Thursday, July 24, 2008
By Jordan Cohen
The water provider revs up its effort to get more customers.
MINERAL RIDGE — In marketing, it’s called branding — a unique and easily recognizable identity given to a product or service.
For the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, the product is water, and the board of directors hopes its new brand, Meander Water, will be the springboard for additional sales in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
The campaign also appears to be aimed at luring potential customers away from its chief competitor, Aqua Ohio.
The MVSD officially launched its promotional campaign to support Meander Water in a Wednesday news conference attended by a number of elected officials including Mayors Jay Williams of Youngstown and Ralph Infante of Niles.
Billboards promoting Meander Water already have been placed at several high-traffic sites in the two counties.
The campaign is the cornerstone of MVSD’s 75th anniversary celebration of providing water to Youngstown and Niles, but the district’s sights are set on attracting more users in other cities and townships.
“We have the water,” said Jack Vaughan, board president, “and our goal is to provide more water for the community.”
Aqua Ohio is a division of Aqua America, a publicly traded corporation. The MVSD is nonprofit.
Several messages requesting a comment from Walter J. Pishkur, Aqua Ohio president, were not returned.
“We are locked in a competitive battle,” Vaughn said. Asked if its customer battle with Aqua Ohio was the driving force behind the campaign, Vaughn said MVSD gave its rival only “a slight consideration” while planning the Meander Water promotion.
Vaughn said the MVSD is spending $60,000 on the campaign, which is being directed by Rubenstein Associates of Liberty. The costs have been equally split among the district, Youngstown and Niles.
Thomas Holloway, sanitary district chief engineer, disclosed that he has contacted the Regional Chamber to ask if it could help the MVSD provide water service to corporations. Holloway said he has also asked the chamber to provide a higher profile for Meander Water on the chamber’s Web site.
Aqua Ohio and MVSD are chamber members.
Williams supports the Meander Water initiative, but was guarded in his response when asked whether he favored an aggressive customer outreach.
“I think they should look at any and all appropriate opportunities,” Williams said, declining to elaborate further.
Figures provided by the MVSD show an average daily usage of more than 25 million gallons, a capacity of 60 million gallons per day and a cost of about one-tenth of 1 cent per gallon to its residential customers.
“The more we sell, the less the price,” Vaughn said.
During a district board meeting after the news conference, Holloway said he is preparing a report comparing costs based on an average residential use of 5,000 gallons per month.
He indicated the comparison will show MVSD rates lower than those of its competitor.