Over the past few days I have been trying to get Athens’ Own’s twitter up and running again. I think that twitter is an easy way for local businesses to connect with students, the majority of which use this form of social media. I first went through and followed a large number of local businesses, made some connections between the Facebook and twitter account, and then began posting a few tweets about dry aged beef.
I was looking at some of my favorite twitter accounts, the majority of which are social issue based. I noticed that a lot of these pages had graphics that they used to show statistics and facts about the causes they were passionate about. Having some graphic design past, I decided that a post about why eating local beef could be something that would work well for Athens’ Own Beef.
It wasn’t until Con was asking me about where this project could be useful that I started to think about the big picture; thinking about other small business in the area that I realized that we didn’t simply need a graphic for Athens’ Own, we needed a campaign for local foods and products. A campaign that could:
- Have multiple different graphics that could be placed around Athens. Each could have a similar slogan and graphic styles, so that if they were all placed in windows, people walking down Court Street would see and recognize they were together. Think this could get a conversation or at least an action out of these students.
- These graphics can be generalized to the big picture of eating local. This means that Athens’ Own could be providing resources for other local businesses to have an easy and free way to market their businesses. This will just further increase the community wellness and resilience that Athens’ Own strives to achieve.
So what products could use this?
Of course Beef, which I had already started on. But other products and businesses that Con partners with could be Beer, Cheese, Coffee, Produce, Baked Goods and a variety of local foods in restaurants that could benefit from a graphic about helping local businesses rather than just a local product.
While making my graphic I was trying to think of a campaign name that would work well. It would need to be spunky and grab attention, and in today’s marketing world, the shorter the better. I finally thought “what will it take for people to Get It?” and there was my slogan. Get It? We Do.
Using a tad of subliminal messages, this is kind of like saying “This is easy to understand, did you not already shop locally? Wow thanks dude.” It won’t outright make the consumer feel stupid, it would only kind of tug at their intelligence my making it sound like they missed out on some great smart and trendy way to be a good buyer. And by ending it with a little quip saying that as a business we do, means that the customer will want to associate themselves with the brand, or at least use it as an outlet to make a local purchase. It’s then that the delicious product seals them in, and they are now a faithful customer.
I think that though this may be a great way to get consumers interested in buying local, it’s still important that this campaign is going to be a way for sellers to have access to graphics and advertising they may not get to use if they are either not familiar with graphic design, or if they don’t have a way to get marketing for their small business.
After I have a few good graphics for specific businesses, my plan is to go from business to business on Court Street and ask them if they would be interested in putting the literature up in their window. Then the next step would be using social media to start moving the campaign out of Athens, and maybe utilizing some social change or other twitter accounts to get it moving.
I think this may be a good way to “get the conversation started” on resilience and community wellness. Starting a marketing campaign that’s free for local businesses could spark interest for people who wouldn’t think of just giving their work up, and trying to tell them that it’s the big picture that matters now.
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