ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE KEYS TO SUCCESS; MARKETING

Robert B. Hendrix is President/CEO of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Economic Development is the "BUZZ" word of the century. What does it mean? Jobs and dollars, which benefit everybody in the community from top to bottom. We now have several entities in the Cape Girardeau area promoting it.

The Chamber in Cape, the Chamber in Jackson, the Chamber in Scott City, the Regional Port Authority, the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Agency, Southeast Missouri State University, plus a private developer or two; add that all up and you have a lot of efforts going into Economic Development.

Every one of those agencies coordinate with each other, share information, have demographics and material on their particular area of expertise, and are willing to share those with any prospect that walks through the door. That prospect may be a retail, wholesale, distribution, manufacturing, service or tourist industry. It's all Economic Development.

The missing link: Marketing

The one item that is missing in all of this is "marketing". The need to market the Cape Girardeau area is very evident if you pay attention to the rest of the world. Call it "marketing" or call it "industrial recruitment," they're almost all one and the same. The need to have someone promoting Cape Girardeau on a unified and consistent basis is desperately needed. This requires money.

We have to be competitive in the world-wide community today, not just in Missouri or the United States, but with the global economy that we are now working in. We are competing for industries in Cape Girardeau with Mexico, South America and etc. We can have the best area in the country, but if we don't market it, no one else knows about it.

Marketing is a necessary tool for any community large or small. For example, despite what some people think, you don't just call on Ford Motor Company and tell them what a wonderful place Cape Girardeau is and they put a plant here next week. The competition out there is unbelievable. The latest statistics are that for every one company that moves in the United States there are 2,000 agencies or cities trying to get that it. That makes for mighty big odds.

The feel of a community

When industries come into an area to study it as a potential location for a plant, they have basically two primary purposes in mind. The first is to determine whether or not the community is prepared for industrial growth: Is the community coping with its problems and looking to the future? They look at every aspect of the population, the climate, service industries, transportation, utilities, schools, media, law enforcement, fire protection, planning, taxes, housing, labor supply and etc. That they can tell in pretty short order if a community is prepared for industrial development or not.

The second thing they do is try to determine the feel of the community, the character of the people and the quality of its leadership. Industry is not going to come to an area where the community does not want them and/or the leadership in the community is very luke warm towards them.

With all the assets that the Cape Girardeau area has to offer not only industry, but any type of business we have only one major weakness. That weakness is a lack of a strong marketing campaign. A marketing campaign takes lots of money - and time. But it can be accomplished by the cooperation of several groups joining together.

Combining resources: While combatting parochialism

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce has been in the Economic Development business for 75 years. With the climate of today's business structure and the need to "blow our own horn", the Cape Chamber doesn't have the financial resources alone to put on a marketing campaign. Thus, a unified effort with the county, the city and other communities needs to be looked at.

One obstacle that lies ahead, which we must all be keenly aware of, however, is Parochialism. We are all proud of our individual areas and communities and turf. But to join a unified effort means that we must put individual egos aside for the betterment of the entire area.

If a marketing campaign succeeds and brings an industry to the area and it goes into area A and area B gets mad and quits the effort, we have failed. In the 33 years I have been in Economic Development and Chamber work, I have seen this time and time again. It takes a lot of leadership and a lot of understanding to make an area-wide effort succeed. It can be done, but it takes a lot of work.

Regional truths

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce believes that any industry that goes not only in Cape but in Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Kennett or anywhere in Southeast Missouri helps Cape Girardeau in the long run. It helps build Southeast Missouri. Southeast Missouri is our home. If Southeast Missouri succeeds, Cape Girardeau will succeed. It's that simple.

Do we have the capacity to do this, yes, I believe we do. I feel we have one of the finest areas in the state to sell. I believe we have one of the finest areas in the nation to sell, which has been done many, many times. However, this effort needs to be enlarged and expanded, and if the people of the area, particularly the leadership, looks to the future in a unified effort, it can be done.