Telling the world what we have
I missed the "Party on the Prairie" last week for the 33rd year in a row. I am not much of a fan of carnivals, pronto pups, or huge crowds of caged livestock or loose people. I don't enjoy walking over miles of territory to see or smell any of the above.
I have never been tempted to attend the Kansas State Fair. Even though I grew up in mid-size towns in Illinois and Iowa, I never went to state fairs in those states either. It just never occurred to my family to attend such an event. I don't even think we ever went to any county fairs. I guess deep down I am just not much of a country girl.
But I will admit it was a bit of a rush to hear Ron Goodwin from neighboring Burns on a commercial "live from the fairgrounds" a couple of times last week on a Wichita radio station. The announcer was touting Ron's cookers and some kind of implement attachment. (Not being a country girl, I am not sure what kind of attachment it was.) Ron added a few words of his own. It was a little like seeing Brock Baker roaming through his aisles of furniture on a Baker Furniture commercial during the evening news. Hometown celebrities.
All of which leads me to this — why don't our small communities and the businesses in them do more of that kind of thing? I expect it is a little pricey to advertise on television and radio, but it couldn't be prohibitive. We are all seeking ways to attract out-of-town tourists and shoppers — perhaps even people to move out of the big city rat race and settle down in nice quiet communities like ours. We have brochures and web sites. We have annual events that draw thousands for a day or for a couple of hours once a year, but what about the other 360-plus days?
What about our Christmas promotions, our historical society events, our restaurants, and lodging facilities? What about those products that are made in Marion County? Or the mural in Florence, the Friday night musical events in Burns, the Copper Shed at Aulne, or the dinners at the Morgan House? It seems to me that we might be missing out on a good thing. Maybe someone should investigate this idea.
Your Peabody Gazette-Bulletin staff is proud of its growth in subscribers and vendor sales and we feel your advertisements in this paper reach the local people who will patronize your business and events. Our quarterly Main Street newsletter goes to those who return to Peabody or have connections here and we target them with your ads for services they may need.
But we know we don't reach the shoppers and tourists within a day's drive of Marion County — at least, not yet! So maybe we should take a page from a couple of savvy local retailers and look at other media advertising. Maybe it's time to get a little more aggressive about promoting our communities and businesses.
— SUSAN MARSHALL
