8:00am Saturday 28th January 2012
By David Wiles
UP to £300,000 of public money is to be spent on boosting Swindon’s image after business leaders said it needs to be improved to attract more companies and staff.
Bosses from Honda, Intel and Nationwide told a meeting that they struggle to retain staff because they don’t want to move to the town and that companies don’t want to relocate because it has a poor reputation.
Mike Godfrey, divisional manager and chief engineer at Honda of the UK Manufacturing, said: “Honda itself needs to be linked with a successful town and unfortunately at this point Swindon isn’t recognised for that.”
Business bigwigs also said they spend thousands of pounds using taxis to ferry staff to Heathrow because of poor rail links, they lose top employees as they are head-hunted in the towns they choose to live in and struggle to attract new staff to the town.
Now economic development firm Forward Swindon is to be given a budget of £100,000 a year by Swindon Council to generally improve the town’s reputation and promote it as a hot destination to start up in or relocate to.
The project was announced at Swindon Council’s economic, environmental and sustainability overview and scrutiny committee, after three of the town’s largest employers said the town has an image problem that needed rectifying.
The project has a budget of about £100,000 a year, representing about 10 to 14 per cent of the overall budget of Forward Swindon, which is funded by Swindon Council.
Ian Piper, the chief executive, said: “Swindon’s performance in landing leads over the last few years hasn’t been that great and this is why this is needed to up our game to improve our level of success rate.
“Swindon is a great location, it’s relatively affordable as well. But we do need to have some key messaging and keep repeating that. I think there are some strong perceptions about Swindon which I think we need to change over a period of time.”
He added that the cost of the campaign was not much compared to some of the big cities, which spend more than £1m per year on such marketing.
The integrated campaign will see businesses across the UK targeted in integrated bursts of six months via the internet and social media, PR, and leaflets.
The material will focus on case studies, events and commentary, regeneration news, local business updates and partner activities.
Forward Swindon will also launch a new website with sections including life in Swindon, regeneration projects, key facts, the local economy, a location map, and a facility which enables businesses to search for land available for new factories or offices.
The key campaign messages will be that Swindon has a central UK location, with good connections, has a highly-productive workforce, offers office rents 30 per cent less than Reading or Bristol, has a strong manufacturing base, and is willing to find the right base for businesses.
Andy Tait, operations manager at Intel in Swindon, said the town needed a new slogan or selling point, adding that its old reputation as the fastest growing town in Europe was a huge success.
He said: “Once a brand is established in somebody’s mind it’s difficult to change and I think that’s a challenge for Swindon, to change it’s brand perception for people not in the immediate vicinity of Swindon.
“It could be something like Swindon decides we’re going to be the greenest town in England or we’re going to be the high-tech centre of the West, or something that changes the perception of it.”
Mr Tait and Rob Angus, group head of strategy and planning at Nationwide, both said that Swindon’s reputation made it difficult to attract highly-skilled staff to work here, with some choosing to commute from Bristol, Bath, or Oxford.
Swindon Council’s deputy leader, Garry Perkins, who is also responsible for regeneration, said: “We have heard some good points about Swindon. After all, Honda, Nationwide and Intel wouldn’t be here if it was such a bad town.
“We have got a lot to learn, we’ve got to take on board what we’ve heard tonight and see if we can make some fast progress.”
The committee will use the companies’ feedback to produce a report with recommendations on encouraging more business to Swindon.
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