Marketing Plan

PHILADELPHIA Archbishop Charles Chaput was to host a town-hall meeting today to announce marketing procedures to encourage increases in enrollment in Catholic high schools. Leaders of the 17 archdiocesan high schools were to gather at the Archdiocese Pastoral Center, 222 N. 17th St., to learn how to become "active ambassadors" for their schools. Catholic high-school and elementary students may log on to the Archdiocese's website ( www.archphila.org ) to ask questions via two-way web conferencing.

I am writing to comment on Michael Hinkelman's April 14 story about the strides that Charlotte, N.C., has made in attracting Fortune 500 companies. Charlotte aggressively markets itself, spending about $5 million each year on its business identity and brand. There is no doubt that the city and the greater Philadelphia area have much to offer and must do a better job in marketing itself as a premier international business location. The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce has recognized the urgent need for a world-class marketing effort.

Good schools, diverse neighborhoods and a lovely, leafy community within a nickel's throw of Philadelphia have been the laurels that this township has rested on for decades. Still, even the best reputations can be quickly tarnished, and some residents say their town's good name was tainted during the spring, when racial issues surrounding the Cheltenham School District's decision to redistrict 300 elementary students took center stage. So a group of residents approached the township with the idea of creating a marketing plan that would identify and highlight Cheltenham's unique attributes, based on the results of a telephone survey that will be taken after the new year.

Liz Reilly peered out the window of her Artworks gallery on State Street, and she didn't like what she saw: A tractor-trailer loaded with automobiles rumbled past. For Reilly, who owns the only art gallery in Kennett Square, permitting trucks that large to grunt their way through the business district is an obvious turnoff to sidewalk shoppers. And for Kennett Square's merchants, who continue to try to shake the recession's lethargy, turnoffs like that are the last thing they need.

Alex Egyed lived an American success story that ended nine years ago with a horrific twist. And his legacy lives on at AW Computer Systems Inc., of Mount Laurel, which he headed when he died in 1984. Namely, through a continuing worry: When will his estate sell the nearly 10 percent of the company it still owns? Not in a headlong, price-busting rush, the company announced yesterday, seeking to quell rumors. Egyed's story started when he came to America as a Hungarian refugee in 1956.

The owner of a Newtown Square video-production company was arrested by FBI agents at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport yesterday after she disguised herself and tried to sell a secret SmithKline Beecham marketing plan to one of the drug maker's main competitors, authorities said. Rebecca J. Lindquester, 42, was arrested in the parking lot of the Airport Marriott, FBI agents said, moments after they saw her turn over papers and receive $25,000 from a security officer employed by Glaxo Inc. Glaxo makes the anti-ulcer drug Zantac, the main competitor to Tagamet, an ulcer treatment made by SmithKline, whose U.S. headquarters are in Philadelphia.

Nutri/System Inc. of Willow Grove has filed suit against Weight Watchers International Inc. and a former Nutri/System employee, charging that they conspired to steal documents, secret formulas and marketing plans. In the suit, filed yesterday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, Nutri/System alleges that the employee, Jean Bakken, of Philadelphia, misappropriated confidential and privileged trade secrets and then jumped ship Sept. 6 to work for Weight Watchers, which is owned by H.J. Heinz of Pittsburgh.

For years, officials at the prestigious Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania operated under the assumption that the hospital did not have to attract patients because patients would find it. And that was largely the way it worked until HUP posted back-to-back operating losses totaling $14.1 million the last two years. Now, in a break with tradition, university officials have decided to begin marketing the hospital and two related organizations that together form the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Alan Armstrong, owner and operator of Tiffany Dining Place & Gazebo in Whitpain, has been named Restaurateur of the Year by the Philadelphia Delaware Valley Restaurant Association (PDVRA), a regional food-service trade association. The 23-year-old restaurant, known for its Victorian motif and American- style menu, was recognized as one of Armstrong's significant professional achievements, said Rosemary Serembus, the association's executive director. Armstrong is a past president of PDVRA, a member of the Culinary Institute of America Corp.

Success requires more than offering a topnotch product or service. It means telling the world. Entrepreneurs can learn about ways to do that at three workshops this month. The Pennsylvania Innovation Network consultants' group is offering a program today on how to use computers for marketing. "Marketing in the Electronic Age" will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Farmhouse, 12 Great Valley Parkway, East Whiteland. The cost is $10 for members, $20 for nonmembers. To register, call 610-647-6633.

PHILADELPHIA Archbishop Charles Chaput was to host a town-hall meeting today to announce marketing procedures to encourage increases in enrollment in Catholic high schools. Leaders of the 17 archdiocesan high schools were to gather at the Archdiocese Pastoral Center, 222 N. 17th St., to learn how to become "active ambassadors" for their schools. Catholic high-school and elementary students may log on to the Archdiocese's website ( www.archphila.org ) to ask questions via two-way web conferencing.

"I think it's a momentous day for investor confidence. What this number implies is that the financial crisis that we were all losing sleep over, it never happened, because now we're back. " - Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank, said about the Dow's clearing the 13,000 mark Tuesday for the first time since May 2008. "All of my clients mindlessly signed where they were directed and automatically bobbed their heads whenever they were asked if they understood.

New Jersey has become one of the country's leaders in solar energy, but renewable-energy advocates fear that reductions in subsidies that spurred the growth may cast a shadow over the industry. The program that once gave homeowners 70 percent of the $40,000 average cost to install solar panels has significantly scaled back its grants to home and business owners, signaling to some that the program may soon end. "New Jersey has switched to a market-based program," said Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (D., Middlesex)

It was about marketing, and that's what Jim Moran found appealing about working with Creative Real Estate Innovations (CREI), the development company run by Gagandeep Lakhmna and his partners, Harbir Singh and Amardeep "Billy" Grewal. What Moran didn't anticipate was being stiffed for his work to the tune of $140,000 - the cost of getting CREI's first and priciest condo project, 101 Walnut, on the market and sold. "It has been the most frustrating year and a half," said Moran, who with Paul Newman founded and owns Co-op Branding in Manhattan, an international marketing firm with a host of high-powered clients, including Johnson & Johnson and Loews Hotel Group.

If all goes as planned, a farmers market will sprout in the spring on a parking lot in Bryn Mawr. The Lower Merion Board of Commissioners approved a licensing agreement last night with Farm to City, a small business that will operate the Saturday-only market. The 12-1 vote came despite opposition from one local management company. Kimco Realty, manager of the Ardmore Farmers Market in Suburban Square, Ardmore, said it "significantly contributed to the tax base, unlike the proposed vendor.

Bernice Arrington peeked out of the white tent and pumped a fist. Through raindrops, she watched as a truck demolished an old brick house in the infamous "alley" of her East Camden neighborhood. "This is a rainy day, but a beautiful day," said Arrington, who has lived around the corner for three decades. "Inside of me, I'm happy as can be. " Through public money administered by two community groups, a square block notorious for prostitution and drug dealing is to be turned into a new community of 42 homes.

Debra A. Sandler Worldwide president for McNeil Nutritionals L.L.C., a Johnson & Johnson company based in Fort Washington, whose major brands are Splenda, Viactive, Benecol and Lactaid. Where she's from: Sandler was raised in Trinidad and Tobago in a worldly, multilingual family and with ambitions toward international diplomacy. She had her eyes on the Sorbonne - she speaks French, English and Spanish - but was detoured to Hofstra University because her mother wouldn't hear of her only child living on her own in Paris.

The Philadelphia Regional Produce Market hopes its fourth try to find growing room will prevail. The third time certainly wasn't charmed. In May, after two years of strong support from Gov. Rendell and State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), the governor canceled plans to move the market to the Navy Yard in the face of rising costs and protests from labor unions eager for that land to be used for port expansion. Now, the market hopes to expand near its current location at Third Street and Packer Avenue.

New Jersey plans to spend $1.25 million this summer to market the Shore, create a cohesive plan to preserve coastal culture, and bring in a world-class bicycle race in 2006, all to boost the state's $30 billion tourism industry. But unless tourism workers and residents learn to be friendlier to visitors, the initiatives announced yesterday at the Summit on the Shore III will go only so far, said Doug Lipp, a former Disney training executive. So from June 13 to 17, just as the Shore's summer tourism season kicks in, Lipp will present 10 free seminars that officials hope attract about 5,000 tourism-related workers.

Mayor Street said he called on a city councilman a few days ago to talk immigration policy but never heard back. That councilman, Jim Kenney, said he had been calling the mayor for years about immigration and had been systematically rebuffed. So yesterday, Kenney decided to take it to the voters, introducing a bill together with Councilman Juan F. Ramos to allow city residents to decide whether Philadelphia should open a new office dedicated to immigrants and immigration issues.