Atlas CEO Ben Wright presents "Understanding the Product" at the International Economic Development Council's 2013 Marketing and Attraction Conference on October 3, 2013 in Philadelphia PA.

1. IEDC Marketing and
Attraction: Understanding
the Product

2. Who Are My Heroes?

3. Questions We Will Answer
1. What is the purpose of knowing everything about my community?
2. What data should I measure about my community?
3. Who are the audiences for the data I produce?
4. What formats do those consumers want information in?
5. How to use data to position your community
6. What data should I measure about my organization?
7. How should I go about selecting targeted industries?
8. Who in the organization should do this work?
9. What tools make it easier for me?
10. What should I outsource versus do in house?

4. Download the slides, listen to the
video, continue the dialogue
• Continue the Conversation:
– Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AtlasAd
– Tweet questions using hashtag #AskAtlas
– Join Next Gen Economic Development Marketers LinkedIn
Group
• View and share the slides with your colleagues
(available now):
http://bit.ly/fQB6hC

5. How To Vote via Texting

6. Poll question: Knowing more things about
my community than other people makes
me…

7. What is the purpose of
knowing everything about
my community?

8. What Data Should I
Measure about my
Community?

9. Don’t reinvent the wheel – start
where others have left off
http://www.iedconline.org/?p=data_standards
Demographics Four year colleges Labor Union information
Labor Force Community colleges Transportation assets
Employment by industry Vocational/ technical centers Real estate occupancy
New companies to the area Payroll costs by industry Utilities
Military bases Average salary by
occupation
Environmental information
Research institutions Workers comp costs Government
International resources Quality of Life Available Real Estate

10. Who Are the Audiences for
the Data I Produce?

11. Poll question: Who is the most
important audience you serve?

12. Consider your audience
when spending your time:
1. Site selectors and companies value workforce, labor, cost, and other
comparative data.
2. Your investors, stakeholders, and other local businesses want to know
about the performance of the economy over time.

13. Tracey Hyatt Bosman
1. Based in Chicago, IL
2. Former economic developer
3. Specializes in renewable energy and
data centers
Midwest Practice Leader – Biggins, Lacy and Shapiro

14. What Tracey needs and
doesn’t need
What We Need
• Contact information
• Incentive programs
• Tax rates
• Recent announcements
• Industry-targeted info
• Map of your territory
• Largest employers
• Area colleges and universities
What We Don‟t
• General labor statistics
• Secondary source wage
information
• Real estate listings
• Rankings
• Distance to other major cities

15. Keith Gendreau
• Based in Cushman & Wakefield‟s
Minneapolis office
• Consulting Manager within C&W‟s
Global Business Consulting division
• Geographer by Trade. Master‟s
Degree in Economic Development
• Very specialized skills in GIS
analysis and tools

16. Site Selection Trends
• The location strategy process has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. What has
changed are the timeframe and tools for which to deliver results and recommendations. Today,
more so than ever, clients are:
• Making decisions quickly and efficiently;
• Seeking available buildings meeting specific requirements;
• Cost sensitive (labor, utilities, freight, occupancy, incentives offset); and,
• Interested in the „bottomline‟ operating cost vs. non-cost environment classic tradeoff.
• General Trends
• C&W Business Consulting has experienced a significant uptick in site selection activity by
foreign companies seeking to manufacture products locally in the United States vs. abroad
• Exchange rates and rising transportation costs a possible contributing factor to foreign interest
• Continued revelation of spatial integration of data

17. Decision Support Data
Sources and Tools
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Mapping
Location specific wage database
C&W Team, 150+ years of specific relevant experience
Comprehensive demographic and segmentation
database
Spatial and non-spatial data integration
Comprehensive Industry employment forecast, population
mobility data
• C&W Global Business Consulting maintains the most up to date demographic databases
and spatial analysis tools to execute projects of this type.

18. • Situation:
– Headquarters relocation from Midwest
– Includes a new showcase manufacturing facility
– Critical international air service requirement
• Once 2 priority metros were identified, a sub-market location screen was conducted:
– Headquarters
• “Cluster” analysis focused on satisfying executive lifestyles including, quality-of-life, commute
times, and airport access.
– Manufacturing Facility
• Facility must reside within 45-60 minutes of the new headquarters. Human resources driven,
other key considerations include sites/buildings and incentives.
• Results support:
• Site recommendations for due-diligence field study (define top two headquarters and three
manufacturing in order of preference)
• Viability of least preferred markets
• Likelihood and magnitude of incentive benefits
Case Study 1:
Workforce Analysis

19. Case Study 1:
Workforce Analysis
• To identify best HQ submarkets, the
analysis focused on resident
characteristics aligned with relocatee
demographics and quality-of-life
indicators.
• Plotting of “executive lifestyle clusters”
(green shading) within a 60-minute
drivetime of Philadelphia airport.
• Client expressed interest in considering
the Navy Shipyard as a possible co-
location scenario for both
manufacturing and headquarters
operations.
• Radnor submarket & vicinity identified
as optimally positioned for maximum
regional commutable executive housing
options.

20. Your local stakeholders want
your opinion and analysis
1. What are the trends in the local
economy?
2. What does this data mean?
3. What does it mean for their
business?
LAEDC: 25,000 person mailing list,
updates sent weekly

21. What Formats Do Those
Consumers Want
Information in?

22. Sample Formats
and Delivery
Data Delivery
method
Format
Workforce data Online, in GIS system In GIS system,
exporting to excel
Employment data Online Downloadable Excel
Cost data Online Downloadable Excel
Infrastructure Online GIS maps and
illustrated maps
Commentary on the
economy
Online, in print Narrative

23. What Data Should I
Measure About My
Organization?

24. Key organizational data
(for internal use)
1. Interactions with the organization
a. Web visits
b. Inquiries and companies served
2. Impact of the organization
a. Jobs created/influenced
b. Capital investment
3. Other operating metrics

25. Benchmark your community’s activity
against similarly sized communities
http://Atlas2012BenchmarkingSurvey.questionpro.co
m

26. Sample report

27. How Should I go About
Selecting Targeted
Industries?

28. Poll question: What is the most important
industry in your community to understand?

29. How to select
targeted industries
•The easy way: Use the industries that states and regions you
are in have selected
•The hard way: Do your own research, and do positioning
statements for each industry. If you have no differentiators for
an industry, don‟t select the industry.
•The expensive way: Hire a firm for a 3-9 month study

30. DIY: Foundation for positioning
1. Decide on your audience
2. Understand their drivers and needs
3. Understand who your comparison communities are
4. Do the research on yourself and the other communities
5. Find out the one or two unique elements of your community

31. How to use data to position
your community competitively
Positioning is answering the
following questions:
Who are my target customers?
What are their needs?
What type of community are we in
their minds?
What needs of theirs do we meet?
What needs of theirs do we meet
better than other communities?
For: Aerospace, Biomedical location
decision makers
Who need: Highly technical workforce,
competitive labor costs, and access to
intl. airport
Houston is: a large region
That offers: Workforce trained by
NASA and the Texas Medical Center,
and a cost of doing business that is 5%
below the national average
Unlike: Other large cities, Houston has
a larger workforce pool at costs as much
as 30% less than comparable coastal
communities.

32. Who in the Organization
Should Do This Work?

33. Poll question: How many full time
employees work in your organization, in
an economic development function?

34. Roles in the
organization (in house)
Title Research they
access
Key audience served
Executive All All, including investors,
stakeholders
Business
Development
Product research Relocating, and Expanding
companies
Marketing Product research Relocating, and Expanding
companies
Research All Internal and external
audiences

35. What Tools Make it
Easier For Me?

36. What tools are available to you
to understand your community?
Government Sources Private sources

37. Tools to gather
organizational data

38. What Should I Outsource
Versus do In House?

39. What should I outsource
vs. do myself?
Data Do in house Outsource
Comparative product
data
X
Time series product
data and narrative
X
Organizational data X

40. Contact Atlas
Contact information:
1128 Grant Street
Denver, CO 80203
Contact: Ben Wright
t: 303.292.3300 x 210
benw@Atlas-Advertising.com
www.Atlas-Advertising.com
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