[Durham INC] Don't Blame Billboards on Small Business (Bull City Mutterings)

[John Schelp]

Don't Blame Billboards on Small Business

Bull City Mutterings, by Reyn (3/22/12)

Small businesses hate advertising 
but the outdoor billboard industry and its allies still “strap them to 
the bumper” as rationale to fend off the 8 out of every 10 residents who oppose the cutting of more trees to make them seen from even greater 
distances.

A scientific survey of small businesses reveals that less than 3% use off premise signs such as outdoor 
roadside billboards extensively compared to 86.4% that never use them, a ratio of 29 to 1.

This was 
lost on the authors of a letter the Durham Chamber of Commerce penned a 
few weeks ago, but apparently misdated 2010, to NCDOT in support of 
temporary rules that will permit outdoor billboard companies to 
circumvent local restrictions and the wishes of residents if they clear 
cut scores of public forest areas here as planned.

To be generous, the Chamber isn’t the only misguided organization as scores of others including many legislators become aware that a bill granting the clear cutting did not include the provisions 
promised to protect local values and restrictions or any requirement for replanting or even payment for destruction of public property.

Hopefully the Chamber letter is under reconsideration even as it is being waved 
around by outdoor billboard companies and allies inside NCDOT to dilute 
the bans that Durham and other communities place on billboards and 
override the greater value that these communities and residents 
statewide place on trees.

But 
it is interesting how an organization that even receives some public 
funding comes to proactively give support to policies in direct 
contradiction to the overwhelming majority of its stakeholders… in fact, even directly contradicting the sustainability policies of its largest 
contributors, including Duke University which is committed to the goal 
of tree protection and being a “responsible environmental citizen in the life of the surrounding community.”

No conspiracy is required. Without sufficient context or institutional 
memory or consultation to balance the pushiness of one or two 
individuals fronting for special interests, inertia alone is enough to 
freeze others who would otherwise object and once “the wagons are 
circled” any organization can become its own hostage.

Just ask members of the state General Assembly.

Before one reads too much into the Chamber’s letter, keep in mind that 
chambers are intensely political organizations.  Give or take, they may 
actually represent fewer than 1 out of every 6 businesses in any given 
community but their positions can be infiltrated and subtly contaminated by just one or two savvy individuals or special interests.

Remember, by definition all politics is personal, not logical.  Often the smaller the organization, the more personal it becomes.  I know from serving on the boards and/or volunteering for chambers in several communities over 26 of the last 40 years.

Typically chambers have little involvement in marketing, another thing that 
confuses many small businesses, because with few exceptions that isn’t 
really a part of a chamber’s mission. That mission falls to dedicated 
official community-destination marketing organizations (DMOs.)

If Durham’s Chamber had taken the lead of the community’s destination marketing organization with which it works closely on so many things, it would have grasped 
that billboards already have plenty of clearance through selective 
cutting.  The chamber would have also learned that trees are of far more value to economic development including a good business climate.

The chamber would have also learned that there are far better and less 
expensive alternatives to outdoor billboards when out-of-home 
advertising is needed and the alternatives don’t sacrifice the 
community’s scenic character.

So, if not small, independent businesses, who are the few remaining 
advertisers keeping outdoor billboards on life support?  As of 2010 
reports they aren’t even based in Durham or North Carolina or probably 
even members of a local chamber.  Think Verizon, AT&T, GEICO, Chase 
Bank, McDonalds and Anheuser-Busch to name a handful.

Do we really owe them our trees, one of North Carolina’s signature assets?  No and Hell No!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20120322/c551b185/attachment.html>