Confronting Anti-Urban Marketing Stereotypes: A Milwaukee Economic Development Challenge

Abstract

Working with the Helen Bader Foundation and the Milwaukee Department of City Development, the Employment and Training Institute has developed purchasing power profiles for Milwaukee neighborhoods and commercial districts. These profiles utilize current state income tax records, local property files, business phone listings, state driver's license files, motor vehicle records, and state and federal mortgage lending databases to identify the purchasing power that comes from urban population densities and concentrations of income and to describe economic trends of interest to retailers and other commercial businesses. As part of the project, ETI examined the information reports and stereotypes about Milwaukee neighborhoods presented by national and international marketing firms. This paper uncovers the methodologies firms use to develop marketing information on Milwaukee neighborhoods, traces the history of marketing clustering systems, and explores the damage marketing stereotypes pose for Milwaukee and other cities.