Business & Tech
Merchants on Marietta Square Still in Good Cheer Over Holiday Sales
There is still plenty of caution about the overall economy, but business owners see The Branding Project marketing plan paying off. Next up is digital billboards all over Cobb.
Business owners on Square are still celebrating the holiday season, which they say brought an increase in business and profits, that for some has continued into 2012.
“My holiday sales were up 20 percent (over 2010),” said Donna Krueger, owner of on the west side of the Square. She said she has talked to several other merchants on the Square who told her that traffic and sales were up in November and December.
Johnny Fulmer, owner of the Church Street Market, has heard similar accounts, and Santa was good to him, too. “We did see a very nice increase in business (in November and December) and a smaller increase in January,” Fulmer said. “Our (holiday) sales were up about nine percent. In our type of business, that’s unusual. If business goes up three percent you’re a shining star.
Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.
“I’ve heard good things from restaurants and retail merchants alike. We’re encouraged.”
One holiday season does not make for a profitable year, and no one is saying the economic downtown is over, but spirits are clearly up in some downtown shops.
Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.
“I had my best December ever,” said Dave Reardon, who has owned for 33 years. Reardon said he's had a smaller increase in January from a year ago.
“If every month was like December, I’d have someone else here now running this place," Reardon added with a laugh. “I’d be sitting on a beach.”
Ben Lyman, owner of and restaurants on the north side of the Square, was happy that his holiday sales were up about 10 percent, but he’s still cautious about the overall economy.
“Everybody’s still tentative,” Lyman said. “We are up for the year, but it’s not a drastic recovery.”
Krueger is president of The Branding Project, a non-profit group of about 80 businesses on and around the Square that a year ago unveiled a campaign to increase business in downtown Marietta. She and others believe that work is paying off.
Starting with $2,000 from the city’s Downtown Marietta Development Authority, they began a unified advertising and. A printed visitors’ guide, a website, Facebook page and a billboard on I-75 have been added in the past year. Banners will soon be hung on light posts around the city.
Krueger said the next step will be digital ads. The group will advertise with Clear Channel, 960 spots a day, on digital billboards along I-75, in east and west Cobb and in the Galleria area.
The message can be changed quickly to suit the group’s needs, but in general it will be the same as it was when The Branding Project first got together: promote and brand the Marietta Square with a unified voice.
“We came together with the concept that we are all stakeholders in this beautiful entity,” “All of us alone cannot do a whole lot. We could do much better together.”
The Branding Project incorporated as a 501c6 non-profit in 2010. Organizers said they invited about 650 businesses to join for an annual membership fee of $100.
A popular monthly Artist Market, run in conjunction with the weekly Farmers' Market, has boosted the group’s profile on the Square.
“Build it and they will come. Everyone’s heard that," Krueger said. “Well, it was already built for us. We have to sell it, and they will come. The Square has to be top of mind. We had to get the word out. Who knows what people want better than business owners?”
Krueger opened her art gallery three years ago. Her background is in marketing and advertising, but when her youngest child went off to college, she decided to try something new.
“This was just a dream,” she said. “I really had no idea what I was doing. The bad economy might have been good for us. Nobody knew me, but not much (art) was selling, so some (artists) were willing to take a risk.”
The white walls of her gallery are broken up with chunks and strips of exposed brick which dates to 1895. Mary Koronkowski, who works at dk Gallery, said the bricks inspire a lot of comments. They are pieces of art in their own right. Art, of course, is subjective.
“Because of the acoustics here I can hear people talking near the front door,” she said. “I once heard a young boy say to his mother, ‘This place needs some work. Look at those walls!’”