(7/17/09) Boston Courant

"Old Neighborhood Using New Tactics"
By Jim Cronin

Virtual tours, interactive member listings and a map of parking garages are highlights of the Back Bay Association’s newly launched website.

After working on the new promotional tool for more than a year, Alexander Cooper, director of membership and marketing, said the goal of the site is to showcase the neighborhood as a destination locally, nationally and internationally.

“It’s designed to make the neighborhood as accessible as possible to tourists, even before they get here,” he said.

As the Back Bay competes with Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive, as well as shopping and cultural center across the globe, the website brings all of the area’s consumer offerings, like retail shops, restaurants and art galleries, “under one branded unit,” Cooper added.

The association’s more than 300 members will be listed in the website’s directory, with images of company logos and links to their websites. A function also offers virtual tours of the interiors of the businesses. The website will also feature events and deals companies are offering to customers that will be updated regularly, Cooper said.

“As we grow, our influence in terms of promoting the neighborhood will increase,” he said. “We are in a recession, and businesses are looking for new, creative, low-cost options to promote themselves, and that’s what this website does.”

The South End Business Association (SEBA) released a new website last October. Each of the group’s 160 members has its own “mini website” that businesses can update and format any way they want, uploading images and updating it when they have sales or other special offers, said executive director Stacy Koeppel.

A newly added community calendar lists information from schools, art galleries and churches, and allows member businesses to promote their own events. Another tool SEBA uses to promote the neighborhood is the South End map it publishes every spring. If a tourist asks a retail storeowner where to eat, the shopkeeper can pull out the map and recommend any number of local establishments, Koeppel said.

In another of the city’s shopping districts, the Downtown Crossing Partnership, a business advocacy group that represents approximately 200 companies, has found that the images on its website and its calendar, as well as a weekly electronic newsletter to promote members, have been effective in marketing neighborhood commerce, wrote Kathleen Styger, associate director of planning and policy, in an email.

“Over 3,600 people receive this newsletter, which talks about events and promotions in Downtown Crossing, both on-the-street events and business promotions and specials,” Styger wrote. “Many of our members have been approaching us recently to get coverage in our newsletter, as they know the value of it. They also want to set up tables at our events, such as Jazz in July and Art Fridays, to promote their business.”

On Beacon Hill, the Beacon Hill Business Association (BHBA) will hold an event for concierges from suburban hotels in October, according to BHBA president Donna Petro. Guides will lead them from hotels to restaurants to shops, showcasing the many consumer opportunities on the Hill, in the hopes that, when they return to their own hotels, the concierges will encourage guests to visit the historic neighborhood.

When the Beacon Hill Civic Association host its annual block party in September, the business group will hold a sidewalk sale to recommend revelers visit local shops and eateries.

The Kenmore Association is a more grassroots, word-of-mouth group, for now, said president Pam Beale, who owns Cornwall’s pub. However, she hopes to establish a website for the group by fall of this year, she said. The group was involved in a recent tour by Mayor Thomas Menino of area business districts, and developers like John Rosenthal and Steve Samuels were on hand to discuss their projects.

Beale also actively lobbies City Hall to improve the quality of life for area residents, and is a strong advocate of dismantling the ailing Bowker Overpass, which she considers a blight on the area.