Not very long ago, the Altoona Mirror had a story about Altoona making a promotion video. The video itself is great and long overdue idea, but I'm afraid it may be targeting the wrong people. I would like to point out some things concerning Altoona's marketing efforts and offer some suggestions for all of you to consider.
Depending on how much time you have spent outside of Altoona in Pennsylvania, you may notice that Altoona is known mostly for the Horseshoe Curve, the Curve Ballpark, and the hospital amongst the business community leaders. What about everyone else?
These commercial attributes are good, but there are other unexploited areas that haven't even been touched. Areas like unconventional recreation, automobiles, and road races.
Most people overlook parks that are already in Altoona like Lakemont Park, Valley View Park, or even the many public ballparks and playgrounds. Places like these draw families and friends when they can get together, especially when budgets are tight.
On multiple occasions when I lived in the Harrisburg area, I knew some people (in different social groups) who asked me where I was from. I told them, "Altoona." They went on to say that they buy their cars in Altoona, and will continue to do so because of our unbeatable prices and customer service. This is more than two hours away, but they still make the drive to buy their cars here because of our reputation.
In addition to that, they mentioned the car shows we have throughout the year. Should I mention poker runs for bikers? People take both of these very seriously, and many drive great distances to get to these events.
Another event that happens frequently in Altoona is a 5k, 10k, or 15k road race. These are often overlooked as well, but they attract the most active and hard-working people in the community. Some of the best times of my life were spent sweating early in the morning with another buddy in a town other than my own. Again, people go great distances to do a race they have never done before, and often come back if they liked the run.
Now that I've pointed out some untapped resources, I would like to explain how I believe these could be used to promote Altoona.
Targeted marketing includes knowing your audience and directing your message straight to them. If we are only trying to attract baseball fans, train enthusiasts, and health care professionals and patients, then we can continue to advertise that.
But if we are trying to attract productive, growth-oriented people to Altoona, who value the non-commercial assets that strengthen communities, we need to narrow the scope of city advertising to an extremely targeted audience. When they come to Altoona and have a good time, they will tell their friends and family who will, in turn, make the trip too.
Our reputation is already solid in many areas like baseball and trains, which don’t seem to attract the numbers we’re looking for, so it’s time to reach to other areas to build our reputations even farther. It will take variety of opinions and perspectives to reach agreements on which target markets Altoona should exploit, which is why I offered mine above.
Altoona has the assets, but nobody outside of our city knows about them. It’s about time they hear what we have, and they will bring their business with them.
- Jeff
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