Question

Topic: Strategy

Arguments For Extra Communication Budget City Hall

Posted by Anonymous on 12/14/2004 at 9:17 AM ET 500 Points
Hi there!


I need your help with the following.
We are trying to convince city-halls (local communities & governments) to spend more money on communication.
We are certain that it will help improve their awkward image and lower their complaint rate and hence costs.

However, as always, we are asked to deliver proof, cases etc..

Please help us deliver the goods - cases or other examples or experienced in this field are more than welcome !

Thanks for your help

Jacco

P.S. Sorry for I haven't been around much lately on the forum - it's been extremely busy (which is a good thing ofcourse :O))

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 12/14/2004 at 1:01 PM Member
    Everything comes down to cost-benefit. You need to show that the benefit from the added communications exceeds the costs of the communications.

    Lowering their complaint rates should be somewhat quantifiable - this would reduce the work load on the people who have to respond to complaints. Doing things that the people want so that there are less complaints would be less quantifiable, but something they would agree would be good.

    Overall, I suspect this will be a large challenge.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 12/15/2004 at 2:39 AM Accepted
    Jacco, this may not be relevant, but...

    In my office we were discussing the shortcomings of Houston's previous mayor, Lee Brown. Someone observed that he stayed hidden from the press during his term of office and had no ongoing PR efforts to talk about any of the initiatives going on in the city, particularly regarding the infrastructure improvements necessary after the devastation of Tropical Storm Allison.

    That silence killed his popularity. The press (naturally) focused on the bad or nonproductive municipal actions.

    If you have a mayor or city council members who are interested in being re-elected, you might be able to play that card to get a better Communications budget!

    - Shelley
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 12/15/2004 at 5:08 AM Member
    The best way I have had at generating additional marketing budget is to clearly show a comms plan with all the elements that you must do (backed by benefits of course). This shows whoever with the purse strings that if they fail on funding what project MUST be axed.

    Good Luck
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 12/15/2004 at 5:12 AM Member
    In addition:

    I'm sure you have done your research as to what the local communities want to see and how marketing can help (printing information etc).
    You have to remember that they will be balancing the marketing budget against housing, benefits, street cleaning etc ... its a tough battle against these other items that communities need to see.
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