Branding Smallville: Community place brand communication and business owner perceptions of performance in small town America

Abstract

A retail sales pull factor measures how strongly a community draws consumers from outside of the community and retains its own residents for retail consumption. A high retail sales pull factor community denotes that the community is generating retail revenues while a low pull factor community indicates that the community is leaking retail revenues. This research proposes that ‘branding the downtown’ is an effective strategy to increase the community’s retail sales pull factor by comparing business owners responses to (1) perceived downtown and business performance; and (2) perceived accessibility of internal communication about downtown branding between business owners in high pull factor and low pull factor communities. One hundred and sixty-seven responses were collected from downtown business owners in small communities in a Midwestern state. Independent samples t-test results showed that downtown business owners in communities with a high pull factor evaluated the performance of their downtown and own business more favorably than those in communities with a low pull factor and perceived that internal communication about downtown branding was accessible to them. The findings suggest that community administrators should make efforts to brand their downtown areas. It is recommended that effective brand communication activities among business owners be instigated to increase positive downtown branding effects.