Strategic Priority 1 | New Business Attraction and Regional Marketing

The Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc. has a 14-year track record of new business attraction with a worldwide focus on eight specific industry clusters. The Partnership has developed a sophisticated marketing program that links its business message by industry type to outreach marketing efforts in a variety of countries.

This seamless marketing program has, since 1994, helped attract more than 360 new companies to the Greater Richmond area. These firms have been generous, investing more than $6.2 billion in the region. During the 2009-2014 funding cycle, the Partnership will continue to push the envelope with targeted marketing efforts.

Goals

• Support the creation of 8,500 jobs generating $391 million in payroll.

• Encourage $1.5 billion in new capital investment.

Greg Wingfield, Yutaka Okutomi and Will Davis meet with Mazda automotive representatives in Japan.

• Assist 125 new and expanding domestic firms.

• Attract 25 new foreign-affiliated firms to the region.

• Place 50 positive media messages about the region in national and/or international publications.

Programs

• Focus outreach marketing efforts on firms in eight identified industry clusters:

Corporate and Division Headquarters
Finance, Securities and Insurance
Information Technologies
Advanced Manufacturing
Life Sciences
Creative and Knowledge-Based Services
Logistics and Supply Chain
Food Processing

• As recommended in the recent James A. Crupi report, increase focus on data centers as a target within Information Technologies and evaluate the economic development opportunities associated with the expansion of Fort Lee.

• Implement an aggressive domestic and international marketing strategy, evaluating unique opportunities in each market.

• Annually explore new foreign markets to further the reach of the region’s message around the world.

• Collaborate with other stakeholders in the creation of a new business-focused brand to promote the region.

• Integrate that brand into the Partnership’s marketing campaign.

• Upgrade and further enhance our research capabilities to better support the needs of new and expanding businesses.

• Improve the effectiveness of the Partnership’s marketing efforts by increasing staff capacity and technology utilization in the area of public relations, marketing and communications.