Community Futures Beaver River

Should our Business Join a 'Buy Local' Campaign? 

In recent years many small towns have adopted; 'Buy Local' campaigns. The exercise takes on many forms, sometimes with awards for the best marketing campaign to customers - sometimes offering discounts to shoppers who can prove local residence. In most cases the idea is to get local consumers to change their habit of making small purchases locally, while still buying major items such as cars or furniture elsewhere. The purpose of such a campaign is to build the community customer base by deterring them from going to the next larger community for a large percentage of their purchases.

If your company is invited to take part in such a campaign - perhaps through your Chamber of Commerce, you need to ensure the project will be well managed. Badly managed campaigns may align you with temporary partners that you might not otherwise find attractive. Participating retailers for example should be those that are invited in, rather than 'come one-come all'. Depending on the nature of your business there may not be a direct benefit - but if such a campaign is created, and the benefit to you is not immediately apparent, make sure you are still aware of its existence and progress. Your company is still part of the community and there can often be spin off benefits.

In some successful campaigns, participating retailers have agreed to post a statement of values on their wall, ensuring customers they are getting principled, quality service by shopping close to home.

Local media needs to be engaged in the process and among the arguments made, the following points should periodically figure in all media communications:

• Local stores are more likely to carry locally produced foods which supports local agriculture
• Local business owners contribute to more local fundraising for non-profit agencies
• Local businesses provide a majority of jobs
• Local businesses support other local businesses
• The business community becomes reflective of this community's unique culture
• Competition and diversity result in fair prices and more choices
• Shopping locally reduces carbon footprint with shoppers driving less to neighboring communities.