Marketing firms may moo-ve with the times (From Stroud News and Journal)

Marketing firms may moo-ve with the times

THE district needs to do more to market itself, according to Stroud's chamber of trade.

Meeting last Wednesday, the chamber listened to a presentation from Nina Belluomo from Woodchester-based marketing firm Read & Woolf on the Local Strategic Partnership's (LSP) plans to promote the district to the wider world with a pink cow.

She outlined how the marketing campaign might look and who it would be aimed at, highlighting many of the district's unique selling points.

But members of the chamber were quick to spot the high profile PR campaign was going to cost money. "Who's going to pay for it?" asked sports shop owner Peter Bateman.

Terry Morgan, chairman of the LSP's creating wealth syndicate, said the district should be able to tap into funding so long as plans had the backing of business and the community.

"The energy is there to see this thing through for five years or more," he said. "We just need everybody to show their support."

The pink cow, the current brandmark for the work-in-progress, barely got a mention in the presentation.

"A calf has been conceived but it's not exactly born yet," said Mr Morgan. "We don't know if it's going to be pink or even if it will be a cow.

"If Stroud doesn't get its act together we're going to find funds allocated to Gloucestershire going to other parts of the county.

"Every individual in the district can contribute in one way or another by dipping in their pocket, giving time or simply buying into the philosophy of raising the profile of this district and really putting it on the map."