St. Louis, Missouri

Regional Cluster Action Plan

In 2009, the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA) embarked upon a strategic process to determine how well their existing target cluster strategy was serving and reflecting the region’s character and to develop an action plan that better aligned their vision and resources with market opportunities. Market Street was hired to perform an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of the region’s economic dynamics, evaluate existing cluster efforts, and build an improved target cluster strategy through a set of actions supporting broad economic health.

The development of the Regional Cluster Action Plan included four phases. In the first phase, Market Street staff sought to collect critical information about St. Louis’ economic profile through interviews with key leaders, stakeholders, and client staff and a review of existing research, visioning, and planning materials. In the second phase, Market Street developed an in-depth assessment of the region’s economy in comparison with three competitor communities and developed target cluster recommendations using staff talents in economics, labor analysis, urban planning, and extensive “on the ground” experience with clusters. Market Street performed extensive data analysis on a number of indicators to support the findings of the Analysis. The findings from this stage formed the basis for the recommendations in the final phase.

The third phase included an evaluation of St. Louis’ regional branding and marketing efforts and recommendations for aligning marketing efforts to support economic and target cluster development. Market Street reviewed the websites, brochures, presentations, advertisements, newsletters, events, and other initiatives associated with economic development in St. Louis. In the fourth and final phase, Market Street developed a Cluster Action Plan for the St. Louis region based on the accumulated knowledge from the previous phases and the firm’s extensive experience in cluster development.

Market Street succeeded in convincing investors in St. Louis to pursue a holistic program of economic development, in contrast to the RCGA’s previous strategic cycle, which only included a marketing program. When the RCGA officially launches the Plan, it will balance marketing activities to include a focus on existing business and small business/entrepreneurship as well as external recruitment.