A Proposal for Salisbury’s Downtown – Who Do You Market To?

Last week we gave an overview of our proposal for downtown Salisbury.  Once thing we noted is that there are NO silver bullets.  Doing just one or two things is not going to revive Salisbury’s downtown.  However, if there is any one thing that comes close to being a silver bullet it is - WHO DO WE MARKET DOWNTOWN TO.

Two Parts to a Single Question

There are two parts to this question:

• Who do we market to regarding investment?
• Who do we market to as consumers?

Downtown has been compared to a ghost town.  That’s not wholly inaccurate.  At 5 o’clock the proverbial streets are rolled up.  There is plenty of office space.  There is plenty of residential space.  There simply isn’t much retail space and no compelling reason to come downtown even if there was.

We need investors who are willing to take a long term view and who are creative enough to develop businesses that people want to come downtown to visit and patronize.  Such businesses will act as anchors that then encourage people to visit other businesses in the same general area.

Obviously, no business, no matter how unique or interesting, will succeed without paying customers.  We need to identify those customers and market to them.

Yuppies and Students

Let’s reverse things for a moment.  We’ll discuss the potential investors in a bit.  For now, let’s look at who we should market to as potential consumers.

Salisbury is a college town.  I realize that many citizens want to treat Salisbury University as the red-headed step child, but the fact remains that SU is one of the three or four primary drivers of our local economy (SU, PRMC, Perdue, other Agri-Business).

College students are a ready made market for downtown.  They simply need a reason to come down there.  Transportation shouldn’t be an issue.  I’m willing to bet that SU would add downtown to its own bus route for students that can’t (or don’t want to) drive.

We here a lot about “young professionals”.  This is a key market as well.  Once people start having families, going out isn’t something that can be done often, or on a regular basis.  When you get old, like me, going out often just isn’t something that you do that often either.  Sure, you go out to eat, but you don’t go out for three or four hours a night multiple times a week.

We don’t need another bar!  That is the response you get from many people.  I would disagree.  Bars are not de facto bad things.  I would also argue that you need MORE than a bar or two to attract AND RETAIN a steady stream of college students and people under 30.  You need some kind of destination – a reason to come downtown IN ADDITION TO a couple of bars and a few restaurants.

The Gay Community

That’s right.  I said it.  The GAY community!  Now I’m not talking about the gay community as a primary market – although this particular demographic would certainly fit many of the criteria that make college students and people (in general) under 30 a prize market.  No – I’m talking about marketing to the gay community as your investor class.

The gay community has a long and successful history of being urban pioneers.  They tend to have access to capital, a higher than average disposable income, and don’t have the financial responsibility of raising a family unless they choose to adopt or go the surrogacy route.  Let’s face it; if you’re gay, there are no unplanned pregnancies.

Look around.  Many of the people responsible for the re-birth of Cape Charles, VA (hardly San Francisco East) are gay.  Go to the Ghent section of Norfolk.  Now a thriving part of the city, Ghent as a slum when I was a kid.  What changed?  A small group of gay urban pioneers who were willing to put their capital at risk and then worked hard to make their dreams a reality.  There are countless examples all across the country.

I am not proposing that we attempt to turn Salisbury’s downtown into the Castro.  My experience has been that our friends and neighbors are pretty much the rest of us.  They just happen to make different sleeping arrangements.  They don’t flout their sexual orientation and simply expect to be treated as you would treat anyone else.

That said, gays are a distinct demographic group.  Some of the things that I’ve mentioned above make them ideal candidates to lead the revitaliztion of Salisbury’s downtown.

If we were serious about promoting Salisbury, we’d be doing in the Washington Blade and Philadelphia Gay News.

G. A. Harrison is the Managing Editor of “Salisbury News”. Delmarva Dealings appears each Wednesday and Sunday at SbyNEWS.com.