Conducting and Applying Research for Decision Making
"First View, First Look"
Program Focusing on Quality of Place
Providing Economic Impact Analysis
for Decision Making
Knowing Your
Competitive Advantages - a Comprehensive Community Assessment
Targeting
for Business Attraction Efforts
Targeting
Based on Regional Cluster Analysis
Targeting for
Retail Attraction
Mapping to
Enhance Local Development Efforts (GIS)
Identifying Community
Visitor Markets
Surveying
Membership or Other Business Groups
Inputting
of LOIS Locality Information
Meeting the
Specialized Research Needs of Partners
"First View, First Look" Program Focusing on Quality of Place
unidentified
one-day visit to your community. The focus of our visit will be on the appearance
of your community's entrances and downtown, the hospitality and customer
service experienced during our visit, our observations regarding retail
areas, the condition of housing and of general public infrastructure plus
other areas of investigation as you request. Customer service and hospitality
will be sampled at several randomly chosen locations in the community as
we seek to judge the "feel" of the community. A consensus report
of the results of our community visit will be provided to you.Benefits:
- Having a documented impartial opinion as to your community's shortcomings and strengths that can form the basis of efforts to address items we have identified, as you and your leadership choose
Providing Economic Impact Analysis for Decision Making
Our Level I Economic Impact Analysis is a continuation of our partnership with Iowa utility companies, who partially underwrite our costs. As a result, the charge for a basic-information report is $300. In addition, upon application, Alliant Energy, Aquila, Iowa Area Development Group and MidAmerica Energy have agreed to underwrite part of this charge for those development organizations served in their respective territories. To see a sample Level I Economic Impact Analsis, click here.
Benefits:
- Community leaders' gaining an understanding of whether a prospective business development represents a good investment for the community
- Evaluating different scenarios for offering incentives, enabling local leaders to more effectively consider prospects' incentive proposals
- Communicating the value of economic development to community citizens
To
get more or better results, economic development leaders frequently ask,
"What are our assets? How do we compare with other communities - what
are our real competitive advantages." We provide an unbiased, in-detail
assessment of yourcommunity. We also can provide a comparative analysis,
if requested and feasible. Key areas of our assessment include economic
development assets and preparedness; transportation; utility services and
costs; taxes and civic services; medical care; education; demographics;
and business climate. We will also focus on several forward-looking measures
of competencies believed to be necessary to maximize future opportunities.
Business-recruitment
marketing is very competitive. Your community must effectively utilize its
resources to realizethe greatest benefit from its marketing efforts. Our
target industry analysis (TIA) assists you in better focusing your business
attraction efforts. Targeting seeks to identify specific industries or industry
clusters that best match the competitive advantages of your community such
as labor force, existing economic base, supplier linkages, infrastructure,
transportation and location, plus your available sites and buildings. The
results of your TIA become the basis of your targeted proactive marketing
program for business attraction. Our TIA services are available to your
community at three levels:
Level
I TIA encompasses an analysis of available secondary data and research.
Our
retail targeting efforts seek to identify specific retail business types
that best match both your area's strengths and its needs, in combination
with identified retail trends and data. Along with retail targeting, we
also provide recommendations for any necessary improvements that we believe
key to enhance your commercial/retail environment. You will be asked to
make available any previous profiles, surveys and retail related data that
may assist us in our efforts. We may also include community comparative
assessments that may serve as both benchmarking tools and identification
of areas for improvement.
To
better understand the visitor and how to market to them, we provide visitor
segmentation and targeting to analyze the current customer base. We examine
current trends in the tourism industry and draw from various visitor studies
and surveys to develop a more comprehensive profile, including demographics,
trip-planning behavior, trip characteristics and expenditures.
to obtain the information you want from the survey audience you identify
for us.
We
utilize staff and upper level students to do the appropriate input work.
In addition to aiding in the collection of locality information, we will
develop a resource guide to assist you and other officials as to where you
can locate the necessary information for LOIS. We will also develop a submission
format/form to simplify your providing locality information for inputting.
Our fee based on community size.
As
a member of our Partner Program, you have immediate access to obtaining
our assistance in meeting your research needs. ASAP is our commitment to
you that we will respond promptly to your identified needs at no increase
in fees above our normal partner costs.