Our friend Jack Schultz found the best ever “shop local” campaign. (From Oklahoma, of course!)
An advertisement from the Perkins Community Foundation really caught my eye in the Perkins Journal. It showed a picture of the local fire department fighting a fire in the community with this caption,
“If you have a fire, you need help and you need it quickly. Every time you shop in Perkins three cents of every dollar goes to keep our city government running—including our Fire Department. When you spend your dollars elsewhere, your money goes to equip somebody else’s Fire Department. Be smart. Shop Perkins first. It helps you and it helps your neighbors.”
It is one of the best explanations of why it is important to shop locally. You might use it yourself.
(Emphasis added by me.)
You could easily make this a series of great ads. Look through all the projects funded by your local sales tax for important examples like police, fire, ambulance, pools, parks, and libraries.
If you do create an ad from this, we’d love to see it! Email becky at small biz survival dot com.
UPDATE:
For a lot more ideas for you shop local campaign, I’ve put together a 50 page ebook: Shop Local Campaigns for Small Towns.
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Here in Escondido (in North San Diego County), the city partnered with the chamber of commerce to create “Spend It! In Escondido” which has a similar message that dollars spent locally translate to community services. The Web site is http://www.spenditinescondido.org .
Michelle, that is a great example! The Spend It! In Escondido website is an excellent resource not only for your local community, but also for other communities considering similar programs. Thank you for sharing!