CUED

Long Range Marketing Plan-Private Industry Council of Chicago

To overcome these perceptions, PIC programs should be defined as separate from previous CETA program. PIC sponsored programs should be capable of delivering: motivated employees, personal attention to employees, staff appreciation of business perspective, programs of a manageable and workable scale.

(2) Highlight CETA benefits and present business image. Focus on the benefits which employers will get from CETA programs, in of training wage subsidy, etc. Tie this in with the other incentives which are available to business under the Chicago Plan.

(3) Present a Business-Governement Partnership
Unlike other big cities, Chicago has a history of business and government working together. The PIC can help companies access the resources of Chicago's Economic Development Commission. This will help the business image of PIC program.

Since the Short Range Plan appeared, the University of Illinois Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) has test-marketed a program with these characteristics to a sample of 153 Chicago firms. There exists considerable market potential for a Private Industry Council On the Job Training program. This Long Range Marketing Plan identifies the key characteristics of such a program, strategic market targets, and marketing techniques. It is based on a representative sample survey of Chicago firms which were not actually involved in a CETA program. This is the non-users sample.

We also surveyed users of the CETA Title IIb program in order to test the PIC product as it has traditionally been. Where appropriate the results of this users sample are compared with those of the non-users survey. Chapter V reports on the specific programmatic and marketing implications of this survey.

Expected Market Conditions: This Marketing Plan is set against the background of a moderate recession. The test-marketing was done in early June 1980 when evidence of a recession was beginning to be widespread. Unemployment is expected to continue this year around current levels, approximately nine percent locally. Slow improvement is expected thereafter. Like in previous recessions, manufacturing firms will be most seriously affected. As the Short Range Marketing Plan pointed out: With unemployment rising CETA clientele will have to compete with more skilled and more experienced job seekers for jobs in short supply. With employers having a wide range of choices, it would seem likely that those of the eligible population with more experience and education; with acceptable work attitudes will have a reasonable chance of competing successfully. Prescreening, work experience programs, and effective classroom training approaches are generally necessary under these conditions.

In the next chapter this report describes the findings regarding the PIC product. It summarizes the viewpoints of employers who have used the CETA Title IIb program; the changes suggested in the Short Range Marketing Plan; and the reactions of non-users to the test-marketing.

Chapter III, "The Market for PIC Programs," defines the type of firm which the PIC is most likely to find interested in its program. The following chapter, Chapter IV, recapitulates some of the marketing approaches outlined in the Short Range Marketing Plan and adds some new strategies. Chapter V focuses in on the experiences of successful and unsuccessful past users of the program and draws out the implications for the program and its marketing.

All chapters end with an outline of the policy decisions the PIC must make on the topic. These policy options, together with recommendations for implementation of the Long Range Marketing Plan, are again presented in Chapter VI. Finally, Chapter VII lays out a task and management structure which will assist the PIC in its decision making process.

This website is maintained by Cedric Williams, Manager System Services,
UIC-Center for Urban Economic Development