Small shops marketing uniqueness

Boulder is not the only city that wants to ‘keep it weird’
The large billboards dotting parts of Louisville are as striking for their color scheme — black and white — as they are for their message.

"Keep Louisville weird," the billboards scream.

It’s part of a public relations campaign in Louisville and cities from Boulder to Raleigh, N.C., aimed at drawing customers to unique, locally owned stores.

The campaigns and small business alliances are using the effort to stay in competition with large retail chains such as Wal-Mart, Target and the recently merged K-Mart-Sears.

"They can be a serious threat," said Leslie Stewart, a public relations specialist responsible for the billboards. "Their collective buying power is so great that many local merchants can’t compete on a pricing level on merchandise, and the independents can’t compete when it comes to the big marketing dollars the chains have."

By Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/national_intl_business/article/0,1713,BDC_2464_3642784,00.html