August 5, 2004

EDITORIAL

Focus PR effort on business issues

The Yellow Springs Men’s Group says that Yellow Springs has an image problem, and the group says it has a solution. It wants to counteract a perceived negative image of the community in the Miami Valley by highlighting the village’s positive qualities. The idea is that polishing the community’s image will help spur business and residential growth, a goal that’s generally worth supporting, if it’s done right.

Though well intended, the Men’s Group’s campaign is misguided. The group’s public information effort should focus on business issues, not residential growth. With limited funds (including monies contributed by local governments), the Men’s Group should direct its PR campaign to turning around the perception that Yellow Springs is antibusiness, especially toward big business. This would better serve the community and make better use of the public funds the group is using. For instance, the campaign by the Men’s Group could easily complement Community Resource’s efforts to get a commerce park built on the western edge of town.

The Men’s Group also needs to do a better job of explaining its goals for the campaign, so Yellow Springers can decide whether they support this effort.

To carry out its campaign, Balancing the Scales, the Men’s Group plans to form a steering committee to organize and develop a PR promotion. The group also plans to hire an individual or team to produce the PR information and distribute it. The Men’s Group’s proposal says that information could be distributed to real estate brokers, through activities with builders and developers and via “ongoing information source systems” such as a Web site and news releases.

Men’s Group representatives have said that improving the community’s image could help increase visitation, attract new residents and promote business development. The effort, the group says, is related to ideas generated at an economic planning forum the Men’s Group sponsored in March. Though perceived problems with Yellow Springs’ image were discussed by one of the forum’s small discussion groups, establishing a PR campaign did not appear to be one of the day’s top goals.

The Men’s Group has been extremely active in recent years conducting projects related to public education. The group should be commended for such endeavors, which have included the economic planning forum and a report on the cost of living in Yellow Springs.

If Yellow Springs really has an image problem, however, it doesn’t seem to be stopping people from wanting to live here. Yellow Springs remains a popular place to live and raise a family. In fact, the appeal of living in this community is one reason housing prices are so high. Yellow Springs’ reputation as an eclectic village is one of its strength. It’s known for being the home of Antioch College and artists, for its tolerance, for encouraging political discourse. And this reputation attracts a certain type of person and family, most of whom are likely to already know about Yellow Springs. The key to encouraging residential growth is not to focus on bringing more people here, but to address the availability of land and the high price of housing.

Changing the business climate here and countering how neighboring communities view the village is a larger challenge. By focusing more of its efforts on the business community, the Men’s Group would make more significant inroads into its goal of improving Yellow Springs’s image.

—Robert Mihalek