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February 23, 2010

Main Street Marketing Plan

Main Street marketing plan puts emphasis on signage, parking and vacant lots

Download the Downtown Corbin Market Study final draft


By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

The results of a $10,000 market study of downtown Corbin will be released next week. One of the biggest findings? We need more signs.

The 45-page report, completed by Economic Development Visions of Washington, DC, discusses downtown Corbin’s strengths, weaknesses and potential projects.

But among the most basic of issues, determined by the study’s creator Chuck D’Aprix, was a lack of “wayfinding” signs — not just in downtown but throughout the city. According to the study, of 58 out-of-town customers surveyed at Corbin exit gas stations, 90 percent did not know where downtown Corbin was or what it had to offer.

“Wayfinding and signage are probably the two keys relative to Corbin’s downtown revitalization at this point,” D’Aprix said. Corbin’s location between (but not visible) from two interstate exits and away from its main attractions (the Arena, Cumberland Falls and Sander’s Cafe) makes signage “job number one” for downtown, he said.

“People need to find their way from the exposition center, from the Sanders Cafe, to downtown,” he said. “And even from the ‘big box village’ on the outskirts of Corbin, the Walmart and so-forth, people need to be directed downtown.”

D’Aprix came for two site visits in 2009 and hired a market research group out of Knoxville for parts of the study. He will present his findings during a Kentucky State Main Street Managers meeting in Corbin next Tuesday, and will repeat his PowerPoint presentation for the community at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, at city hall.

Main Street Manager Sharae Myers said she’s already met with Tourism Chairwoman Suzie Razmus about possible signage master plans. She said she’s also applied for a grant through the Kentucky Heritage Council that would provide new street signs for downtown.

But downtown’s issues don’t just stem from visitors passing it by. The study also reported that 98 percent of individuals who live within five miles of downtown do not shop downtown regularly (at least once a week), though the study does not cite a specific sampling size.

It also found that diners surveyed at the Applebee’s Restaurant near I-75 Exit 25 said limited parking was a reason not to eat or do other business downtown.

“There is a perception that parking is an issue, and that is certainly not the case,” D’Aprix said, citing the lots along Depot Street. “There is plenty of parking. If people were directed to parking lots, attractive parking lots, that issue would eventually resolve itself.”

Signs along Main Street directing drivers to additional parking, and secondary entrances along Depot for businesses could address the issue, he said. He also provided conceptual drawings that added lighting, benches and landscaping to beautify existing parking lots downtown.

The study included other projects that Myers put on a “wish list,” including turning the McBurney Design Building (the former First Methodist Church at Gordon and Main) into an arts center. Other ideas were to encourage alleyway improvements, upgrade the railroad museum with additional signs and improvements to the Chamber of Commerce/ Tourism building in which it is housed, and add improvements (including signage) to Nibroc Park. D’Aprix also suggested Corbin “embrace the automotive repair businesses” downtown by encouraging cross promotions with other businesses and making the repair shop owners feel like welcome additions to downtown. A suggestion was to give customers waiting for car repairs discount coupons to other downtown businesses.

The strategic market positioning study was paid for by the city as part of the Main Street program’s budget and is a requirement for a city to become a certified Main Street city and be eligible for certain grant opportunities.

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