“If the supermarket has cola on offer, you take an extra bottle with you. Marketing does that.” It is a very last argument from mayor Richard Korteland of the municipality of Meppel to change the mind of the city council. The municipal council wants to allocate an extra 166,000 euros for city marketing. Not the entire city council.
It’s all about Brand Meppel. This is a foundation that carries out city marketing. The municipality used to do that, but since 2016 the foundation has been carrying it out. “They do that cheaper and more efficiently than we did,” says Korteland. “But that argument fails to impress.” Every year, the foundation receives 48,000 euros from the municipality.
Merk Meppel now wants to expand the promotion of the city. To introduce people and companies outside Meppel to the city. Korteland: “That’s what city marketing is for. City marketing within the city is not very useful. Meppelers are already known here.”
An additional 166.00 euros is required for this expansion. But the city council puts a stop to that. The parties wonder what this will yield for Meppel and prefer to save the money for a few issues of millions that are coming. “Grachtenfestival, Ogterop theater and Bad Hesselingen are also known outside the region,” adds Ina Booij on behalf of ChristenUnie.
Korteland is critical of the city council’s questions for more results. “Why are political parties campaigning? What does poster pasting actually yield? Does it yield an extra vote? Or the advertising brochure? What does it actually yield? There is a limit. I simply cannot provide you with the results of Merk Meppel.”
The mayor comes up with the Coke bottle argument. Anouk de Vlieg, leader of GroenLinks, responds. “There’s a good reason to forego that cheaper bottle of Coke. If you can’t afford it.”