Main Spotlight: The Art of Market Analysis (Part Three)

I have a really good friend that is likely one of the best ​“ideators” I know. He is very skilled at coming up with terrific ideas to solve a problem. Ideators are powerful assets for Main Street efforts — they often think outside of the box and come up with innovative solutions. But ultimately, the success of any great idea is dependent on the ability to execute it.

Earlier in this series, we explored the art behind market analysis and examples of how you can interpret your data. In part three of this series, we will revisit the case study from Altavista, Virginia, to explore seven steps that you can use to take your brilliant market-based strategy(s) from ideation to implementation through the development of a work plan that is guided by your selected transformation strategy(s).

Step 1: Alignment of Your Transformation Strategy(s)

As an organization, it is imperative that the board of directors, staff, committed volunteers, and community members and other stakeholders have alignment around the selected strategy that will be guiding your annual work. It is important to review your recommendations by listing out the pros and cons and ensuring that everyone fully understands the transformation strategy.

For Altavista, there were three recommended strategies for the organization to consider:

• Local consumer supporting retail and services (downtown node #1)
• Family sports recreation (downtown node #2)
• Funky/​quirky entrepreneurial ecosystem

The specific name you use for your transformation strategies is really your call. You can start with a more macro consumer and/​or business niche strategy, but given the uniqueness of most districts, it’s important to envision and communicate a strategy that articulates what makes you distinct within the marketplace and serves as a foundation for that district brand. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each strategy.

Local Consumer Supporting Retail and Services

Pros:

• It focuses on a downtown that supports the needs of local consumers.
• It is convenience-driven.
• It promotes a diversity of downtown uses and functions (professional services, retail, restaurants, entertainment, civic).
• A housing element in and around downtown could be added to further support node #2.

Cons:

• The trade area is small and not really growing.
• It does not serve any other market groups outside of Altavista.
• It is subject to pressures of eCommerce as logistics and shipping become more convenient.

Family Sports Recreation

Pros:

• Altavista has heavily invested in assets in this area that draw locally and regionally.
• There is still more growth opportunity, which not a lot of other communities have leveraged.
• It provides some unique, niche-oriented opportunities.

Cons:

• The downtown is still somewhat disconnected from the key asset drivers.
• There is currently not a lot of concentrated retail serving this market, so this strategy would require some build-up.

Funky/​Quirky Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Pros:

• This can be viewed as a focused strategy with no target market overlay, or as a key activity driving a particular strategy.
• It is aligned with trend lines and allows for natural market evolution when there is currently not a lot of clarity in the market.
• Affordability and access to nearby towns and coworking/​entrepreneurial spaces create opportunities for young talent to launch.

Cons:

• It does not create a market identity/​brand.
• It is hard to know what to incentivize within the market — subject to the ideas of your entrepreneurs.
• Given that many micro-ventures are starting online, infrastructure becomes paramount. 

During this dialogue with your board and stakeholders, review each strategy through the following lens: Do these make sense? Is there anything that’s happened in the previous year that might alter the thinking on any of these? Is there one that jumps out as a priority? Do you see a need to adjust or add an element to one of them?

You can arrive at your final decision using general consensus, a sticky-dot vote system, a blind vote, or other methods of achieving a shared understanding. As a Main Street program (and depending on capacity), you may also want to consider the strategy which you have already engaged in through some of your annual activities. You could also consider a second strategy that would act as more of a stretch goal, where you are using your annual work plan to start to ​“plant the seeds” for the strategy. 

Step 2: Examine Your Current Programming for Alignment

Before jumping into all the exciting new activities you could undertake with your strategies, it’s critical to understand how what you are doing now is already supporting this strategy. As such, you’ll want to take a complete inventory of your organization’s work. You can structure this review with the following questions:

• What programs and activities currently support the strategy(s)?
• What programs and activities could be pivoted or adjusted to better align and support the strategy(s)?
• What programs and activities are totally off-strategy, and should consider stopping them? (Note: In doing so, it’s a lot like ​“closet cleaning.” In order to create room for new items, sometimes you have to throw some things out.)

Step 3: Examine District Programming Coordinated by Other Partner Entities

A great way to add capacity to your organization is through mission alignment with other partner and stakeholder organizations. Conduct a full inventory of all the programs and activities in support of your Main Street mission by addressing the following:

• What are the programs and activities conducted by other organizations that are currently occurring within your district?
• Of those programs and activities, which ones are aligned with your strategy(s) and thus don’t need to be duplicated by new activities?
• Given your new strategy(s), are there organizations, groups, municipal departments, etc., that are missing from your list that should be engaged to support given their mission?

In the case of Altavista, they found that groups like the YMCA would be important for their family sports and recreation strategy, and the Small Business Development Center and Service Corp of Retired Executives would be critical in support of their entrepreneurial ecosystem work.

Step 4: New Work Plan Focus Areas 

In this step, we are simply seeking to understand what are the general focus areas within the Four Points that will help us to achieve our strategy(s). Look at broad areas of focus, not activities. For example, under Organization, you can focus on volunteer development or resource development; under Economic Vitality, it may be a focus on business recruitment or real estate development. This will help you determine where to focus your activities and tweak as necessary to your strategy.

These may be foundational in nature and/​or highly strategic. For example, volunteer development may be a focus area, which is highly foundational, but can also be strategic if there are certain skill sets or positions that you are targeting in pursuit of your strategy(s).

You can also prioritize your focus areas based on your market analysis findings. For example, if connectivity is one of the noted areas of challenges, consider Design focus areas such as wayfinding, streetscape improvements, infrastructure upgrades, etc.

Finally, be mindful of capacity. After analyzing your own activities and those of your partners, look at a few focus areas that represent real challenges and/​or barriers to your strategy. You need to work within your capacity and resources, so use this step to create some framing to ensure the next step doesn’t lead to more than you can handle. Be strategic, not only in achieving your goals, but in a manner that respects your capacity and resources to do so.

Step 5: New Work Plan Activities Within Focus Areas

This is the stage where you can begin to think about new activities to take on in pursuit of your selected strategy(s). You’ll want to gather your staff, board, and other important stakeholders to gather ideas. To ensure that everyone has a chance to voice their thoughts, we encourage you and/​or a facilitator to allow participants 5 – 10 minutes to jot down some of their ideas and then place those activities into a shared brainstorming space, such as a presentation slide for virtual gatherings or flip chart for in-person meetings.

Next, have a discussion around those ideas. Allow participants to ask questions and make comments. At this point, you will likely still have far too many activities given all the legacy activities you still have on your work plan. As such, you will need to prioritize activities using input from the group. One strategy that tends to work is a sticky dot voting method where each participant receives 3 – 4 dot stickers and demonstrates their preferences by placing their stickers on proposed activities. Once you have consensus, you can develop next steps to advance your chosen priorities.

Step 6: Organize a Work Plan Dashboard for Communication and Advocacy

The work plan dashboard acts as both an internal and external communication tool to keep people focused, looped in, and on-task. Internally, your organization can use the dashboard in board meetings and/​or committee meetings to discuss progress, set-backs, etc. Externally, it’s a great way to easily show funders, public officials, volunteers, and others a holistic and collective view of the work happening within your district. You can create your own work plan dashboard using this template.

Step 7: Take Each New Activity and Create a Tactical Work Plan

The last step in the implementation process is to map out how all of your activities/​projects will get completed. While the work plan dashboard is a communication and marketing tool, your staff and committees/​tasks forces/​ad hoc groups, etc., will need to other ways to formulate tactics, timelines, and budgets, and identify leads. These critical details matter in ensuring the implementation of your strategy(s). Once you have this work plan in place, you can begin implementing your strategy. You can create your own tactical work plan using this template.

Market analysis is a powerful tool to help you select and implement data-driven transformation strategies for your Main Street. By bringing together market information, local context, and careful planning, you can identify your unique market position and create a work plan to guide your downtown or neighborhood commercial district transformation. 

Redevelopment Resources, a Main Street America Allied Member, is this quarter’s Main Spotlight advertiser. For more information about the services they provide to Main Street organizations, click here >