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| The Visitor Guide Quandry, Part Three |
| Bill Hudson | 8/12/10 |
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Read Part One
I wandered through the historic downtown retail district of Pagosa Springs the other day, looking for shopkeepers willing to speak frankly about their businesses — specifically, in connection with the mixed up “Visitor Guide” situation unintentionally created by the Town Tourism Committee.
Sometimes it seems like government has a way of making things more complicated than they need to be, when they get involved in the free market operations of capitalism — even though they are really “just trying to help out.”
The first three retailers I approached were quite open and willing to talk with me about their businesses, about their approaches to marketing, and to share their thoughts about where they might be advertising in 2011.
 One of them, however, asked that I not use her name. “This is a small town,” she smiled. “You have to be careful about offending people.”
All three were aware of the TTC’s decision to use a new graphic design company, the Cassio Group, to produce the “official” visitor guide for 2011, after using Pagosa Springs SUN Publishing for 2009 and 2010. The SUN has already produced three glossy guides and is still contracted to produce one more winter season guide — at considerable cost to the TTC.
But from my conversations with our three retailers, I got the impression that the cost of the ads in the glossy, 150-page books — that is, the cost to the advertisers themselves — was actually very reasonable, considering the exposure received. As I mentioned previously, the current “Official Visitor Guides” are mailed out to thousands of potential visitors — and are also available at numerous shops and business locations locally.
But can you consider any kind of “print advertising” reasonable in this modern electronic age? More about that question later.
After talking to these three retailers, I realized that nearly all of the downtown retail stores and galleries are owned or managed primarily by women. That probably makes sense, considering that here in America, women — just over 50 percent of the population — make around 80 percent of the consumer purchasing decisions, according to consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
And presumably, no one knows what women want, better than... well, other women.
Two of the shopkeepers had advertised in this summer's “Official Visitor Guide” published by the SUN, and all three said they would likely advertise in the SUN’s next local visitor guide if one is indeed published next year. One owner stated that her summer’s retail sales had set a new record for her business — a story I’ve heard from more than one business owner this year.
All three expressed doubts about advertising in a TTC publication that was only mailed out to prospective visitors and not available on the street locally. But one noted that the Cassio Group — contractors for the TTC’s 2011 “Official Guide” — is also planning to print 4 seasonal “supplemental guides” that will be distributed locally. Will these supplements offer yet another opportunity to expend precious advertising dollars? I’m not sure.
After the interviews, I became interested in who, exactly, was advertising in the Summer 2010 “Official Visitor Guide” — and I was surprised by the small number of retail shops included in this beautiful, glossy magazine. I found only 11 downtown retailers included, and only 7 uptown retailers. The advertising in the glossy guide seemed overwhelmingly dominated by realtors, construction companies, and lodging facilities.
All three shop owners said they had been impressed with the quality of the SUN’s guides.
“I mean, didn’t they win an award as the best visitor guide in the nation?” asked one of the shopkeepers.
Really. Didn’t the SUN recently win an award for the Best Visitor Guide?
Here’s the beginning of the article that ran in the SUN weekly newspaper on July 21, written by reporter Jim McQuiggin:
The SUN’s Pagosa Springs Official Visitor Guide™ for 2009 has been awarded first place in the National Newspaper Association’s (NNA) 2010 Better Newspaper Contest and Better Newspaper Advertising Contest.
Taking first place in “Best Sales Promotion Section or Edition, Non-daily Division, circulation less than 5,000,” the “Official Visitor Guide” takes a select place among the best visitors guides in the nation, just a handful so honored.
Commenting on the award, Pagosa Springs SUN publisher Terri House said, “We’re pleased to win our first national award and be recognized by our industry peers for quality work in the production of this guide.”
“Takes a select place among the best visitors guides in the nation”? "Just a handful so honored"?
Really? Is this “truth in advertising”?
In fact, the competition to which reporter McQuiggin is referring had nothing to do with “visitor guides” per se. It had to do, as McQuiggin notes in the second paragraph, with the “Best Sales Promotion Section or Edition” — and the SUN competed only against other newspapers with a circulation of less than 5,000.
As many of you will remember, the SUN inserted their glossy “Official Visitor Guide” into one of their weekly editions last summer — and then entered it as a “Sales Promotion Section” for the purposes of the National Newspaper Association “Better Newspaper Advertising Contest”.
The NNA rules state that the “Sales Promotion Section” entries are supposed to be “devoted to themes designed to encourage consumer purchases. Entries will be judged on the basic idea, originality, organization and design of individual ads, design of the cover and design of the section as a whole.”
According to the NNA website, the SUN visitor guide beat out at least two other “Sales Promotion Sections” to win the award: the newspaper sales sections produced by the Minco Union City Times (Mustang, OK) and the Edgerton Reporter (Edgerton, WI). I can’t say for certain, but I somehow doubt the SUN was competing against 150-page glossy tourism guides emanating from Mustang, OK and Edgerton, WI.
In fact, it appears that the SUN won its award for “Better Newspaper Advertising” by entering a product which was not really a legitimate newspaper advertising section at all.
Read Part Four... |
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