Members Blog. This is the place where members of DMBA share information. Non-members are welcome to read. Our Dot Com site will be open soon.
DMBA
is not affiliated with or a part of any other organization. We are an independent group of business owners who have come together to make a difference in our businesses and in our community.
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Monday, October 28, 2013

Ladies Day Out - Sunday, November 10th - From 1:00 to 4:00 PM

Diane Kerr, Jerone Jewelers and myself, Chateau Christine are planning a Ladies Day Out on Sunday, November 10th from 1-4pm.

The purpose of Ladies Day Out is to get a jump on holiday shopping/gift buying, wish list collections and just a day for the divas.  If you are interested in hosting a ladies event that same day at your store, please let us know!  It would be fun if we could get a few stores involved to make it a nice day of shopping on a day when we are typically closed.

Each of us are responsible to promote your own event, but I can design up a flyer if you want with all the participating merchants involved to help promote each other.

Let me know by Wednesday or Thursday this week if you are interested and I will have a flyer made and delivered by this Saturday.

Christine Yamrick
Chateau Christine
christine.yamrick@gmail.com
814-807-1415
309 Chestnut St.
Meadville, Pa 16335

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

10-17-13 Meeting Minutes

We had another great meeting! I will get to the minutes later but for right now I want to talk about the advertising that was presented to us.

First the Froggy / WUZZ ad proposal.

There are 2 aspects to this. The first is the Froggy ads. Businesses would be set up in groups of 3. The ad would start out with a blurb about Shopping Downtown. Experience Christmas in Downtown Meadville. Then the Three 15 second ads. Then a closing blurb. The ads would run for 2 months, starting November 1st. The cost to each business would be $275.00. If we could get enough sets of 3 businesses then the Downtown would be advertised with every set of ads. We have to act on this very quickly. The ads would start running on November 1st. This is for 15 spots.

The second part of this package is called "Jingle Bell Rock"

Somewhere in Meadville, WUZZ would hide a rock with their logo on it. Each day they would give clues. If the customer misses a clue, he or she has to come to come into one of or stores to get that clue. The other part of this is that each business that advertises with Froggy would get their web link or FaceBook page on the WUZZ web page. The only cost for this part of the ad is a $25.00 gift certificate for each month that it runs.



The Meadville Tribune ad proposal.
This is a block of ads with 3 different price structures.
The first is a typed ad $25.00 a week

Giggles Toy Shop
Unique Games & Toys for Kids
100 Union Ave • Northcrest
000-000-0000

The second is a 2 column by 3 inch ad

Standard ad type.
Black and White would run $49.00 a week.
Full Color would run $55.00 a week.

The more people we have buying ads the bigger our presents is in the paper.
We would have it run on Thursdays. The same day as Bravo.

Again, we have to act fast.

So please make a decision if you want to be a part of either one of these promotions and get right back to me!

Thanks

Viki Allin
Creative Crust Bakery
PS This would be a great time to ask your business neighbor to be a part of the Downtown Meadville Business Alliance

Friday, October 11, 2013

Meeting Schedule

Below are the dates of the Main Meetings. Sub-Committees will be working on their own schedule and reporting back at the main meeting.

November
Main Meeting - Tuesday 12th

December
Main Meeting - Tuesday 10th

January
Main Meeting - Second Tuesday


Wednesday, October 2, 2013

09-26-13 Meeting Minutes

09-26-13 Meeting Minutes (Dubbed, the Think Tank)

Attendance:
Heather Reichel / Off Color Gallery
Tim Kirk / Meadville Fine Art
Mary Kirk / Meadville Fine Art
Bill Grasinger / Hovis Interiors
Nancy Asmus / Nancy’s Under The Steps
Jennifer Murphy / Tattered Corners
Viki Allin / Creative Crust

We reviewed the information we received from the Crawford Count Convention and Visitors Bureau. We will propose to the members that we join the CCCVB but not advertise in their directory at this time. It is expensive and we do not have a clear identity yet.

We will create our own identity instead of handing it over to the CCCVB and all the services that we can 'buy' through our members, we will buy from our members. Services that we ask the CCCVB to provide will be purchased through them. Brochures that they would put on the interstate etc…

There was a great discussion about 'Branding' Meadville. How do you sell it? How do you bring more businesses into the Downtown?

'Tool City' was a brand. This brand does not bring shoppers into the Downtown.

What is Meadville none for? Allegheny College, Zippers, Channel Lock and Dad's Dog Food. Meadville Medical. None of which bring shoppers into the Downtown.

Most of the retail in the Downtown is comprised of Arts & Crafts. There are 8 art galleries, 3 theaters (this includes Park Ave. Cinema), 3 specialty bakeries, 1 micro brewery and another on it's way, 3 florists, 3 frame shops, 3 print services of different types, 3 dance studios, 4 places to work out. And DMBA must market these businesses as a whole. The Think Tank came up with "Experience The Arts".

The spin-offs are endless. "Experience The History", "Experience The Taste", "Experience Second Saturday", "Experience Meadville".

This lead to experiencemeadville.com

This leads us to the next topic of discussion. The Dot Com directory site. We threw out all different kinds of names:

ourmeadville.com
whatsinmeadville.com
makeitmeadville.com
celebratemeadville.com
thinkmeadville.com
mymeadville.com
experiencemeadville.com

Everyone at the meeting chose experiencemeadville.com
Of the members so far, there are a total of 16 yeas 2 nays and about 15 who haven't given an opinion.

The last thing that came out of the meeting was the discussion of subcommittees. These are small groups of people, focused on one topic.

At this time we are forming 3 subcommittees:
Advertising
Networking
The Think Tank

It was a great meeting and everyone really liked using the Council Chambers at the City Building.







--
Downtown Meadville Business Alliance
'Strength In Numbers'
http://dmba16335.blogspot.com