Client :: Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce
Project :: There's No Place Like Home
Industry :: Government, Economic Development

Challenge :: One priority set by the Chamber's president was to change the perception that small businesses gained little benefit from belonging to the organization. He came to KJA with this goal, a decidedly limited budget, and five powerful words..."There's no place like home!" We took the ball and ran.

Solution :: Clearly, the biggest benefit of Chamber membership is simply more business. However, local merchants were losing a great deal of revenue to competitors outside the market, both in business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings. So, in order to generate more business for Chamber members, we needed residents and businesses to buy locally.

KJA's first goal became community education. These buyers had to understand the importance of the economic lifecycle. More to the point, they had to see its perpetual nature: purchases made at one business become payroll spent at other businesses. The successful execution of the campaign hinged on residents and business owners grasping this idea.

The further we traveled into the development process, the clearer it became that a call to action was needed. So the KJA brain-trust evolved those five initial words into "There's no place like home...buy into it!" This left little question about what - exactly - we wanted the reader to do.

Now it was time to clear the limited budget hurdle. KJA minimized that obstacle by orchestrating educational community meetings. These involved key business leaders and the local media, and explained the effort's far-reaching benefits. From this, media time and placement donations were secured to supplement the Chamber's meager budget. Collateral materials, from posters to product labels, were made available to businesses at no cost. Co-branding opportunities allowed businesses to align themselves with the campaign's position. The multi-pronged approach (broadcast media, traditional print, collateral pieces, billboards, events, etc) reinforced the message and importance of this effort.

In the end, the local businesses understood the merit of the campaign, bought into it and ultimately made it a success. During its initial months, the parish showed growth in the overall collection of sales tax: an increase of 12 - 30% more per month over previous years.