New marketing plan dubs this area "The Beach"

[Smiling JOe]

not a private company, but a private group, trying to pretend that it is a public group. It is filled with terrible branding, ie- bad marketing, yet they want to be the marketing peeps for all of NWFL. It is the biggest good-ole-boy network I've seen. The TDC jumped in, because they had the money, and they wanted a seat to have some say so. A private organization should not be responsible for attracting an airline to the area. The airline is there to serve the public, not to have a direct tie to a private group, which will direct the public solely to their group. Also, the new airport will service many of the surrounding areas, not just the areas along the beach. Talk about bad marketing for this THE Beach, their areas extend all the way to Alabama, areas far removed from the beach. If this group is including those areas, why do they leave them out in the name?

"Coastal Vision 3000" is the name they give themselves.

Did they really get started to help attract SouthWest? They may say so, but if you look at the players in the game, they got involved to help influence and direct dollars to their own "partners." How terrible is their branding? Type in thebeach.com. When I google "the beach," their website ranks #10. If it was good branding, it would be ranked #1 on all searches and it would have a website name THEBeach.com.

Nothing wrong with businesses trying to attract money. That is what business is all about. However, they are trying to create a stronghold on all of the dollars, and you have to pay to play.

From their website:

Coastal Vision 3000 Initiatives

• Creating an internationally recognized branded destination to ensure the long-term economic growth of our region.(they seem to have failed at internationally recognized branding from the start.)
  
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• Participating in a regional brand building campaign that serves as the foundation for localized and individual destination marketing campaigns. (Defuniak Springs is in their area where they claim to cover. How does THE Beach cover areas north of the beach? I see no menion of these individual areas north of the bay, nor in the northern parts of the other counties.)
  
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• Being a catalyst for bridging the geographic, political and economic boundaries that have fractured marketing efforts in our region and limited our potential. (I guess that having people who are in charge of the decisions on where roads should be located, and who try to get privately develop public roads for tolls, as one of the group's "leaders" is their political pull. I wonder if he will ever be charged with the supposed wrong doings, trying to use public funds to build his private jet airport hanger service. BTW, isn't this more along the decription of the Tourist Development Council and Chambers of Commerce?)

• Establishing a regional standard for collecting, organizing and sharing tourism and economic development data. (Sharing tourism my @ss! If you don't pay to get in and do as the "leaders" say, there will be no "sharing" of the tourist dollars.)
  
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• Educating key regional stakeholders and persuading them to support regional brand-building efforts. (So this is probably meaning that these "leaders" will educate our professional staffs at the Chambers of commerce and the Tourist Development Councils, and County Commissioners. I may rag on the TDC on occasion, but they should know what they are doing and shouldn't have to rely on a handful of developers to tell them what they need to do.)
  
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• Training a broad range of local audiences to communicate and support the regional brand. (This so-called "regional brand" is a private brand and has nothing to do with the region as a public, generic area.)
  
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• Supporting the work of our region’s tourism and economic development professionals and working closely with them to grow our market for our individual and collective benefit. (If this is the case, why did our local tourism and economic development professionals have to pay to join the group to have a voice? I thought that first word was "supporting." I ask, who is supported who?)
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• Working cooperatively to attract better, more competitive air service to our region. I'm curious to know, other than coming up with "THE Beach," what has Coastal Vision 3000 done to attract the competitive air service?
  

 

[Kurt]

A little background for ya.

http://www.sowal.com/bb/business-goods-services/19999-new-marketing-plan-dubs-area-beach.html

Thanks! Threads merged.

 

[Geo]

So JOE and the powers that be have successfully lured Southwest Airlines. Does this mean we can do away with THE Beach moniker?

I am all for an umbrella brand. But not a bad one...

 

[Douglas the Intrepid]

I don't think anyone uses that horrible moniker regardless. Whatever marketing team came up with it needs to be shot for incompetence! ;-)

 

[SHELLY]

So JOE and the powers that be have successfully lured Southwest Airlines. Does this mean we can do away with THE Beach moniker?

...JOE didn't "lure" Southwest here--JOE and the county taxpayers have essentially "leased" Southwest for the next few years.

We can do away with "THE Beach" now it's "Everyone Can Party" Beach.:roll:

 

[Will B]

...JOE didn't "lure" Southwest here--JOE and the county taxpayers have essentially "leased" Southwest for the next few years.

...and it will be interesting to see who breaks first. Admittedly, I'd like to see SW succeed because my industry needs success stories right now, but I'm more curious to see what happens if the flights don't bear fruit. They are being subsidized. Was there a cut off date for that? If not and if SW can't fill airplanes, my guess is that there are a couple scenarios...

1) SW keeps flying the schedule with empty planes and taking the money on routes that are not profitable.

2) SW decides that they can make more money in another market and pulls out.

3) The group subsidizing the flights gets tired of bankrolling them and cuts off the money which will cause SW to pull out.

Admittedly, this is all a long ways off, and I hope it doesn't come to that, but sometime down the road I believe there's going to be a good game of chicken. Somebody will have to blink, first.

Just a little something to make you go "hmmmmmm"

 

[Smiling JOe]

I believe the money is promised to Southwest through 2014. Five years should be a good start for any business. That start up time is the most difficult, but after some marketing dollars are spent, articles are written, and friends talk for five years, I think they be able to fill some seats.

 

[Kurt]

See this post - http://www.sowal.com/bb/all-about-s...nternational-airport-nwfbia-8.html#post624249

...St. Joe has agreed to pay Southwest quarterly payments if Southwest operates at a loss for the first 2 years of a 3 year agreement. At the end of the agreement, either party can terminate if certain criterion are met. If St. Joe has had to pay in excess of the agreed amounts they can back out. If Southwest Airlines “actual annual revenues attributable to the air service at the new airport are less than certain minimum annual amounts established in the agreement,” they can back out. Furthermore, it also “provides that Southwest’s profits from the air service during the term of the agreement will be shared with St. Joe up to the maximum amount of St. Joe’s prior break even payments”...

Then there is the money from Bay and Walton county TDC bed tax revenues for marketing.

Southwest itself is not in such hot shape. Southwest Reports 3Q Loss As Revenue Falls 7.8 Pct - CBS News

And likely won't be until business travel picks up - Southwest Airlines chairman disagrees with belief that business travel will recover in 2010 | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News

They have a sweet deal at NWFBIA and unless the west bay sector really gets hot for business fast I think air traffic will be too light. We might see an extended deal down the road between area business and Southwest, or another airline.

 

[beachmouse]

Adios to "THE Beach" tm

Coastal Vision 3000 is closing up shop:

Coastal Vision 3000 to shut down; some wonder what it did for the region | vision, coastal, wonder - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

?It?s not the actuality of what happened,? said Runnels, who added that the group made itself available to all airports in Northwest Florida. ?We wanted with integrity to help each other succeed rather than fail as a region.?

Okaloosa County Administrator Jim Curry remembers that representation of regionalism. But he says Coastal Vision 3000 did not follow through on its pledge.

If you're lurking under another username Shelly ...

 

[Douglas the Intrepid]

Yay!!! I always thought that name was ridiculous anyhow.