.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Marketing and community development might seem like very different professions, but for Kent Zimmerman, they’ve been a natural progression. The Chicago native was lured to Des Moines by a marketing job in the mid-1980s, which he later left to help start the Zimmerman, Laurent & Richardson Inc. advertising agency. Zimmerman left ZLR in the early 1990s to focus on marketing consulting. With The Zimmerman Co., he became involved in opening Hotel Pattee in Perry, which later led to an interest in community development. He created a model to help revitalize small communities and churches, which the Wallace House adopted. Now, the 66-year-old has joined the foundation as president and CEO to continue his work.

What led you to leave advertising for consulting?

I wanted to get much more involved in the marketing consulting role. I’m a classic marketer by training and I’m very much a process kind of person. What we brought together in The Zimmerman Co. was my marketing background and my wife, Anne’s, public relations background.

How did you become involved with the Wallace House Foundation?

Along the way, I met Richard Graves. He knew my interest in small towns, and subsequently the board and Richard hired me to help them develop their strategic plan. Before there were two programs I helped start: Community Success and Church Solutions. The process of establishing them was an effort between The Zimmerman Co., the Wallace House Foundation and a couple of other groups. We started doing a bunch of pilot work, and I decided it would be great if it was brought under a 501(c)(3) organization, rather than this loose collaboration. So we approached the Wallace House board with the idea.

What do these programs mean for the Wallace House?

This is a house museum whose influence is going to be significantly greater than the traditional house museum. As I got into working with the board, it seemed logical that this could be a great extension of the Wallace family legacy of civic participation. At the time this started to happen, Richard decided he wanted to go back to full-time ministry. My wife and I also were deciding if we were going to continue to work. Sadly, my wife was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She’s the one that encouraged me to apply for this position.

In what direction is the foundation headed?

The first year of our plan, we made a commitment to establish the foundation in an organizational and staff sense. So we have a full-time marketing and development director and administrative assistant. Then we have what we call related consultants, who are involved in our various programs. At the same time, we established three programs: hosted conversations, convening events and learning programs. Now (the issue is), how do we build the financial stability of the organization by effectively helping carry out these kinds of programs?

How do you go from marketing into community development?

The first job I had out of college was with Swift & Co. I was a marketing manager assigned to Butterball turkeys. We were losing market share, and needed to reverse the trend. To understand the consumer and market, I went out before Thanksgiving to watch how people buy turkeys. On my way back to the office, I ran into the general manager of my division. I asked him, “Have you ever watched a 125-pound housewife try to pick up a 35-pound turkey on the bottom of a pile of turkeys? We need to put a handle on the turkey.” Over the next several months, we designed a new package with a loop at the top. Market share increased by 10 percent and Butterball remained the national leader. That’s what I call marketing – designing products that meet the needs of the consumer. Communities are no different. They must be designed to meet the needs of their residents, visitors, businesses and businesses looking to relocate.