Autumn-Winter 1997

Reprinted with permission from Ohio University News Services and Periodicals

TEXT BY BILL ESTEP, PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK FATICA

Wellston, Ohio is not unlike other small towns of 6,000 people in America. Six traffic lights direct visitors through a downtown business district lined with as many empty as occupied storefronts. Numerous American flags wave in the breeze, and the town’s lone movie theater, The Louvee, recently began showing first-run movies on its two screens.

Then there are the vacant buildings and factories that have become an all-too-familiar characteristic of many small towns around the country. The majority of the 30,000-square-foot McNally building, once a bustling coal mining equipment company, has remained unused since the plant closed more than a decade ago. In October 1996, the Kuppenheimer Men’s Clothiers plant was added to the list of empty spaces when the company closed its doors.

It didn’t make it easier for the 150 people who worked at the Kuppenheimer plant or Wellston city officials that the company’s closing, which followed bankruptcy proceedings, wasn’t a surprise. The plant affectionately called The Pants Factory by locals — had operated as a clothing manufacturer for 60 years, and its demise was a blow to Jackson County, a picturesque area 30 miles southwest of Athens where unemployment stands at 8.5 percent, well above the state average.

"Any time a small city loses a manufacturing plant, it hurts," says Wellston Mayor Edgar Hayburn, a 69-year-old ex-county sheriff. His wife, Betty, retired from Kuppenheimer several years ago after 42 years on the job. "It was a jolt. The bad part is we had quite a few workers who had to start over, where that job had been their livelihood for years and years. Quite a few found jobs and many are at the University of Rio Grande involved in job retraining.

"But with a lot of these people, the closing devastated their lives. You’re talking about people who are four or five years away from retirement and wondering what’s going to happen to them."

After Kuppenheimer folded its tent, Hayburn says, Wellston officials "rolled up their sleeves to try and sell the city" by attracting new businesses to fill its two most glaringly empty city-owned buildings. One local politician, State Representative John Carey, a former mayor of Wellston, went a step farther and called Ohio University’s Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD), seeking assistance in developing a strategy to promote the area’s available business space, which includes a planned 300-acre industrial park south of Wellston.

ILGARD, part of the College of Arts and Sciences and the state-funded Rural Universities Program, provides technical assistance for Southeastern Ohio communities through projects involving mapping and computer training, project consultation and evaluation, and strategic plans. Both Carey and Jackson County Economic Development Director Sherrie Lanier had worked with ILGARD before on projects.

Marsha Lewis, a project coordinator for ILGARD, traveled to Wellston to meet with city and county officials in late 1996.

Afterward, she contacted Dan Innis, associate professor of marketing in Ohio University’s College of Business. Innis teaches Marketing 463 Marketing Strategy the "capstone" course for undergraduate marketing majors in the College. Innis’ class normally breaks into small groups of four to six students and develops marketing plans for businesses. Student groups often choose projects involving large product lines such as Tide or Nike that include little or no contact with company officials.

The Wellston project was different. Innis took a personal interest in his six-member student team developing a marketing strategy for the city by joining Lewis in meeting with officials in mid January. Then the students went to work, contacting city and county leaders and management at companies in Jackson County. When Kuppenheimer packed its bags, Wellston was left with Pillsbury, a food processing plant on the outskirts of town that employs 1,200 people; Refto, a cement manufacturer with 29 employees; and Frick-Callagher, a metal producer that employs 150. Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Luigino’s pasta producers, and Merrilat Industries cabinet makers employ another 2,000 people in the nearby city of Jackson.

The students made a formal presentation of their findings to officials in Wellston in late March, and a final copy of their marketing plan was delivered to officials in June. Lanier and her marketing committee of the Jackson County Economic Development Board wasted little time taking action based on the student recommendations. "The committee is taking the report and proactively going after the firms they recommended and the types of businesses that would offer the best opportunity for Wellston," Lanier says. Preliminary phone calls to prospective companies over the summer were expected to be followed by a direct-mail campaign of promotional materials.

In what Innis terms a "unique" strategy, the students contacted plant managers at existing businesses in Jackson County to ask what types of companies they’d like to see relocate in and around Wellston. Officials at several companies suggested that a corrugated packaging firm would be a valuable asset for the region. The business class’ marketing plan listed contacts at six successful packaging companies that might be interested in calling Wellston home. The marketing plan suggested the Kuppenheimer building "may be ideally suited for a small packaging firm."

The students’ report indicated that a customer service company, a mail-order house, catalog company, or one that processes coupons, might be attracted to the McNally building. Wellston officials have asked T.J. Justice, the governor's economic development representative in the area, to search the state’s database for possible firms that match those types of businesses.

The students believed that the other piece to Wellston’s economic development puzzle involved advertising and developing a marketing brochure. As a result, ILGARD officials working with Lanier hoped to complete a two-color brochure for Wellston by this fall. Lanier says the piece also will be redeveloped as a county-wide brochure. The brochures will highlight companies that have made investments in the county; the area’s quality of life, including its low crime rate; recreational activities; and the area’s attractive scenery along state Route 32, also known as the Appalachian Highway.

"Once our (marketing) committee gets into things, we hope to do more planning and possibly shift some more money into marketing and then look at some of the students’ other ideas, including billboard advertising," Lanier says.

Time to plan projects is hard to find for people like Mayor Hayburn, Lanier, and other officials who wear multiple hats in small-town America. That’s why the students’ work and their marketing plan proved to be a welcome asset to Wellston’s business portfolio. Lanier and State Representative Carey point to the project as an example of a successful university-community collaboration.

"My office includes myself and a part-time secretary who we share with the Chamber of Commerce," says Lanier. "I work on everything from downtown renovation plans to plans on running a sewer line out to the industrial park. So there is not a lot of time to be proactive.

"We needed direction on what kind of firms we should go after, what kind of firms we should focus on, and how we could do it. And we wondered how we could afford to do all that. The students provided support and ideas for what kind of businesses we should go after. Why waste our time going after a food processing plant if that’s not what we want?

"This collaboration worked real well, to have included the involvement of the city, county, state government, and the university. There were a lot of people involved that provided a good service to this city and this area."

"I think the students did real well on the project," Hayburn says. "When you take young people like that, they’re very energetic and they’ve got intelligence to go with it. It was wonderful to work with these young people at Ohio University and see their commitment to do something good for the communities in the area."

Abigail Buller, a student project team leader and June graduate of Ohio University, says researching and developing the marketing plan was a valuable learning experience because it had real-world implications. "I’m pleased I had an opportunity to do it," she says. "It did give us a taste for what a real-world marketer might do."

"The students leamed how difficult it can be to work on a real product," Innis says. "The fictitious products that other students do are a lot easier, you’re not really involved with a client in the game you’re playing.

"In this case, they weren’t playing. This was real, and they had a client who really cared about what they were doing. I think that created more pressure. But that’s the pressure we feel in the real world, and I think that was a benefit for the students."

For more information, e-mail Dan Innis and Marsha Lewis, or visit the College of Business and ILGARD.

Bill Estep is assistant director for periodicals for University News Services and Periodicals.