Source: Berdyansk City Council
Today, on January 16, the fourth session of the task team took place. Opening the session, Yulia Doinova, Deputy Mayor, noted the efficient joint work that was going on over the shaping of Berdyansk’s positive image and building the brand of the city.
PLEDDG consultants, Larysa Olenkovska and Valentyna Zatyshniak, presented the structure of a draft Marketing Strategy and city positioning, which had been well-elaborated based on the proposals of the previous sessions, to the task team members.
Addressing the attendees, Larysa Olenkovska made a point that:
– We’ve agreed that Berdyansk is to be positioned not only as a resort but also as a broad-spectrum activity city advantageous year-round. Berdyansk is especially attractive in summer time, however, we’ve made an effort to think over making it a business-friendly and dynamic city all year round, as it has much more than just the sea-and-beach amenities.
As the Project’s consultants noted, there had been conducted a SWOT-analysis, studied available information resources, city’s competitors, and it was the high time for the major task, – to clearly understand why Berdiansk was the place where one should go to, what exactly the city offered, and what was the extent of every citizen’s involvement in shaping such perceptions. Although the city’s face was being created by joint efforts of the citizens, business sector, and local authorities, however, that was not the local authorities’ task only. Every citizen should realize how s/he personally might influence on its development, well-being, and hospitality.
To this end, a Draft Hospitality Code of Berdyansk was suggested: a collection of simple and clear rules which observance would enable every Berdyansk resident, through self-improvement, to beautify the city even more and enhance positive image of Berdiank as a place always ready to welcome guests.
In general, in the course of the discussion, there were proposed strategic aims, their tasks, instruments for communication, and key messages. Namely:
Strategic aim P.1. – Berdyansk as a hospitable and friendly city;
Strategic aim P.2. – Berdyansk as a business-friendly and dynamic city;
Strategic aim P.3. – Berdyansk as a city full of life, beauty, and health.
There was made a point at the importance of shaping positive environment for the city, existence of civic awareness, creation of standards for high quality services provision, eco-safety, conducting various themed events, etc.
Finally, it was decided that every task team member would receive the elaborated draft of an area of the Marketing strategy, study it in details, and come up with proposals and supplements, if required. The consultants would analyze all the ideas, followed up with a session, during the month.