TEG xplore Attracting & Growing the Right Conference Audience
Aled Singleton Petcha Kucha
1. Aled Singleton
1 + 3 ERSC PHD
Neighbourhood shopping and
older people with dementia
2. The problem
“There is a gap in our knowledge of
how the retail sector, designers,
planners, and architects consider the
needs of older people who have
dementia, and balance these needs
with their desire to maximise profit
when designing shop environments.”
3. Start somewhere
• Need to find opportunities for field
research in year 2 of PhD
• Where are opportunities in places
that ‘desire to maximise profit’ ?
• Start by understanding what certain
places say about themselves: brand
4. Place branding
• A place brand is what people in
places consistently say about it
• A brand is what outsiders sense
• The social construction of place -
how are people involved in brands?
• Place-governance and history
5. The 4 Rs of place branding
Rights
Roles
Relationships
Responsibilities
Sense of Place
6.
7.
8.
9. Celebration of a place through contemporary and quality
design
Injecting pride…..talking your town up
Investor confidence, being unique and role of media
10. What this means for my research
• Can inform demands of theoretical
research e.g. ontology of place for:
–retail sector;
–designers;
–planners and
–architects
Editor's Notes
Cwmbran
Relies on ability to connect with strength of recognised brands
The Cwmbran Shopping website mentions the types of shops and dining place that it has; they are all multiples and established brands which they just have to point to. The brand refers to the accessibility of the place and the fact that it is under cover.
Down to earth and honest
Looking further at the internet, there’s a Facebook page caked ‘Cwmbran Life’ which is followed by nearly 8,000. It seems to be very down to earth with a mixture of fun stories and support for community activities when people put things on. See below for the some recent posts – 442 likes for a community play is pretty impressive.
Cardiff Bay
The brand is supply-led and pretty consistent in terms of mentioning the same things:
– words from Mermaid Quay website
CARDIFF BAY: life is better by the water
The Bay is Cardiff’s most popular visitor destination.
Attractions fanning out along the Waterfront either side of
Mermaid Quay include Techniquest, Wales Millennium Centre, The Senedd, The Pierhead & the Doctor Who Experience.
10K new homes built in last 10 years and 4K more in pipeline, 90% private.
Local employers include BBC Wales Drama Village & ITV Cymru Wales
The governance model is Mermaid Quay as owners of the retail with public sector ownership of the public space – especially the barrage and the Welsh Government buildings
Porthcawl is a place which has competing brands – very much revealed by a Google search
It seems that the group of attractions on the eastern side of town (Coney Beach Amusement Park, Elvis Festival and Newton Beach) have a really strong Google and Facebook presence but weak Twitter and poor ratings on Trip Advisor.
The centre as a group (town centre, cafes, Museum and Pavilion) have very positive (but low amounts) of Trip Advisor reviews, average Facebook and less than average Twitter.
The west side of the town (surfing, Rest Bay and golf) has great Trip Advisor ratings and good Twitter but relatively low Facebook.
There is very little brand strength for individual cafes / bars / hotels or community-based organisations. There are also some local social media platforms which have good tweet to follower ratios and could gain more following if they put out more regular content. There is scope for a group of local stakeholders to coordinate a brand – starting with the Wikipedia entry – leading to the 10.9k Facebook likes - and maybe working harder on trip advisor recommendations.
