Politics & Government
Novato to Launch 'Buy Local' Campaign Blitz
City contracted with Novato-based marketing firm in support of local businesses. The campaign starts at next month's Art, Wine and Music Festival.
If you're even thinking of leaving Novato's city limits to shop anytime soon, consider yourself warned: You're about to be the target of a city-sponsored marketing campaign aiming at getting you to spend your dollars locally.
The city will launch its "Buy Local" campaign at next month's Novato Festival of Art, Wine and Music. The city will set up a festival booth promoting the Buy Local campaign, councilmember Jeanne MacLeamy said.
The city has contracted with Kiosk Creative, a Novato-based marketing firm, to launch the campaign, Novato Chamber of Commerce CEO Coy Smith said.
"The whole idea is to make people aware of how important spending your dollars in your local community is to our revenues," MacLeamy said.
That importance was underscored by the result of a city commissioned-study released earlier this month that shows the city is hemorrhaging $169.5 million annually in "retail leakage" - or the dollars Novato residents spend on goods and services outside the city limits versus what they take in from outsiders.
The campaign is unprecedented for Novato, which is hoping it will help bring in badly-needed sales-tax revenues and help local businesses.
"We've never done it before, but it's not unusual for cities to do so and get the campaign started and then turn it over to the local business community to continue," MacLeamy said.
"This is all part of our acknowledgement that we need to improve our finances and this is one small way to do that is through our retail sales dollars."
It is also an acknowledgement that many Novato residents are spending countless hours in freeway traffic for goods and services are right under their noses, according to the study.
"Some of them said we needed a bakery, and some of them said we need salons and barber shops; we have four or five bakeries and the same number of salons," MacLeamy said.
The study indicated that many Novato residents were unaware of existing downtown businesses.
"What this campaign will do is make people aware of how valuable spending their retail dollars in town locally is to our local economy," MacLeamy said.
"We'd like them to know what shops we have here, but we also fully understand if we don't have what they need they have to go out of town. That's part of the leakage."
Smith lauded the campaign, noting that his group had prodded the city to study retail leakage for years.
"It's very important for local businesses," he said. "(Retail) sales are key to their survival."
