In past blogs I have written about the differences and importance of Marketing, Advertising and Branding to the City of Norwich, CT. I identified Marketing to be the management process of moving goods and services from concept including product identification, and distribution channels using promotional and development strategies to reach the customer.
Advertising was identified as the act of calling public attention to a product, service or need through paid announcements in the media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet, billboard or convention.

Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

Today I am adding Promotion, Sponsorship and Empowerment to the mix.
Promotion is an activity that supports or provides encouragement to further a cause, venture or goal. For example, “disease prevention and health promotion.” You want to stop disease and you want more people to enjoy good health.

Sponsorship is supporting an activity, event, individual or organization financially or by providing goods or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support.

My personal favorite is the empowerment portion. Empowerment is giving individuals or groups the authority or power to do something. Empowerment is a process that encourages others to become stronger and more confident.
In business and government empowerment is encouraging others to make decisions that will benefit others.

It is not necessary for a single individual, group, business or government to do all of these things. But for a successful community to grow there must be all of these things as well as collaboration, cooperation and communication. Not more definitions you say! Sorry but on the up side these are the last definitions per say. Collaboration is the action of working with another to produce or create something. Cooperation is the process of working or acting together for common benefit. Communication is the exchanging of information between parties. Communicating is making and maintaining the connection between the parties.

Now can we please work on our communication skills to empower our residents, businesses and leaders to collaborate, sponsor and promote their goods and services so the City of Norwich, CT can build a marketable brand of collaborative fiscal responsibility and residential empowerment for the good of us all?

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog freely with your family or friends or anyone you think might be interested or in a position to take on some of the suggested projects. Don’t hesitate to contact me for further information. I am happy to pass along anything I can. Together we can make a difference. Email comments on this blog to berylfishbone@yahoo.com