For a company, the costs to grow from ~5% brand awareness to 90%-plus in two years would be enormous, if not impossible. However, the residents of Summit County have witnessed such a feat.
I recently attended the Park City Follies. I truly admire the volunteer writers, performers, and producers that put on an entertaining show. It had a mafia theme with different Park City Families – Pickleballer, Tennis, Bikers, and Ski/Snow. However, the main villain was a company called Fakota Pacific, which, after handing a bag of money to state legislators, stated we will “build what we bought” because we bought ALL of Park City! Fakota tried to get the families to fight each other, but in the end the community came together.
Dakota Pacific was unknown to most residents in 2021. I did a time-warp 2021 non-scientific survey of friends, neighbors, and my dog to ask about Dakota. A few said Railroad company, one confused it with the Oregon Trail, and my dog just wanted a treat for sitting nicely. Fast forward to May 2023, and Dakota has universal brand awareness and is so well-known they are featured villains of the Follies!
While business schools can study Dakota’s amazing brand success, I decided to provide my simplistic business analysis. Dakota has followed the advice of my high school teacher, Mr. Carnegie, who stated that to win friends and influence people you should insult and belittle them (seriously I don’t remember any of my teacher’s names).
For example, Dakota Pacific CEO Marc Stanworth has decried NIMBYism from the opposition — that the average Summit County resident doesn’t object to Dakota’s proposal, it is just a vocal group of “organized elitists” driving the opposition.
I wanted to find these pro-Dakota Average Residents (AE) and call-out the Organized Elitists (OE).
I asked my wife if Stanworth could be referring to me as an OE. She reminded me that I am really not “elite” at anything (although a pretty good husband/dad), and I’m not organized. Whew! Therefore, he must have been referring to the 1,000 people that attended the December 2021 hearing, or the 800/900 people that attended the March 2023 public hearings. Except, I attended all of those sessions where 98%-plus of the attendees were opposed. These residents were old and young (including children), tall and short, nonprofits or business people, and represented Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Seems to include a mix of people that anyone would define as “average residents.”
Moving on, I decided to review Dakota’s other statements about Summit County. Stanworth claims that the county did a “bait and switch” when council members gave verbal assurances that their project would be welcomed. I checked with a friend who runs sales for a large company, and he confirmed that his team does not get paid on verbal assurances, customers need to sign contracts. Finally, Stanworth stated that the problem started when public opposition grew, but it’s only a coincidence that they then went to the state Legislature for help.
Political elitism is defined as a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth and political power.
Failing to identify Organized Elitist or pro-Dakota Average Residents, I looked at one final Dakota statement. Stanworth claims their motive is to help address Summit County’s workforce housing issue. I think I found the Bait and Switch! (A “bait and switch” takes place when a seller creates an appealing but not genuine offer, which they do not actually intend to deliver/fulfill.)