "call signs" primarily for people who are concerned about anonymity which makes sense for a few situations. For the rest of the time, you will have much more credibility when using your real name. Fyi, all commenters have to have a legitimate email address which are verified by the owner of the blogs which has always been the case.]

Update: I have referenced this post in a couple of recent seminars and it continues to be one of the most popular blog posts so I have updated information below since this was originally posted nearly 2 years ago.

I’m a fan of Top 10 lists (maybe it’s my first name) so when I was asked to come up with a list of actionable recommendations for those attending the Hailey Chamber Business Round Table on Internet Marketing, I thought a top 10 list would be a good way to convey it. I recapped the first session that looked at the dramatic changes in consumer behavior that have taken place in the last 10 years and thus why businesses that don’t update their marketing plans are bound to waste a lot of their marketing spend. So here’s a summary of the recommendations I discussed with the attendees of the Business Round Table sans the commentary on people’s specific business challenges. That interactivity is what made the session most interesting for me but this list should be useful as well.

1. Fish where the fish are – The Internet is the #1 or 2 most used medium surpassing all but even TV (it has been #1 with both Business Decision Makers and people under 35 for nearly 5 years). Take advantage of imbalance between media consumption and spend to stretch your dollars. A typical business in our Valley spent less than 1% of their advertising online yet over 3040% of their customers time is spent with the Internet.
2. Internet Advertising is working – Unlike the dotcom era, the most discriminating and biggest advertisers in the world have shifted major portion of their budget to online resulting in 30% year over year growth for Internet advertising vs. essentially flat or declining for other mediums. E.g., Procter & Gamble (the largest advertiser) shifted 15% of their TV advertising to online.
3. “Daytime is primetime” for the Internet – i.e., the Internet is the only medium that reaches a critical mass of people during the workday if you want to reach people during lunch, when they are on their way home, etc.. Corollary: take advantage of what’s unique for each medium. That is, every medium has its own advantages (e.g., magazines visuals are great for high fashion).
4. Stephen Covey “Begin with the end in mind” – Being clear on your goals make for much more effective marketing whether in print, online ads or website development. E.g., is your goal brand awareness, referrals, open house visits, etc. The Internet can be like a Swiss Army Knife and can do several things. You need to be clear on what it should do for you business.
5. Learn from Hansel & Gretel – Leave breadcrumbs to get people to you and your website. Here are a few search optimization rules of thumb – 1)know the high frequency keywords you want to “own” (see http://inventory.overture.com for those terms that are high frequency) and incorporate those terms into your header, headlines, metatags, text, URLs – analyze whether it’s worth paying for placement 2)frequently updated sites get indexed much more often (a key benefit of blogs) 3)have high traffic/pagerank sites link to your site (e.g., SunValleyOnline is a high traffic website, your business partners may have substantial traffic, etc.). [Note: Search Engine Optimization techniques change pretty rapidly so I've listed ones that have stayed relatively stable but it's important to recognize SEO is a journey, not a destination]
6. Lead, don’t follow – The key to standing out is doing something unique whether it’s in sponsorships, advertising, customer service, etc. Realtors may be the most guilty of mimicking their competition vs. doing something unique. In contrast, look at Sherry Daech (well known local realtor for those of you who don’t know her) and how she did some unique things several years back (e.g., being one of the first to have her own website, etc.) that raised her visibility above her competition.
7. Think like Madison Avenue – Maximize the cost effectiveness of your reach and frequency to affect key brand metrics such as brand awareness, brand recall, brand favorability, message association, intent, etc. The best way to keep your ad rates down is to have your media providers competing for your business.
8. When it comes to sponsorships, you can be Visa or Panasonic. Which one do you recall as an Olympic sponsor? See Sponsorship Series to see how you avoid being Panasonic. A rule of thumb is you should spend $1 on advertising for every $1 you spend on media sponsorship in order for people to realize you are a sponsor. Being one of the NASCAR vehicle-like logos is a guarantee to not get noticed by the vast majority of the audience.
9. Once you have your prospects attention, give them incentives to establish a relationship with you via email (e.g., tips, discounts). “Permission marketing” is consistently the most cost effective and reduces your dependence on advertising. You set the tone with your initial responsiveness. Leads coming from the Internet have a short lifespan. Do this before your competition as people generally only sign up for one newsletter per category. This is why SunValleyOnline focused early on building what has become, by far, the largest email subscriber list in the valley (over 11,000) reportedly 10-50x greater than its competition.
10. Help non-profits you support in our community by sharing these tips. Have them read How non-profits benefit from blogs. Many of these tips apply to businesses.

Bonus Tip – Ben Franklin: “When you are finished changing, you’re finished.”

During the talk, I referenced several books. These included the following:
1. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
2. Naked Conversations by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
3. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
4. Stephen Covey – several books
5. Life after the 30-second spot by Joseph Jaffe [Later: Joseph's latest book "Join the Conversation" has become a best seller and is also geared towards marketing]
6. Guide to Sponsorship by IEG

Update: On Earth Day 2007, I found a couple links related to the environmental impact of what Brits call “freesheets” (i.e., free newspapers) including a movement to get publishers to pay for the waste they are generating that was kicked off by this article in The Ecologist Magazine. The idea of manufacturers of products being responsible for their recycling/recovery isn’t new. Tire companies have this responsibility. Increasingly PC manufacturers are taking this step voluntarily (i.e., they’ll pay for the disposal of old PCs). Perhaps those newspapers who consider themselves “green” will take that voluntary step if they want to walk their talk. In more and more countries, product manufacturers of all types are expected to be responsible for the disposal of their products at the end of their lifecycle which incents them to produce them in a way that doesn’t create waste issues later.

Residents of Blaine County treasure the environment that surrounds us. Many in the Valley consider themselves to be environmentalists yet are unwittingly adding to the pollution issue (read on to see if you are part of the problem or part of the solution). Why then is there no outrage at the massive waste that is generated by two newspaper companies – the $1.1 Billion Iowa-based Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) and Ketchum-based Express Publishing, the owners of the Wood River Journal and Idaho Mountain Express and accompanying free publications (e.g., Sun Valley Guide, Real Estate Guide, etc.). Annually, the two organizations combine to generate as much as 5 Million lbs of waste not prone to break down in landfills each year (even factoring in recycling) as well as an estimated 500,000 lbs of carbon burned each year (driving their product from the printing plants to the hundreds of distribution points) contributing to climate change. The amount of carbon burned is roughly equivalent to what 40 average Hummer owners combine to burn in a year. This doesn’t take into account the resources consumed creating the paper and the accompanying chemical waste.

This paper explains the process of creating newspaper though it doesn’t quantify the enormous amount of trees and other products used to create the newspapers. It’s even worse for freebie magazines such as the Sun Valley Guide (the Express’ copycat publication of the Sun Valley Magazine) that are more difficult to produce and recycle. The following is an excerpt from the paper:

The number of trees and other vegetation cut down in order to make paper is enormous. Paper companies insist that they plant as many new trees as they cut down. Environmentalists contend that the new growth trees, so much younger and smaller than what was removed, cannot replace the value of older trees. Efforts to recycle used paper (especially newspapers) have been effective in at least partially mitigating the need for destruction of woodlands, and recycled paper is now an important ingredient in many types of paper production. The chemicals used in paper manufacture, including dyes, inks, bleach, and sizing, can also be harmful to the environment when they are released into water supplies and nearby land after use. The industry has, sometimes with government prompting, cleared up a large amount of pollution, and federal requirements now demand pollution-free paper production. The cost of such clean-up efforts is passed on to the consumer.

What is most unfortunate is that it is almost completely unnecessary. Everything that is generated in the newspapers has been or can be replicated online. It’s also no longer a matter of availability of the medium. Household penetration of the Internet far exceeds Newspaper penetration (75% vs. 53% in the U.S.) and grows wider every day (Source: Editor and Publisher Yearbook data). For example, adults 18-54 selected the Internet as their #1 media choice (46%) while they selected Newspapers as their #1 choice with only 3.2% of that population (Source: OPA study). On a local level, it’s likely that Internet household penetration is even higher given the correlation to income levels and Internet household penetration. It’s also not a matter of being able to reach more people in the Valley as the rapidly growing SunValleyOnline now exceeds the reach of any of the local papers on a daily (with the possible exception of Wednesday), weekly or monthly basis.

Having spent much of my career buying advertising, I always pushed back on newspaper ad salesmen when they touted their circulation (do this “Newspaper Circulation Overstatement” search on Google to see the many examples of overstatement). Perhaps they aren’t wasting as much as outlined above in which case they are overstating circulation. There has not only been rampant circulation overstatement but the notion of circulation is flawed for an analytical business person. I wanted to know whether my ad would be seen not how many copies of the product had been made. With many sections of a paper getting 50% or less readership (Source: Mediamark Research Inc., 2004), the total numbers were meaningless. Consequently, even if every issue was picked up (looking at the stacks of papers on the weekend would suggest otherwise), a huge swath of the paper isn’t read. Ask yourself, do you open up every page of every newspaper that you pick up and see every ad? This is a key reason why Newspaper advertising is in decline while the Internet is growing > 30% year over year – i.e., it’s the difference between theoretical ad delivery and actual ad delivery.

Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
When businesses and consumers place display and classified ads, they directly contribute to the issue. For those not familiar with the newspaper business, they determine the number of pages they will print based upon the number of pages of sold advertising (it’s one of the reasons you’ll see AP articles as they didn’t create enough article inhouse to support all the ads to be placed in an issue so they dig up content to create additional ad pages). In other words, each ad placed adds to the amount of resources consumed and waste going to the dump. One related effort to address that issue was the launch of the ERC Exchange on SunValleyOnline – no trees required. Both consumers and businesses are the newspapers’ customers and can do something about it. Ask them to print fewer copies, vote with your feet/eyeballs in where you get your news, place fewer ads in print only. In every business I’ve been involved with, when customers ask for change “we’ve always done it this way” doesn’t cut it as an excuse. It would be unrealistic to think the newspapers will stop printing their paper overnight but they could cut it back by 75% and not necessarily lose any readers if they moved to their online product. While it would certainly bring SunValleyOnline some competition, any Internet-based business expects boatloads of competition – something newspapers traditionally haven’t had to contend with. Perhaps that is the real issue.

Update:I originally wrote this July 2006. As a result of my recent (and new) involvement with some economic development activity, some have suggested that I circulate this again as they hadn’t seen it. It’s also been pointed out to me that though many of us don’t live in Ketchum, it’s the economic engine of the valley. Someone said, “if Ketchum catches a cold, Hailey gets pneumonia”. That may not be as true as it was 10-20 years ago but I’d imagine it still applies.

As a result of my earlier piece on the virtues of housing density, Gene Dallago asked me to be on his show discussing how to revitalize Ketchum. The show ran on KSVT-13 in the evening. Despite my protestations that I’m no expert on economic development of municipalities, I guess he thought I had something to add given my experiences of having enjoyed the benefits of housing density (in Japan and European mountain towns) as well as having experienced the deleterious effects of sprawl (in Seattle) — a major driver for moving here. I am a believer in the fact that you can often learn things from people in seemingly unrelated fields so perhaps my business marketing experience might be of benefit to the people driving these issues. One of my favorite business success stories is Southwest Airlines. Rather than try to improve upon what United or American did when it came to gate turnaround time (i.e., the time it takes to get a plane unloaded, cleaned and ready for another flight), they studied NASCAR pit crews. Rather than improving over the old-line carriers by a few percentage points, they cut the gate turnaround time in half.

Joining me on the program was Rebekah Helzel, founder of ARCH. I was concerned when the program started and Gene started to ask questions about affordable housing as Rebekah has forgotten more about affordable housing issues than I know, but I reminded myself Gene didn’t invite me on as an affordable housing expert. Rather, he wanted a perspective from an average citizen and businessman about revitalization. Affordable housing is certainly a piece of the puzzle, however I thought I should focus on the issue as if I was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the city of Ketchum (if such a role existed) since marketing and media is an area of expertise of mine. Sometimes naivety about a subject (i.e., I’ve never been involved in city politics, chambers of commerce and the like) can be a benefit as it can provide a fresh perspective. I’ve always found that when I bring on new people into my organizations, I encourage them to keep a fresh perspective as long as possible. Questioning the status quo is often where breakthrough ideas come from. Hearing a fresh perspective can often spur ideas from the existing team that wouldn’t have otherwise been thought of. Successful organizations embrace this mindset in their culture.

With that in mind, when I was thinking about what I might say on the program, I thought about it in terms of a CMO tasked with revitalizing a brand. In this case, the brand is Year-round living in Ketchum with the underlying goal being to revitalize Ketchum. It doesn’t hurt to get “caffeine hits” from new events such as the Hemingway Festival — that can certainly help. That said, my perception is the focus of many of the efforts in Ketchum of late have been trying to fix the symptom, rather than the underlying cause of the issue. In the short-term, it’s easier to address the symptom and I’m certain local businesses have been happy when a new event is created. However, long-term, I’m convinced only an expanded year-round base of full-time residents will fix the underlying cause of Ketchum’s decline. To that end, I thought of areas I’d focus efforts to address the long-term health of the community which entails stepping back.

[Please note that I think quite a bit of this has been done or is underway with the Ketchum Master Plan. My thoughts may just add a wrinkle or two to what has been underway. The presentations I’ve seen have been well thought through from a structural perspective. My thinking may just add a bit in terms of how to market what has been coming together in the planning process.]

With the above caveats in mind (i.e., I’m not an expert, there’s lots of great work underway, etc.), I’ll go out on a limb with a few ideas of how I’d tackle the marketing challenge of Ketchum’s revitalization leaving the structural facets of the Master Plan to the experts. The notion of trying to attract people to the valley may be antithetical to some but I’d reframe the debate as one of who you want buying up real estate. People who’ll contribute greatly to the vitality or just buy real estate and occupy it a few weeks a year. My impression is that Ketchum has an occupancy problem — there’s lots of housing/real estate but it’s been the type that sits empty most of the time. Like a hotel, Ketchum needs to figure out how to fill the space we have and consider what type of development is likely to spur year-round occupants that would address the root of the issue that leads to the issues that are being discussed around town.
1. Think like a business and segment your “customer base” (i.e., the people who’d make up a desired year-round base of residents). In a marketing segmentation exercise, you identify who are your desired targets and what matters to them. I can think of at least four segments that I would think Ketchum would want. The first three of these don’t necessarily require subsidies, mandates, etc…just good marketing. Many of these people live in places where the cost of real estate is the same (or higher) than Ketchum so the cost of real estate isn’t a barrier.

a. The so-called “Creative Class” – a group of 38 million people who have portable careers. Many of these people already live here doing their jobs remotely as architects, tech industry people, financial managers, etc.

b. Active retirees – the first boomers turned 60 this year. Many of them are young at heart and would enjoy all of the recreational and cultural opportunities Ketchum offers. In many locales, they are moving into condos as they don’t want to hassle with household maintenance tasks.

c. Families – if there are ample playgrounds, arts/kids/cultural activities, etc. what kid would prefer sitting in a car vs. getting out and being involved in these activities offered by great non-profits like the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, YMCA, Community Library, etc. as well as all the year-round recreational opportunities in and around Ketchum that many of us moved here to enjoy. As I mentioned in the virtues of housing density post, some families would prefer a more compact home with little or no commute if the home/development was designed for a family.
d. The people addressed by affordable housing efforts (teachers, nurses, emergency responders, etc.) that ARCH is focused on. There’s no lack of demand in this category so no need to focus marketing energy here.

2. Learn from others who’ve had great success with vital and vibrant communities with Ketchum’s attributes (i.e., scenery, recreation, cultural, etc.). These include the mountain towns I highlighted in the “virtues of density” post (i.e., Cortina, Chamonix, Zermatt, St. Moritz, Kitzbuehel, etc.). Is it a case of “build it and they’ll come” or did they do unique things to make that vitality happen? Particularly, in the age of the Internet, my hunch is a lot of it has been driven by word of mouth and some savvy PR (both of which are viewed as more credible than traditional advertising in the mind of a consumer…advertising is best as a reminder or when you don’t have a brand story that lends itself to PR). The publisher of Forbes magazine wrote a book entitled “Life 2.0 – How people across America are finding the Where of their Happiness” (I’m sure the friendly folks at Iconoclast can find this book if you give them a call) that talks about the phenomena of people picking locations first and careers second. The way to get PR coverage is to be “on trend”. For example, I heard that Ketchum is laying fiber around town that will make high speed Internet even more accessible or I heard the entire town is a wifi hot-spot. There are probably health and safety reasons for this but that could also be leveraged to appeal to telecommuters (not to mention tourists).

3. I would assume the Ketchum Master Plan will give people a variety of choices that will appeal in different ways to the segments mentioned above. Ketchum needs to not only market the benefits associated with in-town living but also be clear on how it’s different or better than the alternatives. For example, what could be done with the saved hundreds of hours of commuting if you could avoid that? More time recreating, family time, enjoying the vast cultural events, etc.

Undoubtedly, there are challenges facing Ketchum but I like the adage that “challenges are opportunities in work clothes”. A lot of what makes a successful brand is the story telling around the brand. Hopefully this gives the story tellers a few thoughts that will help their efforts. What are your thoughts? I’m very confident the collective intelligence of our valley can address this issue.

If you were given an opportunity to help a neighbor, boost the local economy, reduce carbon consumption, save time and help a local non-profit, would you do it? Fortunately, it couldn’t be easier and when you consider the entire picture, the cost isn’t much different either. How? Shop locally.

Photo by Michael Eastman

When I heard about the Ketchum Retailers Alliance and the South Valley Merchants Alliance (SVMA), I wanted to learn more about the impact of their efforts if they were successful. I also just spent a week on the Salmon River with a friend who owns a business in Salt Lake City – the Green Building Center and I learned she’s a member of a “buy local” group in Salt Lake (Buy Local First). Quite frankly, I hadn’t given the “buy local” notion a lot of thought until the past year or so. Like many locals, I joined the exodus to Twin Falls and Boise to buy stuff there. While I haven’t eliminated that 100%, we make our purchase decisions for our business and family with eyes wide open and always consider local merchants and service providers when making a purchase decision.

A number of studies have been done that look at the impact of shopping locally versus buying from large national chains. Consider the following examples:
• Modest changes in consumer spending habits can generate substantial local economic impact. For every $100 in customer spending at Borders or Barnes & Noble, the total local economic impact is only $13. The same amount spent with a local merchant yields $45, more than three times the local economic impact.
• If each household in Blaine County simply redirected just a couple hundred dollars of spending from chain stores to locally owned merchants, the local economic impact would reach approximately $1 million. It would be even greater if local businesses did the same.

Speaking for my family, one of the most compelling facets of shopping locally was something we hadn’t thought about until a chat I had with Sarah Hedrick of Iconoclast and a leader of the SVMA. That is, our local merchants and service providers are hit up relentlessly by the many great non-profits we have in our community. Sarah shared the fact that they took a few minutes to think about the non-profits supported by the SVMA members and it was in the range of 60 different non-profits. This echoes the findings of studies that show local businesses contribute dramatically m