What if we marketed our rural community like Starbucks?

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Daryl Phillips, CEcD

What if Starbucks marketed like a Rural Community? This was a post on reimaginerural.com that I read a while back that came mind as we were made to feel welcome at a church we visited last Sunday. However, do you think this is common? I’m not sure it is as common as we intend it to be in rural communities for us to really make people (tourists, customers, visitors, new residents, retirees, etc.) feel welcome. Sometimes our neighbors just don’t want to let outsiders in, but most times we forget to remember the new person’s perspective and fail to communicate our hospitality.

About Daryl Phillips, CEcD

I am a professional economic developer. I presently work for communities and companies in developing and implementing workforce and economic development solutions as CEO of Phillips Economic Development Solutions (Phi EDS). Prior to September 2017, I was the economic development professional who served a community team of elected officials, business people, community leaders and dedicated stakeholders for economic development in Cheatham County, Tennessee (pop. 39,880) and its four towns. During my five-year tenure, I served the team as Cheatham County grew over 1,700 jobs, turned around population declines at the start of this decade into healthy population growth, increased tourism expenditures 20.3% and local tax revenue from tourism 25.4%, grew sales tax revenue 36%, focused on developing the local workforce and was recognized by SmartAsset as having the 9th highest Incoming Investment Index of all the 95 counties in Tennessee. I am a member of International Economic Development Council, Southern Economic Development Council, Tennessee Economic Development Council and International Council of Shopping Centers. I have earned the designation of Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) from International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) certification from National Development Council and hold a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.
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