The Blumsky Report

Invercargill should promote itself as the "child friendly" city, according to the Blumsky report released today.

Mark Blumsky: "Choosing to develop a point of difference as
being ‘child friendly’ does not mean that other groups in your
community are not supported."

Mark Blumsky, the former Wellington Mayor and MP who co-authored the report with Elliott Kirton, said: "Initially our focus was on Invercargill owning the ‘family friendly’ space.

"However in conducting desk research and analysing overseas cities' positioning it is our recommendation that Invercargill would generate better profile and understanding from being ‘child friendly’ or simply ‘the best place to raise your child”.

"Our belief, based on our research, is that increasingly other cities will try to promote their family friendliness and that being ‘child friendly’ will allow additional time for Invercargill to reinforce this brand and make it extremely difficult for other cities to steal that position."

The report - "Identifying Invercargill's Point of Difference" - contains two appendices focusing on what people like - and dislike - about the city and is available in full below as a downloadable .pdf file of 152KB:

The Blumsky report

An earlier news item is available here.