Middlebury brand gets a facelift

Author: Joshua Carson

The town of Middlebury needs a marketing facelift, according to the Middlebury Business Association (MBA). At an event last week, members of the MBA and a marketing expert presented a new proposal to the business community, calling for a more cohesive presentation of the goods and services offered to both the community and potential visitors.

The eventual goal is to develop a new 'brand' for the town, including a uniform phrase and logo to be used by all local businesses, and then promote the town as a place that "has it all" - shopping, retail, entertainment, worship and play. The Association members hope these goals can be accomplished through a marketing tactic know as branding, a term referring to the process of creating a favorable image of a product and differentiating that product from the competition in the eyes of the consumer. In this case, the product is the town of Middlebury and the consumer is everyone from the local residents and College students who drive to Burlington for basic retail needs to the tourist coming in from Connecticut to experience a slice of Vermont charm.

The ultimate objective of this campaign, as laid out by Battell Director Bruce Hiland, is fourfold: to promote buying locally, to make the town an appealing tourist destination, to establish the town as a vital part of campus life and to compel green employers to establish business.

In a speech to MBA members, former MBA President Ken Perine put the situation in context by looking back into the past and tracing the evolution of business in the town. In the 1950s, Middlebury was largely an agrarian economy with small local farmers supporting the shops in town. During the 1970s, however, focus shifted from agriculture to industry as manufactures like Kraft and Standard Register looked to Middlebury as a source of inexpensive labor, diversifying the landscape with small manufacturing enterprises. But the manufacturing base has scaled back and now, Perine said, Middlebury is transitioning to a service economy, facing competition from both at home and abroad.

At this point, the branding campaign is in its very early stages, said President of the MBA Gail Freidin, as the MBA is just starting to identify values and images that will resonate with the target consumer. Freidin hopes that this can be accomplished with the aid of MBA members, rather than hiring an outside marketing firm.

Leading the branding discussion was Glen Ohlund of the New Hampshire Main Street Center, an organization which aims to promote economic development while maintaining the historic character of the downtown. Ohlund established a framework with which to begin the process of branding Middlebury, starting with assessing Middlebury's assets and then developing an image to be projected onto the consumer.

The impetus for the new campaign comes from sentiment within the business community that Middlebury is no longer the prime destination it once was for food and retail spending. When Ames moved out, said Freidin, there was a feeling that other local businesses lost out on spillover sales from consumers traveling to Middlebury. Moreover, she said, Middlebury is no longer the only destination for dining, with restaurants in Vergennes and Bristol becoming more and more popular.

Local business owners surveyed at the meeting, however know where to start. When asked to list the three largest challenges facing the Middlebury business community today, respondents cited parking, traffic and diversification of product offerings. The challenge, admits Freidin, will be to diversify the business offerings of the town, thus attracting a greater number of consumers. Yet she is optimistic that, despite space constraints, the community will be able to recruit new businesses and create new retail space downtown.