Hartford Business Journal

24 Hartford Business Journal • October 8, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com TALKING POINTS Sports help city, region live up to 'Hartford Has It' brand promise By Bill Field Y es, it took years and multiple ill-fated marketing slogans — including the current "Hartford Has It" campaign — that were doomed from the get-go. But thanks to the Hartford Yard Goats and Travelers Championship, the city and re- gion are relevant again as a brand. As witnessed in many cities, an economic plat- form built on the pillars of sports and sports fran- chises is often ill-fated. Not so in Hartford. In the case of these two entities, they're befitting of the honor as "New England's Rising Star(s)" — a decade- long campaign that overreached and under-delivered. The Yard Goats and the Travelers Championship are everything that these manufactured and contrived brand promises failed to deliver. Having "it" is hard to define but easy to spot. The similarities behind the success of both brands are reveal- ing and extremely relevant to future enterprises that are aimed at fueling growth in the Hartford region. Here's why they excel: A brand experience built to last It's hard to sustain excellence over time. Neither entity is content with the status quo. They're always search- ing for new ways to engage with fans, be it through better amenities, fan experiences or technology advances. Through immersive branding, the Yard Goats and Travelers Champion- ship have created experiences that are real. People can't get enough of either and they're left wanting more as year- over-year attendance figures grow. Committed management teams The Travelers Championship is led by a remarkable group of profession- als who have steered the tournament since its inception. They're devoted people united in a cause to bring big- time sports to the region. Since becoming the tournament sponsor in 2007, Travelers has never wa- vered in investing resources and capital in the tournament. It is no coincidence that in 2017, it was named the PGA Tour Tournament of the Year. Even though the tournament is well over a decade old, it has the luster of a brand new car. The Yard Goats' management team truly understands what it takes to run a successful minor league baseball operation. The Yard Goats exceeded every expectation in 2017 — close to 400,000 fans. The halo impact for the city and the region has been enormous as suburban folks are doing the un- thinkable — coming back downtown. The naysayers who lurk said wait 'til the novelty wears off in 2018. That didn't happen as attendance actually grew this year. You don't get to be "The Best Double-A Ballpark in Ameri- ca" by accident two years in a row. Too many ventures in Hartford have failed miserably because of a lack of com- mitment and fortitude to stay the course. Brand buzz The words excitement and Hartford aren't usually used in the same sen- tence, but the Travelers Championship and Yard Goats are new, refreshing and flat out different. They're outliers in a region begging for things to do and embrace. They've both created a brand personality that's offered people a reason to believe and a reason to belong. It's one that is genuine and not manufactured like many previous mar- keting efforts. It was built from within and nurtured every step of the way. The "Hartford Has It" campaign extols the virtues of fun, music, style and food in the region. Nowhere does it mention sports as one of the legs in its brand positioning stool. Attend the Travelers Championship or a Yard Goats game and I'll guarantee you'll have fun, enjoy music, sample great food and immerse in the style that is all your own. It pays off on the brand promise. Thanks to the Travelers Champi- onship and the Hartford Yard Goats, Hartford truly "Has It." Bill Field is the founder of FieldActivate, a Connecticut-based marketing firm. OTHER VOICES CT must ease regulatory environment By R. Michael Goman I n previous columns, I touched on reforming our land-use regulatory environment as one way to jumpstart Connecticut and get our economy on a growth path. In the work that I do, we see many economies outside of Connecticut that have been experiencing steady or accelerating growth, sometimes for decades. A recurring theme in those communities is that their land-use approval process shares three characteristics: their process is simple; they move applications through the process swiftly; and there is certain- ty within the process itself. A simple ap- proval process is one that requires only the information necessary to en- sure the health and safety of the public, and involves a review by only a few knowledgeable professionals. Here in Connecticut, it's common for even basic approvals to take years and be reviewed by dozens of people, many of whom have no background or training in land use. These good folks are members of lo- cal commissions and are asked to judge complicated applications. There review typically occurs after many technically skilled professionals have also reviewed the application. This is done at enormous cost to the business owner and the result of our pro- cess is that many good ideas never even make it to the application stage. A swift ap- proval process is simply one that takes a few months and no more. Certainly, uses that pose a material threat to public health and safety require more detailed and time- consuming reviews but those should be the exceptions. Having certainty within an approv- al process is essential. This simply means that there should be objective, measurable standards in place, and if those standards are met the permits are issued. Connecticut municipali- ties too often ask commissioners to give equal weight to subjective opinions, resulting in applicants hav- ing no idea whether they'll receive an approval until after they've spent months and thousands of dollars. In totality, our land-use approval system serves none of us well. It also means that investment capital flows out of, or never crosses into, our economy. Setting aside NIMBYism, there's no technical reason that the aver- age housing subdivision, apartment, office, retail or hotel project should take years to receive an approval. Hundreds of communities in competitive markets are approving multiple projects in the time it takes us to approve a new bank branch here in Connecticut. Those commu- nities are creating jobs, generating new taxes to pay for and improve the quality of life in their communities and building a future where their children can look forward to finding work when they grow up. A number of years ago, a California politician left the state legislature to become mayor of Anaheim because he felt he could make a difference. One of his early decisions was to essentially take over the planning and economic development functions, with the goal of making it easy to invest in Anaheim. He sent the message out that they were setting aside their regulatory processes and he invited anyone with an idea that would create jobs to come in and see him, promis- ing them they'd get a quick deci- sion one way or the other. In the next few years, Anaheim saw the develop- ment of many new projects and the creation of thousands of new jobs. Anaheim's success resulted from being just a little bit more attractive to inves- tors than surrounding communities. Investment capital, like water or electricity, flows along the path of least resistance. We just need to learn how to lower our resistance, and capital will begin to flow into Connecticut again. R. Michael Goman is a principal of Goman + York Property Advisors LLC, an East Hartford-based real estate advisor. Setting aside NIMBYism, there's no technical reason that the average … project should take years to receive an approval. Opinion & Commentary Bill Field R. Michael Goman

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