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If your website still talks like a Ford town, Geelong has moved on without you

A city that replaced its whole economic identity in under a decade has a workforce and customer base that doesn’t look like it did in 2015. Neither should the way local businesses present themselves.

Australia•1 min read
← The Australia series

The city changed faster than most businesses did

Geelong's economic transformation — from a 91-year car-manufacturing town to a health, education and advanced-manufacturing economy growing faster than almost anywhere else in the country — happened inside less than a decade. That's a genuinely fast turnover for an entire regional economy. A local business whose marketing, tone or online presence hasn't been revisited since the Ford era is presenting itself to a city that has demonstrably moved on.

A new, more qualified workforce is arriving

Deakin's Waurn Ponds campus and the Future Economy Precinct are drawing in researchers, engineers and health professionals who are, on average, better educated and more digitally comfortable than the workforce a car-manufacturing economy typically produced. That's not a value judgement about the old workforce — it's a description of who's actually searching for local services now.

Growth this fast means genuinely new customers

With population growing at 2.2% a year and manufacturing employment posting its second straight year of the region's largest job gains, a significant share of Geelong's current population wasn't there five years ago — arrivals with no accumulated local knowledge of which businesses are good, finding out entirely through online research.

The practical read

Geelong's transformation is a genuine opportunity for local businesses willing to update how they present themselves to match it — a fast-growing population of new arrivals is actively searching for services, with no legacy loyalty to compete against.

Sources

This piece draws on the Ford-closure and growth facts already sourced in the companion piece on Geelong's economy — see that piece's Sources section for direct links.

Caveats and sourcing

  • Characterising claims — this entire piece is interpretation built on the verified facts in the companion economic piece.

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