PROMOTIONS COMMITTEE

This committee combines both events and marketing for Downtown Somerville.

Our Purpose

The job of the Promotion Committee is to PROMOTE Downtown Somerville as the heart of commerce, culture, and community life for residents and visitors alike. As Somerville continues to change, this committee will think about promotion in a broader sense and develop new strategies by:

Understanding the changing market – both potential shoppers and our “competition.”

Defining Downtown Somerville’s market niche- its unique “position” in the marketplace.

Identifying downtown assets, including people, buildings, heritage, and businesses.

Continue to build on successful events and work to create new events/promotions that provide a wide demographic appeal.

All activities above are done in partnership with the DSA Board of Directors and other committees.

Goals

The Promotion Committee works with the Borough of Somerville, the DSA Executive Director and staff, County Agencies, local businesses, and property owners to facilitate a positive “image” of the downtown Business District that will help retain, promote, and attract downtown business and residents. The Promotion Committee will attract visitors and residents to the district and encourage them to spend money and time in our community through advertising, in-store collaborative promotions, newsletters, websites, social media and press releases. The Promotion Committee will focus on Board approved signature events such as the annual summer events, Central Jersey Jazz Festival and Holiday Jubilee.

Responsibilities

The Promotion Committee’s responsibilities specifically include the following:

Direct retail promotions and traffic-building activities for the downtown.

Monitor community and consumer perceptions of the downtown and seek to understand and reverse negative attitudes and build upon positive ones.

Allocate funds for promotional activities in accordance with the DSA annual work plan and budget.

Work toward building new sources of funding for a portion of the program’s total annual budget.

Monitor the effectiveness of promotional programs on an ongoing basis.

Build a strong network of volunteers to help implement promotional programs and establish good working relationships with community organizations, charities, school clubs and other groups that might participate in promotional activities.

Work to ensure a consistent, high-quality image in signs, advertisements and other graphic material associated with the Main Street program.

Establish a sound working relationship with local and regional media.

Learn More

Interested in serving on our committee? Want more information on when the committee meets? We’d love to hear from you!