Well then, how does one go about making people rediscover and re-acknowledge their home towns? In setting up a gambit, an activation device to induce the rediscovery and re-acknowledgement of their home towns, there must be a target set up, one that can be seen and confirmed by each and every resident. You have to stand in their shoes to do this.
The next challenge is to involve everybody from all walks of life, including the opposing camp, into this single gambit. Every conceivable kind of person must be approached and attempts made to win them over.
Meanwhile, there is a need to secure a message-transmitting medium to transmit a message from the community. And of course there needs to be a network created to solidify resident organization both vertically and laterally. In the simplest terms, that activation device can be likened to an "outdoor fire on a chilly day." An outdoor fire is warm; people gather around it and a circle forms.
I feel that making this kind of thing into an event is what eventually broadens into community development.
I think the major concern you are grappling with, including the repeat customer issue, is how to connect people with people. The process for connecting I've already outlined, but the best way, and the most basic way, to get repeat business is through word of mouth. If someone you trust says to you, "I'm glad I went there," that's surer than any ad copy or PR. So the task of PR and advertising people is to figure out how to stimulate word-of-mouth, and how to transmit it far and wide . I think that this mind-set might be one of the ways to encourage repeat customers.
Thank you for your participation and enthusiasm.
