Lakewood City Council Eyes New Marketing Strategy

Lakewood City Council is considering a measure that would spend as much as $10,000 from the city’s 2012 economic development fund to pay for a new marketing strategy.

“For many residents, Lakewood is a community that is known to have many unique and attractive qualities that led us to choose this city as our home,” said at-large councilwoman Monique Smith in a letter penned to council.

“Still, too often it seems as though these qualities remain unknown to many outside of our community. It’s time to do more to get the word out about what makes Lakewood great, and, in the process, support our local businesses, schools and housing market.”

Smith pointed to the successful marketing campaigns in places like Mentor and Shaker Heights — as well as Gordon Square and Kamm's Corners — as examples.

In the letter, she requests that council use some of the remaining economic development funds — between $7,000 and $10,000 — to pay for “outside professional marketing support.

The initiatives would pay for “an identity that fully reflects all of its best qualities.” Smith said she’d like to solicit the help of community and business leaders to identify those strengths.

Ward 2 councilman Tom Bullock said he’d support the proposal, which was referred to council’s economic development committee.

“Great minds think alike,” he said. “I think a great point here is that we can’t afford to assume that our audiences know everything we’d like them to know about Lakewood.”

Dru Siley, the city’s director of planning and development, said that the city already has a marketing strategy but he’d be interested in seeing the “avenues we haven’t explored yet."