A marketing plan

No matter how Cape Girardeau residents felt about spending $42.000 in city funds for a tourism consultant to determine the city's biggest selling point, many of them will agree that the finished study provides an excellent launch pad for some new ideas. If used properly, the study will lend momentum to an effort to bring more visitors and their dollars to the city.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau contracted with Northstar Destination Strategies of Nashville, Tenn., to do the study. A quick search of news articles on the Web shows the company has been hired by communities across the nation to come up with slogans and marketing ideas.

Northstar says the Mississippi River is Cape Girardeau's biggest marketing point. The company suggested a marketing slogan for the city: "Where the river turns a thousand tales."

CVB director Chuck Martin is reminding everyone that the study was about more than coming up with a slogan.

The study is about marketing what Cape Girardeau is and finding the city's soul. The full initial report is available on the Southeast Missourian's home page at semissourian.com, but here are some highlights:

Northstar's survey shows that individuals surveyed for the research project consider Cape Girardeau to be friendly, historic and conservative. The city's greatest assets are the river, Southeast Missouri State University and its residents.

That's all well and good, but there also are some problems, the study reveals.

"Pass-through visitors found Cape Girardeau to be an interesting city and wanted to do more, but were unable to successfully find their way downtown from the interstate. As a result, their experience in the city was limited to shopping and restaurants. ...

"River cruise visitors enjoyed walking around downtown, but were disappointed to find that attractions weren't open.

"The Mississippi River was identified as a major moniker to Cape Girardeau, but only a small amount of visitors that went downtown knew they could go beyond the floodwall."

Northstar researchers want Cape Girardeau to identify more strongly with the river and with related city history, including the Trail of Tears route Cherokee Indians were forced to take to western reservations and Civil War history. There will be more details on how to do this in the coming months.

None of the research company's report should shock anyone. On at least three occasions, teams in the chamber of commerce's Leadership Cape program have proposed making the route from Interstate 55 to the river easier to find. This newspaper has editorialized that downtown shops should be open when river cruises stop here.

But sometimes it takes an outsider to convince people of what they already know. Those interested in Cape Girardeau's future would do well to pay attention to future tourism-related recommendations as they come.