5/29/97 Contact: Marsha Lewis, ILGARD Public Management and Policy Specialist, 614/ 593-1435

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University students in the College of Business have completed a marketing plan to help Wellston and Jackson County offset the impact of a recent plant closing by attracting new companies to the region.

The plan recommends marketing the area's quality workforce, its strategic location and accessibility to transportation, its affordability and the overwhelming community support for new enterprise.

When Kuppenheimer Men's Clothiers closed its plant last fall, laying off 150 workers, a team of city and Jackson County officials, led by State Rep. John Carey and Jackson County Economic Development Director Sherrie Lanier, contacted Ohio University's Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) for assistance in developing a plan to promote the area's available industrial space.

ILGARD referred officials to Associate Professor of Marketing Daniel Innis, who assigned six senior undergraduate students to the project. They met with officials earlier this year and then researched what promotional efforts other areas of the country use to attract business and what criteria companies look for when relocating.

"They tried to understand what is important to companies when they select a site, what other cities and states are doing to attract development and how Wellston fits into that," Innis said.

The marketing plan included potential uses for Wellston's available industrial sites and ways to promote the community, including trade journals, site-selection magazines and publishing a brochure touting the area's attributes.

"This project is part of the city and county's proactive efforts to attract employers offering good-wage jobs to the area," said Lanier.

The Jackson County Development Board committee will obtain a list of companies potentially suitable for the industrial sites and approach them about coming to the area. Suggestions for possible companies included telemarketing or packaging, among others.

ILGARD will help Wellston and the county meet their marketing goals and also will work with the city to develop a World Wide Web site on the Internet, according to ILGARD Project Coordinator Marsha Lewis.

"We get a lot from the region and we should give a lot back," Lewis said.

This collaborative model of university-community participation typifies ILGARD's approach to community problem solving, Lewis said.

ILGARD recently completed a comprehensive development plan for Jackson County.