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Client: Beaumont, Texas
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Consulting firm surveys residents on best, worst of Beaumont
BY Dan Wallach, The Enterprise
An online survey taken earlier this year of Beaumont residents' attitudes about their city drew more than 1,200 responses, perhaps the highest the survey-taker has yet received.
North Star Destination Strategies, the Nashville, Tenn.-based consultant that is helping Beaumont develop a unified marketing brand, conducted the survey, beginning in April.
The city received the survey results about a week ago.
"It's at least one of the highest responses we've got," said Steve Chandler, president of North Star.
"The average response rate is about half of this," he said.
North Star has helped about 90 communities develop their marketing strategies, Chandler said.
"If you get 400 responses, that would give you a 95-percent confidence level, with a plus or minus 4 percent. It's very statistically sound," he said.
Beaumont residents delivered three times that level.
"It's a very successful response rate," Chandler said. "It immediately tells us that people are passionate about their city. When you see a high response, it indicates there is a positive attitude about the community."
The survey asked questions such as:
How is Beaumont best described?
The top two responses included:
Hard working, blue-collar, industrial - 278 responses, 22 percent.
Growing - 236 responses, 19 percent.
And at the bottom was:
Vibrant - seven responses, 0.6 percent.
And this question:
What would improve Beaumont?
The top responses included:
Better schools, 274 responses, 22 percent.
Clean up appearance, 189 responses, 15 percent.
And this question:
What is Beaumont's biggest challenge?
The top responses were:
Improving public schools - 361 responses, 29 percent.
Keeping young professionals - 179 responses, 14 percent.
Negative perceptions - 163 responses, 13 percent.
The survey included several other questions having to do with reputation, how visitors view the city, why people come here.
Dean Conwell, executive director of the Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the survey a "really great cross-section" of attitudes and perceptions of the city.
"They (North Star) told us we needed to get more than 200 (responses) and we got six times that. This survey will help us find out who we are," Conwell said.
Stephanie Molina, the convention bureau's director of marketing, said the bureau conducted a somewhat similar survey in 2002.
"But not this comprehensive," she said. "This will help us to market the city properly," she said.
Conwell said the survey, which is just a part of other data that North Star compiled from focus groups and personal interviews, will provide the basis for a campaign that will stitch together the city of Beaumont's needs, the convention bureau's needs, the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, and business in general for a marketing approach.
"I think it's been an incredible challenge," Conwell said. "If it were easy, we wouldn't have hired this firm."
Jim Rich, president of the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, said the on-line survey was in addition to something he called a "vision survey" that went to about 200 people in leadership roles around the city.
North Star also conducted focus groups of between 20 to 30 people plus half-hour one-on-one interviews with select people.
What comes next is a presentation to the city and chamber - likely in early to mid-January.
An implementation strategy will come after that.
"We still haven't reached the 'buy-in' point," Rich said, referring to a commitment of resources to a unified approach.
"The survey is all good stuff, but how do we market ourselves? We can't do it until the city embraces it, and we can't embrace it for them. Beaumont is hard to label," he said.
