Comments on: Connecting with Farmington’s brand print

By: forumcommunications

forumcommunications — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:25:44 +0000

David, you make an excellent point about the smoking – and about this encompassing the entire community. That’s what the whole branding study was supposed to be in the first place, different from Main Street promotions because it encompassed the entire community. There are other business centers and parks that would be much more inviting if they were smoke-free, at least as much as the city can legally accomplish that.

By: David Judge

David Judge — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:29:02 +0000

Joni,

People smoke in front of Starbucks, in the park and at the pavilion. This does not work well with marketing Farmington as a family friendly downtown.

I understand walk-ability will be addressed by the streetscape in the downtown. That is a step in the right direction. But, they need to consider all of Farmington if they truly want the family friendly tag line.

The idea of a family friendly city needs to encompass the city councils values and actions everywhere, not just in the downtown center.

If the city is willing to pass and enforce ordinances such as no smoking in public areas; I think Farmington can be marketed as a family friendly downtown. If they are unwilling or don’t, we just wasted $58,900 plus city and DDA staff time.

I will measure the marketing study over time by looking at how the Farmington City Council and DDA takes action to make Farmington better than it is today.

By: forumcommunications

forumcommunications — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:09:49 +0000

The former editor says “hearty.” I think “hardy” has something to do with mums…

By: Scott Stevenson

Scott Stevenson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:26:36 +0000

Or should that be “hearty”?

By: Scott Stevenson

Scott Stevenson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:25:23 +0000

Cheryl: A hardy “Amen”!
Ditto for Jeff.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:21:29 +0000

The messenger has been paid and the check is cashed. No need to shoot them. (unless an investigation shows that they have called communities across the nation “family-friendly.”

I wonder if you would get different “market data” if Farmington Hills did this same excersize.

I suspect that any community could easily be found to be “family friendly.” That term is a generic catch-all that I fail to see as being useful to the tasks at hand.

I look forward to seeing how this data and “platform” will assist us in making progress.

By: Cheryl Fried

Cheryl Fried — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:43:53 +0000

Jeff, I disagree with what you insinuate that the company is going to tell the city of Farmington what they want to hear. I think the data reflected what the city and DDA ALREADY knew about Farmington. Northstar has no reason to lie about the data. From a market research perspective it is easier to go back to a client and say “look what we found out from the research” not “look, the data says what you already knew”. No one wants to pay $60k to be told what they already knew. Let’s not kill the messenger. Perhaps there was no need to even hire the company in the first place.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:08:10 +0000

The concern I have with the report is that even with “market research,” what community in America would not consider itself “unique” because it is “family friendly.” All the other towns that they compared us to are also family friendly (along with having a downtown niche that is branded).
It will be interesting to see how this information is going to change the direction or motivate folks to “re-brand” Farmington in their own mind.

If you are offered $60,000 to market research and answer the question “does this dress make me look fat”…… What do you think the answer is going to be? (No honey, you look family friendly…)

By: forumcommunications

forumcommunications — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:38:33 +0000

Cheryl, I actually don’t disagree with you. I might not have been clear; my objection is not with Northstar. They provided the services they were asked to provide. My objection is with the council’s decision to hire a firm that came with a higher cost because of its national position. I believe we could have gotten most, if not all, of the same information at a lower cost. But we really did need that information.

You bring up a great point about attracting young, vibrant people – Farmington has always had a big senior population, many families who have been here a long time. Up until the streetscape bond election, those folks dominated the polls because they were the ones who showed up. I think we now have more voters engaged, more people who support progress, and it will be interesting to see how that carries forward.

By: Cheryl Fried

Cheryl Fried — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:49:31 +0000

I don’t know the specifics of the services that were provided by North Star but I can say that from my 13 years of market research experience, the $58,900 cost certainly doesn’t seem unreasonable. I understand people may be frustrated that North Star didn’t provide some magical solution to the problems that plague downtown Farmington. But, the question needs to be answered, did North Star do what the city of Farmington and the DDA paid them to do?

I know this will be an unpopular stand to take but the demographics of the residents of a city will dictate the outcome of a downtown area. This will be reflected in the businesses that are attracted, the activities that are attended and the events that are popular. If Farmington wants to have a young, vibrant downtown, they need to attract young, vibrant people to live there.