320-763-3161
ALEXANDRIA LAKES AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | ALEXANDRIA, MN
  • Chamber
    • About Us
    • Chamber Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Committees >
      • Alexandria Area Young Professionals
      • Chamber Ambassadors
      • Finance Committee
      • Personnel Committee
      • Government Affairs
      • Grow Minnesota
      • Membership Team
    • Newsletter
    • Visitor & Resource Center
    • Do Business Local >
      • Chamber Bucks
      • Pride of the Lakes
    • #CommitToKindness
  • Visit Here
    • Lodging
    • Food & Drink
    • Fishing
    • Things to Do
    • Shopping
    • Find Us
  • Live Here
    • Relocate
    • Jobs
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Economic Development
    • Government
    • Senior Services
    • History
  • Events
    • Chamber Events/Programs
    • Community Calendar
  • Members
    • Member Directory
    • Member Benefits
    • Join Us!
    • Member Login
  • In the Know
    • Blog
    • Email Sign Up
  • Resources
    • Community Resources
    • Event Resources
  • Chamber
    • About Us
    • Chamber Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Committees >
      • Alexandria Area Young Professionals
      • Chamber Ambassadors
      • Finance Committee
      • Personnel Committee
      • Government Affairs
      • Grow Minnesota
      • Membership Team
    • Newsletter
    • Visitor & Resource Center
    • Do Business Local >
      • Chamber Bucks
      • Pride of the Lakes
    • #CommitToKindness
  • Visit Here
    • Lodging
    • Food & Drink
    • Fishing
    • Things to Do
    • Shopping
    • Find Us
  • Live Here
    • Relocate
    • Jobs
    • Education
    • Health Care
    • Economic Development
    • Government
    • Senior Services
    • History
  • Events
    • Chamber Events/Programs
    • Community Calendar
  • Members
    • Member Directory
    • Member Benefits
    • Join Us!
    • Member Login
  • In the Know
    • Blog
    • Email Sign Up
  • Resources
    • Community Resources
    • Event Resources

What this ‘do business local campaign’ will NOT tell you

5/28/2019

0 Comments

 
​By Tara Bitzan, Executive Director, Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce
There is a new campaign under way to educate local residents and businesses about the importance of doing business locally. While this campaign WILL tell you to support local businesses, it WILL NOT tell you to stop shopping online. That’s because we know that isn’t a realistic request.

No one can argue that online shopping has changed the business world tremendously, and in many instances, has caused the demise of some brick and mortar stores. While that is concerning, studies and trends prove that if something is fast, easy, and convenient consumers will use it anyway. So we won’t tell you not to.

What this new campaign WILL tell you is that there are simple things you can do to make a difference in your community.

Pride of the Lakes started with a meeting of some members of the Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Alexandria Downtown Merchants Association who were concerned about the closing of some major retailers in the Alexandria community.

After numerous conversations and hours spent researching what other communities were doing to deal with this issue, we realized that successful communities have community pride at their core. When people are proud of the community in which they live, work and play, they want it to thrive, and they are willing to do their part to support it.

So instead of creating a Shop Local campaign, we created more of a community branding campaign meant to boost the pride we have for our area, and to simply educate people on things they can do to make our community even greater.

We then called in some of the top marketing minds from businesses and organizations throughout Douglas County for a brainstorming session, and from that stemmed the campaign name, “Pride of the Lakes.” We turned that over to students in the marketing class at Alexandria Area High School, who took on the project and created a campaign that included a website, window clings, social media marketing, and newspaper, radio marketing and movie theater marketing. That campaign launched in mid-May.

A couple other key points:
  • This is not a “Shop Local” initiative, but rather a “Do Business Local” initiative. Often these campaigns focus on retail shopping. Every business is important to our community, and we want people to realize the importance of supporting service businesses as well, such as banks, insurance agents, auto repair shops, health and wellness businesses, cosmetologists and everything in between. If you are driving hours away to another community for any of those needs, or if you are doing them online with a business out of our community, please consider making a change, and do your business locally!
  • This is not an “Alexandria” initiative, but rather a “Douglas County” initiative. Alexandria is the county seat, and is the most populous community in the county. But Alexandria simply wouldn’t be what it is without the residents and businesses throughout all of Douglas County. It’s important that the entire county thrives. So whether you have a business in Miltona, Kensington, Millerville, Forada, or anywhere else within the county, we want to see local residents and businesses supporting you, and we want you to thrive.

​We need EVERYONE to commit to supporting Douglas County, MN – residents young and old, owners of businesses large or small, employees, students, nonprofits, service organizations, and everyone who lives, works, and plays here. We need YOU to make sure our community continues to thrive. Visit www.prideofthelakes.com and pledge to do your part today!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018

    Categories

    All
    Blog Post
    Spotlight Videos
    Testimonial

    RSS Feed

Copyright Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.  All Rights Reserved.
206 Broadway St.  Alexandria, MN 56308
320-763-3161 
info@alexandriamn.org

refund & privacy policy
Accessibility
Picture
Pride of the Lakes Logo
Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce BBB Business Review