Economic Development: Sortis Presents Marketing Proposal for Evansville TIF Districts

Last night at the Evansville Economic Development meeting, Wendy Soucie, Senior
  
Strategist for Sortis, a marketing consulting firm, presented their proposal for marketing for the Evansville TIF districts.

There is an old painting, or print rather, that used to hang in my younger brothers bedroom years ago that showed a ship out in the rolling sea. Under the painting were the words, "Don't wait for your ship to come in. Swim out to meet it."

In some ways, the message of Wendy Soucie from Sortis was similar last night. The threat to the Evansville TIF districts is that by doing nothing effective in marketing, it will take much, much longer to realize tax revenue and the necessary increment. She did not mention it, but there is also the threat of failure which would immediately place the debt on the tax lists.

The proposal Sortis presented was a marketing plan, with some cafeteria features. The basic mail program was the core, with the follow up contact by paid personnel or city staff or volunteers. That follow up was to occur after the third mail piece was sent. There was also the option of enhancement of the Evansville Web site. The most expensive options could include a multimedia kit sent to prospects that would feature flyover video as well as one video interview. The price of $23,300 did not include any extra video interviews, which would be $5,000 per interview.

In 1987 the Janesville Gazette ran a feature story on the restoration of the Downtown of Evansville. There was an application for a special award that was pending. Mrs. Dobbs was one of the store owners featured in the article.

Twenty years later----

We need to review and reassess. Yes. We may need more aggressive marketing. And it may be that we do not have the skill set locally to get this done.

There has been questions raised whether the expense is really a valid TIF expense since it does not provide increment and since normally TIF's are about infrastructure, not sales. However....there is no question that marketing is needed.

Mayor Decker spoke and said that she felt the marketing was "premature." Tony Wyse said he felt it was not. There was the general feeling that this discussion will resume after the decision on the biodiesel plant happens.