Successful Marketing Program – 500 New Jobs Created

Decatur, Alabama / Morgan County Chamber of CommerceSituation

Morgan County and the city of Decatur had invested heavily in creating a world-class industrial park.  Attracting new industry into Decatur was a challenge due to a perception that people living in northern Alabama were poorly educated.  Prospective companies believed there was a lack of a skilled workforce, and this was not a place where employees of large corporations would be willing to relocate.

Opportunity

Re-position Decatur in the prospects’ mind to overcome the current negative perception.  Communicate the reality of a valuable, untapped industrial location where trucking, rail, air and water transportation could converge with an educated, skilled workforce.

Actions Taken

Our first step was a marketing strategy consulting workshop.  We reviewed the past attempts to recruit industry and studied the objections posed by prospects.  We evaluated Decatur’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to these objections, and developed a marketing strategy and positioning plan to overcome these issues going forward.  With this understanding, we built our entire approach on the benefit to the prospect, and reinforced our message with specific examples of strength from within the community.

Our interactive multi-media sales collateral leveraged the power of video to overcome doubts about a skilled workforce by showcasing Decatur’s leading edge vocational and higher education programs in collaboration with Calhoun Community College and the University of Alabama.  Videos also alleviated concerns for relocating employees by promoting Decatur’s excellent schools, recreational, restaurant, housing, and shopping amenities for an enjoyable lifestyle.

This multi-media video sales tool played a key role in recruitment success.

Results

Success was realized when Boeing built a manufacturing plant in the city, which created 500 new jobs.