Craig Agranoff

TV Marketing Personality, Persuasion Marketing Consultant, Author of 3 Marketing Books & Adjunct Professor. My tweets are my own opinion.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

The next generation grew up connected to the entire world.

Good luck convincing them to stay somewhere that offers less opportunity, less excitement, and fewer experiences than places they’ve already seen online.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

You can become incredibly skilled at running programs that nobody needs. Mastery of irrelevance is still irrelevance

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

Every college graduation season, communities talk about keeping young people.

Very few ask what young people actually want.

Opportunity?
Social life?
Walkability?
Career growth?
Culture?

Or are we assuming they should want what we want?

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

@toddsaunders @girdley Reminds me of those restaurants that flourished for 30 years and they sell to someone and the business goes under.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

I’ve watched struggling corridors try to market themselves endlessly online.

But then you arrive and the experience feels neglected.

Marketing can get someone there once. The physical environment determines whether they come back.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

@KTG_CRE Been hoping they come to Pompano Beach, FL too!

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

An economic development director told me, “We have the best incentive package in the region and still can’t attract talent.”

I asked what it feels like to walk from city hall to lunch.

He laughed and said, “Honestly? Stressful.”

There it was. The brain decides before the spreadsheet does.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

One beautiful street can create more long-term economic momentum than 50 pages of strategic planning documents.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

@DavidNLefkowitz Big fan of those! Not the soggy ones though! And let’s not forget their chocolate.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

French fries originated in Belgium.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

There are communities where residents drive past struggling local businesses to spend money at national chains 20 minutes away…then wonder why nothing local survives.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

An ice cream store owner once told me: “I opened here because my wife loved walking this street.”

That stuck with me.

Not because it sounded poetic.
Because it was economically important.

Beauty drives behavior more than most cities are willing to admit.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

Some cities keep chasing billion-dollar projects while ignoring cracked sidewalks, ugly signage, dead landscaping, and deteriorating storefronts.

Meanwhile those “small details” are shaping perception every day.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

Economic development agencies love spreadsheets.

Meanwhile, human beings are making emotional decisions about places in under 10 seconds.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

If every surrounding district is improving except one, eventually you have to stop blaming outsiders and start examining internal leadership and culture.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

Infill development isn’t ruining your neighborhood. The four-decade-old building that hasn’t paid enough taxes to cover its own road maintenance is ruining your neighborhood.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

If a realtor’s strategy requires a future price reduction, it wasn’t a strategy.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

Most cities completely misunderstand Memorial Day from a civic standpoint.

They market it like an event schedule instead of treating it like one of the few moments where a community is emotionally connected at the same time.

People won’t remember the flyer.
They won’t remember the politician’s speech.

They’ll remember:
The silence.
The flags.
The veteran standing alone.
The child placing a flower.

Strong places are built through shared emotional memory far more than branding campaigns.
That’s the part most cities miss.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

I’ve noticed something interesting:

Thriving districts usually talk about possibilities.

Declining districts talk almost exclusively about enemies.

That mindset difference matters more than people think.

[Craig Agranoff @Lapp]

@TaraBull Don’t we only have one Florida governor? 🤔