PART ONE: Recent Intense Discussions About Marketing North Minneapolis/NoMi

Photo By John Hoff

ADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him.


In the past several days, I've been present at two ad hoc, informal conferences to discuss marketing ideas for North Minneapolis, or NoMi. Before discussing the specifics of these two conferences, it might be helpful to run down who some of the "players" are in attempts to market North Minneapolis...

First, but not necessarily foremost, is the Northside Marketing Task Force. NMTF started with high hopes, but has seen endless internal infighting and--more more importantly--relatively little actual marketing efforts. Creative, intense individuals have splintered off from NMTF and pursued their own efforts.

NMTF is kind of, sort of a non-profit. (Apparently, some paperwork needs to be filed) NMTF is arguably the most "official" of the marketing groups and has been able to obtain some dollars to apply to marketing efforts. Recently, however, there has been talk of "reformulating" NMTF which is, arguably, highly dysfunctional and badly structured. Some personalities at NMTF include Mike Kestner and Jerry Moore.

Second, the Carney Group is a professional marketing agency headquartered in the Harrison neighborhood of NoMi. (Another entity, Amalgam, has a close working relationship with Carney and put blood and sweat into the website project for NMTF)

Pat Carney completed a website for NMTF, but has yet to get any go-ahead to unleash the completed website and--more importantly, from a business perspective--has yet to get paid the $5,000 balance of their contract, according to Carney. (Mike Kestner of NMTF may see it differently and is welcome to submit commentary, like ANYBODY is welcome)

Recently, through this blog, Pat Carney has been much more public about his dissatisfaction with the current situation (not getting paid, very little North Minneapolis marketing effort hitting the street) but he is a businessman seeking to make money, not a charity.

Third, Don Allen. Allen is known for his IBNN blog which focuses on civil rights issues and often advocates that the way to promote prosperity for black people is through business enterprise. However, IBNN is merely a hobby and a side project for Allen. The company Allen works for makes money by helping companies achieve higher Google rankings and disseminating press releases for pay. They even work for entities in CHINA. It's all about paying the bills, baby.

Don used to be vice chair of NMTF, but left NMTF and has made no secret of his disaffection with Mike Kestner and Jerry Moore. Despite Allen's strong business orientation, Allen has assisted in starting up non-profits. Allen is currently more-or-less in control of a relatively new non-profit entity which could receive public dollars and market North Minneapolis or, for that matter (in light of its mission) other areas underserved by media and marketing.

Fourth, there is NoMi.

NoMi is an ad hoc group made up of realtors. They are not a non-profit or a formal organization, yet. NoMi came up with the clever slogan "Get to NoMi" and has tried to brand North Minneapolis with the "NoMi" label, which shares similarities with the popular "SoHo" brand.

One of the members of NoMi split off from NMTF. NoMi has some helpful allies in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community, and yet NoMi is not a GLBT organization. Their primary concern is making "NoMi" a cool neighborhood in the public eye which, naturally, helps sell houses and raise the value of homes. NoMi has organized some successful home tours.

Despite the fact NoMi is just starting out, and lacks a website, NoMi has generated great excitement and expectations, quickly eclipsing any hope or excitement which once existed for NMTF.

Reason number one is the extreme cohesiveness of the group; in stark contrast to NMTF. The second reason is their slick, spot-on slogan, in contrast to NMTF's inexplicable leaf design and clunky slogan, "Forget marketing the f***ing neighborhood, we want justice and equality NOW!"

(OK, that's not really an exact quote, but it's close enough)

Another acceptable way of writing "NoMi" is in all-caps, "NOMI," based on artwork promulgated by this ad hoc organization. One hopes the name may evolve to the simplified "Nomi."

Fifth, this blog is a player. Though only an ad hoc, unpaid effort by a lone volunteer, JNS blog consistently cranks out content and has developed a reputation as a quick conduit for information dissemination. In terms of marketing NoMi, JNS blog's contribution has been a hypothesis called "Market and Romanticize The Struggle."

Sixth, Insight News is a player. This newspaper, published by community activist Al McFarlane, is primarly by, for and about North Minneapolis though it strives to be an "African American newspaper serving Minneapolis and St. Paul."

Insight appears to be speaking primarily TO readers in North Minneapolis rather than speaking ABOUT North Minneapolis.

Insight News puts out relatively little web content and is closely tied to its "dead trees" paper medium, but does have a website, unlike NoMi. The main concerns of Insight News are tied to social justice issues, click here for an example.

Last, but hardly least, the mainstream media is a player in the marketing of North Minneapolis. Newspapers and television stations follow the principal of "if it bleeds, it leads." Stories can be categorized and consumed easily by the public if these stories fit into preconceived mental channels, such as "North Minneapolis as a scary theme park of criminal violence and social decay."

Thus the most powerful "marketer" of North Minneapolis is not deliberately marketing at all, but merely reporting on newsworthy events but--in so doing--creating a self-fulfilling marketing and branding effort.

Arguably the only way to counter the "background noise" of this mainstream media "non-marketing marketing effort" is a principle this blog makes every effort to apply: CRANK OUT CONTENT.

Tell every positive story that can be told. Game the Google rankings with tricks like "RSS feeds." Hire marketing firms with whatever dollars can be obtained. Vigorously engage in the difficult work of revitalizing the neighborhood, and then publicize those efforts, encouraging similar efforts to take root.

So there you have the players. Now, what has been happening lately?

Number one, NMTF members have been talking intensely to Johnny Northside blog about the future of North Minneapolis marketing efforts. That's really all that can be said about THAT, except it's on the phone and by email, mostly, not so much in person.

Number two, Don Allen has been talking intensely to JNS blog and, recently, had an informal meeting with JNS, a member of NoMi, and a member of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council. That's really all that can be said about THAT, except--once again--the discussions have been about the future of North Minneapolis marketing efforts.

Number three, the Carney Group and Amalgam have been talking intensely to JNS blog, a member of NoMi, and members of the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council. (Two of the individuals there were both former members of NMTF) More can be said about these discussions because not so much was "off the record."

The photo above shows Anderson Mitchell looking, intensely, at some rehab photos shot by Evan Reminick of Amalgam at the offices of the Carney Group, last night, at a "salon" gathering featuring wine and cheese.

More wine than cheese, actually. OK, a LOT more wine than cheese. Some exotic Honduran guifiti was consumed, too.

So that outlines the marketing players and some recent interactions between the players; to the degree much can be said at all.

Part 2 will cover what can be said publicly about last night's informal meeting at the offices of the Carney Group, including a "sneak peak" at the much-discussed, not-yet-released website for the Northside Marketing Task Force.