Focus on Main Street
August 12th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Today I had the great pleasure of meeting and sitting down to talk with two very interesting and passionate individuals from Main Street Iowa. As our discussions progressed, not only was I brought back to my days at the National Trust, but I also got a renewed sense of excitement for what these Main Street communities are able to accomplish—often with little more than passion and elbow grease. The majority of traffic that comes to this blog comes from a referrer such as Google. What are the search terms bringing people here you ask? Mainly questions like: successful place branding, what is place branding, and how to place brand? These questions can be answered and more, with a quick look at the Main Street approach.
The Main Street Approach is a trademarked program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is made up of four seemingly simple components:
- Promotion
- Organization
- Design
- Business Improvement
These four points, combined with the leadership and support of a community, can turn once deserted streets and storefronts into vibrant and profitable downtown centers. In fact, as anyone who has been involved with a Main Street program will tell you—it has done just that in communities all across Iowa and the country. The Main Street approach has been shown to work on communities from large to small, and really hits home on what I have always considered key points in place branding.
There is no band-aid solution to creating a dramatic impact that will make visitors want to come and experience your place. The solution really is an integrated approach of revitalization, organization and marketing to showcase what you have not only to visitors, but to your residents themselves. Main Street has a proven process that involves all of the stakeholders to create a better place for everyone, and who can argue with that? If you haven’t heard of this, or would like to hear more, I encourage you to click the links above to direct you to the appropriate information resources. Perhaps this approach is just the thing that some of the communities using this site as a place branding resource need.
