Client: Warrensburg, Missouri

Joint Marketing

By: Ben Pierce with Amanda Goodman
Feb 13, 2006, 08:02

"North Star (Destination Strategies), in a survey all around the state, asked people to identify a central Missouri city," Edwards began. "Only 10 percent of the respondents identified Warrensburg. When they were asked, 'what about Warrensburg,' 88 percent said, 'Yeah, we know where that is."

"If only 10 percent of the people in Missouri think of Warrensburg, when I'm talking to people in Texas and Wisconsin and New York and California, what am I saying to them?" Edwards asked. "It's not like a development in Lee's Summit or Independence where I don't need public support to generate leads. I need Warrensburg to market itself."

A few moments later he pointed out that Warrensburg needs to do it not just for Hawthorne, but for itself. "My standpoint is 'What's good for Warrensburg is good for Hawthorne," he explained. "The reverse of that's true, too."

The "made fresh daily" branding initiative and the new Warrensburg logo are an outgrowth of that need to better market the community and attract the type of restaurant and retail properties citizens requested in the 2004 White Rose Pavilion meeting. Better branding for Warrensburg, and effectively marketing the city, will make it easier for Kohl's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and a men's clothing store to say "yes" when asked to take a look at Hawthorne or other development in the area.