Still being under 30 myself along with running a digital agency, I have quite a different perspective than the traditional decision makers in charge of the strategic direction of town centres. Looking at the ever declining high streets and town centres, I believe this is due to local authorities missing a trick or two when it comes to future planning with far too much focus on ‘the good old days’. We shouldn’t be trying to re-create what we once had in the town centres, instead we should be embracing the changing world we live in and create town centres worth visiting. The concept of a town centres has to change significantly to cater for the needs of the modern person.
Traditionally, town centres were the place where everyone visited on a regular basis to buy things. Whether this is visiting your green grocers, butchers, fish mongers, bakers or shopping for clothes, video games and other general things. Nowadays, we have seen these traditional shops disappear in general (we’ll ignore the ‘artisan’ movement for the moment…), with them being replaced by budget bakeries, charity shops, pound shops and other rather non-exciting businesses. People still shop in these types of shops if they are heading into the town centre anyway, but let’s be serious, no-one at all is going to go out of their way to visit one of these boring shops. With much more fun places either at home online or exciting venues to visit, why would you ever head into a town centre?
The term town centre can be misconstrued, so just to clarify, I’m talking about the town centres for…towns…not cities. Cities have a very different feel about them and cities are already thriving places in general. General town centres are very uninspiring with nothing to excite and inspire people to visit the centre. Town centres have lost their mojo.
It’s time for town centres to get their mojo back. Let’s look at the realities of retail and the changing expectations of customers. Traditional retail on the high street in town centres is never going to revive the town centres. People can purchase goods and services online for cheaper and with a wider range, so why would you ever go into the town centre to purchase goods? Going back a generation or two, it was seen as a tropical holiday to visit Blackpool in the summer. How times have changed. People of my generation think nothing about travelling a few hours for work and play with many people I know personally having migrated from various countries to work in bustling cities. The world has significantly changed. Yet town centres haven’t. They are still focused on getting people back into the town centre to shop. This is never going to happen. Looking at the many towns within Lancashire as an example, what do they offer that Manchester city centre cannot offer in greater forms? Generally speaking, nothing.
So what should town centres be focusing on then? Entertainment and lifestyle. People are looking for different, exciting and new things to do on a daily basis – so let’s give it to them. Forget traditional shopping and think about fun things that people can do. Events, festivals, special markets, food, drink, parades, celebrations and more. Let’s give people a reason to want to visit the town centres.
Lifestyle and entertainment is the only way to bring our town centres back to life and this naturally includes bridging the gap between online and offline – the way the real world works, a good blend of the two. Currently we live in a world whereby online and offline are treated as two separate things, particularly at a local level, this needs to change so that fun things are communicated in an effective way. This is what people are looking for, so let’s look about giving it to them. Artisan shops aren’t the whole solution. Independent shops, restaurants and bars are needed but they will only thrive in a bustling town centre, they aren’t going to create the buzz to drive people back in on their own.
You need to look no further than the regular events that happen throughout various town centres to see how these can work effectively at bringing people together, an awful lot of people attend these types of events throughout the country. 10k runs, Tough Mudder, Chinese New Year, bonfire night, Pride parades, carnivals, beer festivals, chocolate festivals, Christmas markets and more. Why can’t all town centres make a commitment to running an event at least monthly to give people a reason to visit, something fun, entertaining and inspiring. There is no reason why this cannot happen.
The one of the current solutions to bringing people back into town centre often comes about in the form of Business Improvement Districts which are tasked with boosting business and creating jobs. Printing a few flyers and handing them out to people who are already using the town centre is not a solution. Neither is a flashy website with information about the projects, which often aren’t going far enough and simply list businesses in the form of a directory on the website. Boring – I can find this basic information on Google. This is not enough to give people a reason to go out of their way and visit the town centres. When you compare these activities to the amount of people that congregate when fun events are put together as outlined earlier, this is how to bring people back into the town centres – give them a reason to visit, not just locally but other neighbouring towns too.
Promotion is key here though. Simply putting on an event is not enough. And by event, I mean something that is actually good. Not putting up a temporary ice rink at Christmas when there is a permanent Ice Rink less than 5 miles away, nor creating a fake beach in a town centres – I can get a flight to Spain for £40, when parking in the town centre is over £5 for the day. Yes…these are real examples of projects designed to bring people back into town centres…Difficult choice to make, fake beach in a town centre or Spain…
While on the topic of car parking though, this is an important one because this is actively putting people off visiting town centres, all for the quick gain for local authorities to use as an additional revenue stream. Remove the barriers to entry and more people will visit town centres. Online deliveries cost less than paid parking in town centres. Again, why would people visit a town centre to buy products they can purchase cheaper and more efficiently online?
Looking at promotion though, this is essential to communicate fun things with local people, both in the town and in neighbouring towns. Placing an article in the local newspaper, which no-one is reading, is not going to cut it. Digital advertising and communication are essential to making events a success. How many times have you personally found out about an event, after it has happened, even though it was in your own local town? This happens far too often. Promotion using digital channels is one of the most effective ways of communicating with local people.
Town centres must change or they will die. Personally I can honestly say that I have had no need to visit a local town centre for well over 5 years. I have passed through or visited multiple town centres less than a handful of times in recent years as I can get everything I need online or in major cities which have more to offer. When I have visited more local places, this is because of lifestyle and entertainment reasons – events, festivals, special occasions in the year, parades, food, drink and more. None of this is the traditional shopping related activities.
Have a think on this personally and look to see for yourself how your own habits have changed over recent years. For most reading this, either you are also in a similar position or you are during the transition period working towards this. Most people don’t visit the town centre for shopping activities on a regular basis anymore.
Then what do we do beyond special monthly events? How about we look to make towns more exciting and a fun place to be for people;
With so many opportunities to turn towns into vibrant places that people want to visit, there are no excuses to see failing high streets and town centres. It’s time we started to look at what the modern consumer is looking for and start to cater for this digitally enabled and socially active market. It’s time for town centres to get their mojo back.
Being in a position whereby people come to us for help to grow their business, I personally hear a lot of stories from companies of varying sizes, all with one thing in common – they are ambitious companies looking to grow. Wanting to increase sales and revenue for their business. Businesses come to us to support these ambitions with strategic digital marketing support that they can rely on.
With big ambitions from many companies, we often hear many of the same problems related to digital opportunities. The first being the lack of understanding in this area. The second being the lack of funding available for projects which are often a reasonable sum of money for many companies. This is not related to small businesses of less than 5 employees, this applies throughout the whole range of the traditional SME bracket (<249 full time employees). Companies with over 150 employees, still come to us asking us “So what is this Twitter thing?”, using the wrong limiting technology and worried about spending any money due to the possibility of this being the wrong decision. In summary, this all comes down to a lack of understanding about technologies and the opportunities it brings along with lack of grant money available for investing in digital assets.
Looking at the range of funded projects available, many of which are European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) backed, one has to ask the question if they are suitable for the modern digital world we live in? To date, of the many funded projects that I am aware of both locally and nationally, none support serious investment into digital for ambitious companies. I believe this is a huge failing area that needs serious attention. Funded projects/schemes generally fall into a few categories; strategic business support; coaching; workshops; capital grants. None of which help companies with ambitions to invest seriously in digital. Digital is not a sector to invest in, digital in an enabler for businesses to increase sales, grow and become more profitable. It’s time to shift thinking away from the usual funded categories and start to fund valuable areas that help companies grow.
Living in a digital world allows companies to sell products and services globally in a much more efficient way than ever before. We trade internationally and it is easier than ever to trade internationally through the internet. Speaking with one company only yesterday, a fabrication company specialising in manufacturing a wide range of large metal container type products, managing to accidentally generate enquiries through their website (which quite honestly, is a website that belongs in 1996). If a company in this situation can manage to accidentally generate enquiries from overseas, imagine what they could achieve with the right help, support, guidance and serious investment into digital. This is not a lone example, I hear many similar stories from a lot of companies.
When I talk about digital, the things that I am talking about is; cloud technologies, websites, ecommerce, international growth through online enquiries/sales, email marketing, strategic social media (not simply playing around on social media which many businesses are doing), search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising and more. Digital technologies are advancing at a faster pace than ever before, yet we are still in a situation whereby many large companies aren’t getting the basics in place when it comes to their online presence.
So what is the solution? We have seen fantastic projects recently throughout the country as part of the rollout of fibre broadband, yet these have unfortunately come/coming to an end. This is a real shame that this has happened and one that needs to continue in one way, shape or form. Businesses not only want support in this area, but they need support in this area. Digital technologies, marketing opportunities and online social interactions are what is going to drive business growth in the years to come. Yet we are still in a position whereby these types of activities aren’t funded for ambitious companies.
The solution here is for funding support programmes to look beyond the typical capital grants and strategic support areas. Businesses sometimes need some hands on work that will take them to the next step related to their digital presence. Think about this, what is the difference between a capital grant to purchase a new piece of equipment to increase turnover, or, a website grant to purchase a new piece of technology to increase turnover? There isn’t one. They are aiming to achieve the same thing. Unless of course, capital grants aren’t actually designed to increase turnover and create jobs, but they are designed to increase balance sheet assets. Let’s not touch on that topic any further though.
Personally, I believe funded projects, funded support and grants are failing ambitious companies looking to grow and utilise the opportunities digital provides. It will be interesting to see how/if this changes over the coming months. I do hope that we see a serious uptake in investment into projects that can deliver real value within a business beyond the typical capital grants that are handed out.
Being in a position whereby people come to us for help to grow their business, I personally hear a lot of stories from companies of varying sizes, all with one thing in common – they are ambitious companies looking to grow. Wanting to increase sales and revenue for their business. Businesses come to us to support these ambitions with strategic digital marketing support that they can rely on.
With big ambitions from many companies, we often hear many of the same problems related to digital opportunities. The first being the lack of understanding in this area. The second being the lack of funding available for projects which are often a reasonable sum of money for many companies. This is not related to small businesses of less than 5 employees, this applies throughout the whole range of the traditional SME bracket (<249 full time employees). Companies with over 150 employees, still come to us asking us “So what is this Twitter thing?”, using the wrong limiting technology and worried about spending any money due to the possibility of this being the wrong decision. In summary, this all comes down to a lack of understanding about technologies and the opportunities it brings along with lack of grant money available for investing in digital assets.
Looking at the range of funded projects available, many of which are European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) backed, one has to ask the question if they are suitable for the modern digital world we live in? To date, of the many funded projects that I am aware of both locally and nationally, none support serious investment into digital for ambitious companies. I believe this is a huge failing area that needs serious attention. Funded projects/schemes generally fall into a few categories; strategic business support; coaching; workshops; capital grants. None of which help companies with ambitions to invest seriously in digital. Digital is not a sector to invest in, digital in an enabler for businesses to increase sales, grow and become more profitable. It’s time to shift thinking away from the usual funded categories and start to fund valuable areas that help companies grow.
Living in a digital world allows companies to sell products and services globally in a much more efficient way than ever before. We trade internationally and it is easier than ever to trade internationally through the internet. Speaking with one company only yesterday, a fabrication company specialising in manufacturing a wide range of large metal container type products, managing to accidentally generate enquiries through their website (which quite honestly, is a website that belongs in 1996). If a company in this situation can manage to accidentally generate enquiries from overseas, imagine what they could achieve with the right help, support, guidance and serious investment into digital. This is not a lone example, I hear many similar stories from a lot of companies.
When I talk about digital, the things that I am talking about is; cloud technologies, websites, ecommerce, international growth through online enquiries/sales, email marketing, strategic social media (not simply playing around on social media which many businesses are doing), search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising and more. Digital technologies are advancing at a faster pace than ever before, yet we are still in a situation whereby many large companies aren’t getting the basics in place when it comes to their online presence.
So what is the solution? We have seen fantastic projects recently throughout the country as part of the rollout of fibre broadband, yet these have unfortunately come/coming to an end. This is a real shame that this has happened and one that needs to continue in one way, shape or form. Businesses not only want support in this area, but they need support in this area. Digital technologies, marketing opportunities and online social interactions are what is going to drive business growth in the years to come. Yet we are still in a position whereby these types of activities aren’t funded for ambitious companies.
The solution here is for funding support programmes to look beyond the typical capital grants and strategic support areas. Businesses sometimes need some hands on work that will take them to the next step related to their digital presence. Think about this, what is the difference between a capital grant to purchase a new piece of equipment to increase turnover, or, a website grant to purchase a new piece of technology to increase turnover? There isn’t one. They are aiming to achieve the same thing. Unless of course, capital grants aren’t actually designed to increase turnover and create jobs, but they are designed to increase balance sheet assets. Let’s not touch on that topic any further though.
Personally, I believe funded projects, funded support and grants are failing ambitious companies looking to grow and utilise the opportunities digital provides. It will be interesting to see how/if this changes over the coming months. I do hope that we see a serious uptake in investment into projects that can deliver real value within a business beyond the typical capital grants that are handed out.
Recently we were invited to the historic Lancashire County Hall in Preston to receive thanks for a community based charitable organisation we are involved with, Jackhouse Nature Reserve. The chairman’s dinner was a way of Lancashire County Council to say thanks to all those individuals and businesses who get involved with volunteer work related to maintaining the beautiful nature throughout Lancashire.
We believe the outside space around us is vital to maintain and encourage people to enjoy the wonders of what is on their doorstep. Which is why we work with Jackhouse Nature Reserve on a voluntary basis, to promote the place for local people to enjoy. The journey so far has been an exciting one that we have been involved with for quite some time now, where the group of volunteers running the group have managed to generate a good sum of money to fund the development of paths around the nature reserve to make it easy for anyone to access, from families to people of all generations.
Several members of the Jackhouse Nature Reserve group attended the chairman’s dinner at Lancashire County Hall to receive personal thanks from senior council officials including County Councillor Kevin Ellard, County Councillor Margaret Brindle and County Councillor Tony Martin. While the council are facing an extremely hard time at the moment with the budgetary cuts, it is great to see that volunteer groups and those individuals and businesses involved with preserving Lancashire’s natural environments are being recognised for the work that is being done. People involved in projects like Jackhouse Nature Reserve and other projects don’t get involved for fame and fortune (they would be waiting a long time for that!), people get involved because the projects that are being run by volunteers are important to them in one way or another. So it’s nice to have some official recognition from Lancashire County Council.
May the good work continue for all community based volunteer projects running throughout Lancashire.
And just to finish off, where would we be without some pictures of the chamber where all Lancashire County Council councillors meet to discuss the changes that are happening. Very interesting architecture, which these photos from my mobile phone don’t really do justice.
We do get involved with charitable organisations, community interest groups and more to help out where we can. There is clearly only so much time in a day that we can devote to such projects, although do get in touch if a group that you are involved with needs some kind of support and we will be more than happy to have a coffee to see if there is anything we can help out with.
Recently we were invited to the historic Lancashire County Hall in Preston to receive thanks for a community based charitable organisation we are involved with, Jackhouse Nature Reserve. The chairman’s dinner was a way of Lancashire County Council to say thanks to all those individuals and businesses who get involved with volunteer work related to maintaining the beautiful nature throughout Lancashire.
We believe the outside space around us is vital to maintain and encourage people to enjoy the wonders of what is on their doorstep. Which is why we work with Jackhouse Nature Reserve on a voluntary basis, to promote the place for local people to enjoy. The journey so far has been an exciting one that we have been involved with for quite some time now, where the group of volunteers running the group have managed to generate a good sum of money to fund the development of paths around the nature reserve to make it easy for anyone to access, from families to people of all generations.
Several members of the Jackhouse Nature Reserve group attended the chairman’s dinner at Lancashire County Hall to receive personal thanks from senior council officials including County Councillor Kevin Ellard, County Councillor Margaret Brindle and County Councillor Tony Martin. While the council are facing an extremely hard time at the moment with the budgetary cuts, it is great to see that volunteer groups and those individuals and businesses involved with preserving Lancashire’s natural environments are being recognised for the work that is being done. People involved in projects like Jackhouse Nature Reserve and other projects don’t get involved for fame and fortune (they would be waiting a long time for that!), people get involved because the projects that are being run by volunteers are important to them in one way or another. So it’s nice to have some official recognition from Lancashire County Council.
May the good work continue for all community based volunteer projects running throughout Lancashire.
And just to finish off, where would we be without some pictures of the chamber where all Lancashire County Council councillors meet to discuss the changes that are happening. Very interesting architecture, which these photos from my mobile phone don’t really do justice.
We do get involved with charitable organisations, community interest groups and more to help out where we can. There is clearly only so much time in a day that we can devote to such projects, although do get in touch if a group that you are involved with needs some kind of support and we will be more than happy to have a coffee to see if there is anything we can help out with.
