More than 100 local business owners sign ‘Buy 319’ pledge

A Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance campaign to encourage local business owners to purchase locally, dubbed “Buy 319,” is already producing measurable results, with 110 local business leaders signing a pledge to expand their consideration of local peers when buying goods and services. The campaign, launched March 19 to tie into that date’s 3-19 nomenclature, […]

A Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance campaign to encourage local business owners to purchase locally, dubbed “Buy 319,” is already producing measurable results, with 110 local business leaders signing a pledge to expand their consideration of local peers when buying goods and services. The campaign, launched March 19 to tie into that date’s 3-19 nomenclature, is “challenging all businesses in the 319 area to make the conscious decision to switch one of its outside vendors to a local company.” While the campaign asks participants to sign an online pledge, and their company name is included on an online list on the campaign’s website, buy319.com, there’s no specific mandate that signees switch to any local supplier.

“This is just a promise that a company will be more conscious about the vendors that they use,” said Nikki Wilcox, communications and marketing director for the Economic Alliance. “We’re just asking that they look at their vendor list and pick at least one outside company, then talk to another company locally that provides the same product or service, to at least start a conversation.” The campaign doesn’t include a specific mechanism to guarantee compliance, Ms. Wilcox noted. “We're not going to double check if every company made a switch,” she said. “We just want companies to (review) their outside vendors, and whether they could get the same thing locally. And if you could, could you at least try and give that company your business?” The initiative, presented by GreenState Credit Union, took root in the summer of 2022, when the members of the CRMEA’s Business Innovation Council met for a strategic planning session. “We were asking, using a typical SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, what's going well and where there were areas for opportunities where we could get the biggest bang for the buck,” Ms. Wilcox said. “In that group, it was very apparent – and we've heard this (repeatedly) – that the EA was doing a fantastic job at B2C, business to consumer marketing, with the farmers markets and Restaurant Week in particular. But they said an area for growth would be the B2B, or business to business marketing.” At the group’s next meeting, attendees participated in an exercise in which they were asked to bring lists of their Iowa-based vendors. As conversations unfolded, Ms. Wilcox said, many companies said they utilized vendors outside the state, only to learn that a local vendor offered the same product or service. “A lot of them were just going to Google or getting recommendations from other vendors,” she said. “It wasn't because they were purposely trying to find someone not in Cedar Rapids. It's because they genuinely didn’t know that that company existed here in Cedar Rapids, or they didn't know who to contact.” As a marketing campaign began taking shape, Ms. Wilcox said the group decided to focus on the 319 area code, rather than a specific city or metro area. “We didn't want to pigeonhole it just to Cedar Rapids, because we have amazing businesses in Marion, Iowa City, North Liberty, all over the area,” she said. “So that's why we stuck with the 319 area code. We wanted to be inclusive to all of our regional parties.” The campaign now includes two website URLs, buy319.com and buy319.org, which include video clips and personal stories from local businesses who’ve committed to supporting the effort – companies like Cedar Ridge, Bloomsbury Farm, Slingshot 25 and the Map Room. All have been extolling the virtues of getting a range of products and services locally, everything from trucking companies to restaurant supplies and legal services. Social media campaigns have also been part of the mix. Occasionally, the program’s benefits have reached beyond traditional financial measurements, Ms. Wilcox said. “There's one company that said they chose an outside firm because of cost, but they've since admitted that when they switched to someone locally, the better customer service was worth it,” she said. “It was almost costing them more money having to pick up the phone and call customer service when orders weren’t correct or the quality wasn't right. Switching locally may have cost a bit more, but they don't have the quality issues. And if something's wrong, they can send a quick text message and that person is there in a jiffy and fixes it. So they said that’s been a huge benefit for them.” Specific metrics for the campaign can be difficult to gather for confidentiality reasons, Ms. Wilcox said, but she noted a 50% increase in traffic to the CRMEA’s online business directory, which includes detailed information on the products and services offered by more than 1,100 local CRMEA members. Ms. Wilcox has also been referring members to CRMEA member support specialist Pam Logue if they need help making personal connections with local vendors and service providers. But anecdotal evidence also indicates the program has been successful, as the CRMEA has heard many stories from members that hadn’t previously pursued local companies for their business needs. She specifically cited a local manufacturer who had signed the pledge but didn’t expect to find local suppliers for many of their specialized products. They were preparing to order custom t-shirts for their employees, and as they had done in the past, began searching Google for national suppliers. “They immediately thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this. I should be looking at my local options,’” Ms. Wilcox said. “We sent them a list of our local screen printing companies, and they did switch to a local organization. That was a facet of this program. It made them think, ‘wait a second, maybe I should give a local company a try.’ That’s all we want.” Now that the “Buy 319” nomenclature has proven successful, the business insights committee is planning its next steps, paving the way for long-term efforts on new tangents. “We want to carry this for sure into the holiday season, really sticking to the ‘Buy 319’ theme any time we can,” Ms. Wilcox said. “Maybe it’s things to do during the summer, that you don’t always need to cross the borders to have fun, focusing on what we have here at the amphitheater and the farmers market and outdoor concerts. It’s been a huge success already. This was obviously a need, and we're not just going to stop it. We’re just figuring out how we can take it to the next level. Buy 319 will continue to be a year-round campaign where we remind not only the businesses, but the community as well on the importance of supporting local.”