La Jolla Businesses Consider a Unified Marketing Push

About 80 La Jolla business people will meet tonight to determine whether a marketing and advertising campaign would entice more local residents and out-of-town tourists to shop and eat in La Jolla instead of at the growing number of shopping centers elsewhere in San Diego County.

“We’ve become a much more sophisticated county and with sophistication comes choice,” according to David Brand, president of Brand advertising agency, who organized the “Promote LJ” group several months ago. “People have a lot of choice now when it comes to where to shop, where to dine, where to have fun.

“They can go to Horton Plaza, University Towne Centre and North County Fair, so it’s no wonder that La Jolla is kind of wasting away.”

Representatives of about 80 of La Jolla’s 450 shops, restaurants, professional offices and service companies will attend tonight’s meeting at the La Jolla Woman’s Club, according to Brand.

Focus on L.A., Orange County, Arizona Too

The Promote LJ group wants La Jolla merchants to stage a marketing campaign that would focus both on San Diego and elsewhere. Brand suggested that La Jolla should advertise locally, in Orange County, Los Angeles and Arizona.

“We need to promote (La Jolla) like the world-class shopping center it certainly has the ability to be,” Brand said. “It’s getting harder and harder to compete with the major shopping centers of San Diego County that have year-round promotional budgets.”

The group’s recent mailings to La Jolla businesses have suggested that the area create a “consistent, well-funded advertising” campaign that plays on La Jolla’s advantages--including its “year-round shopping environment that doesn’t need to be enclosed and air-conditioned.”

The Promote LJ group also has complained that La Jolla’s “shopping hours seem to disregard potential customers’ schedules because merchants keep their own hours.” Brand hopes merchants will keep their La Jolla stores open until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Promote LJ’s board includes Brand; Alexander Bende of Alexander Perfumes and Cosmetics; Robert Carlyle, general manager of the Colonial Inn Hotel, and Gerhard Klein of Little Switzerland Jewelers.