0 Resources for the Local Economy: Living Over the Shop

Traditionally, Living Over the Shop (LOTS) was the obvious thing to do.  Before the era of mass pubic transport, commuting was limited.  What could be easier than rolling out of bed, downstairs and into your work area?  Students of the history of architecture will no doubt have records of several types of housing that allowed workers, their families and employees to live and work together.

Living Over the Shop in Sheffield Town Centre

Speaking of students of architecture, I met some this week on Fargate in central Sheffield.  They were displaying some of their work on uses for empty buildings in the city centre.  They have a Facebook page, Fargate Co-Studio 2016.  (I don’t know how long this page will be live, so if you are a historian of twenty-first century local economy bloggers, please don’t be disappointed if you don’t find it!)  If it is there, scroll down to see some of the students’ work.

Their work is most welcome.  We need a new generation of people able to re-purpose our city centres and indeed all the neighbourhood centres in our cities.  We don’t appreciate how much unused space is above the shops we use.  Look carefully at the shops in the photos on the Facebook page, find Paperchase and four or five stories above it are empty.  Julian Dobson covers this issue in his book “How to Save Our Town Centres“.  (This link is to one of three posts, go to Book Reviews and scroll down to find the others.)

Consulting with the Public and Communities

The students were asking for comments.  It is really hard to take in complex ideas on the fly.  You can see the level of detail in the students’ plans on the Facebook page.  To be asked to take this in and then respond constructively was a challenge.

Furthermore, when I got home and read their leaflets I discovered similar displays and activities were live on that one day in four other areas!  If I had known I would have followed their route and had a look at all their displays.  I still might not have had much to say, I like to have some time to ponder stuff before commenting.

So, simpler summary displays and more time would be really helpful and is likely to result in more constructive responses from the public.  The originals could still be available for inspection – they were beautiful to look at but hard to digest!

I don’t know the detail of the consultation that went on before the public displays this week.  However, yesterday I attended a conference about Co-Production, put on by the University of Sheffield’s Social Sciences Department.  This included some exciting models for participatory work between academics and communities, many of them in Sheffield.  It would be good to see some collaboration between these departments (or even better to find out it is already happening).  I shall blog about the co-production conference some time soon.

In summary, I liked what I saw and believe with good relationships with local groups, some ideas might get off the page and become reality.  The challenge is to move from an academic exercise to something that makes a real difference.

Inter-Disciplinary Solutions

Picking up my comment about co-production, let’s take it further.  Julian Dobson describes the need to integrate several factors to regenerate urban centres.  You will see some of them if you follow the above link to my review of his book.  If we are going to regenerate our city and neighbourhood centres, we need plans that support all aspects of the local economy.

Certainly way back in the fifties and sixties, small retailers would live over the shop.  It was the natural thing to do.  I suspect it was the new supermarkets that reduced the numbers of traders living over their shops.  Maybe the increasing mobility of populations and aspirations to live in leafy suburbia also led to its decline.

Even earlier, “over the shop” meant “over the workshop”.  Goods would be manufactured, perhaps to order, in the same buildings where they retailed.  In some times and places, the master (or mistress) would own a whole block.  Family and employees would live together and share communal facilities.  Clusters of such “shops” would form the agora, the marketplace where the public gathered for business and just about every other activity.

My father’s grandmother owned a hotel (technical name for a doss house apparently) and a nearby row of terrace houses.  They are now beneath University of Sheffield buildings, having been bombed during the war.  My father remembered as a child carrying buckets of water up the stairs in the hotel.  The family business is not such an ancient practice!

New Models for LOTS

What I am driving at is the need to build new models that allow for complexity of human interactions.  You will note I’ve introduced Living Over the Shop under my general heading of “Resources for the Local Economy”.  My aim is to build a database of ideas that will help regenerate local economies.  It is unlikely any of these approaches will suffice alone.

The architects must design spaces that accommodate both contemporary and future developments in the local economy.  Communities are not just spaces but essentially the relationships within them.  Financial arrangements between people form these relationships, as much as the nature of the spaces they occupy.

This is why as living over the shop opens up new spaces, we also need to see new financial arrangements that allow money to flow in new ways around our towns.

How can Universities work with local people to support and develop local economies?

1 In-Person Marketing: Networking

Networking is fundamental to community development and community-based marketing.  Many businesses find networks of local contacts a great platform for marketing their business.  I found much the same as a community development worker, supporting community groups building their membership.

Businesses have enshrined the one-to-one over coffee, whilst as a community development worker I met a lot of people in their workplace or home.

The first step is to meet people.  This can be hard if you are, like me, introvert.  I can happily hide out in a crowd and not talk to anyone.  This is never particularly helpful.  There are broadly two ways to do networking.

The Networking Event

These are often advertised as network events but any events where people gather will do.  At a big event you will speak to a small number of people, even if you are extrovert.  So, the first point for my fellow introverts is you will never get to speak to everyone so don’t worry if it doesn’t feel as if you are meeting enough people.  No one speaks to everyone at networking events.

Once you’re in a conversation and you’ve found some common ground, here are a few things to remember:

Referral Networking

Another approach to networking often used by community development workers is referral networking.  You make first contacts and arrange one-to-ones with them.  These might be members of a management committee or officers of local groups.  Anyone who is willing to meet with you.

During the conversation you ask if they can think of two relevant people who might be willing to meet with you.  Also ask if it is OK to tell the referrals they recommended them.  This latter is your credentials.  They are more likely to meet you if a friend or associate recommends you.

Get their phone number, call them and explain your previous contact suggested they might like to meet you.  (Usually email is not a good way to make first contact.)  The last four bullets in the list above can then be followed.  Don’t forget to ask your new contacts for their two contacts and credentials during your meeting.

This approach works well if you are familiarising yourself with a neighbourhood.  It can help you reach people you would not otherwise contact.  You will eventually have more contacts than you have time to contact but usually some people can’t think of anyone or some contacts drop out for various reasons.

Both these approaches are good ways to make contact with people.  What I haven’t really mentioned is what you discuss at the meetings.  That will be my topic next time.

Do you have an approach to networking that works?  What are your tips for making networking more effective?

1 How to Market Using Scarcity

There are two approaches to scarcity and you muddle them at your own peril!  It can be

The latter is to be deplored.  I’ll explore scarcity as a marketing ploy in more detail in my next post because it is a real issue for the entrepreneur.  My firm recommendation is you deal solely in genuine scarcity.

Types of Scarcity

Less Convincing Scarcity

These are sometimes used by online marketers but should be approached with caution.

Take Care Using Scarcity

Be aware, you will turn off potential customers with any constraint for which there is no credible reason.  Be upfront if there is a genuine limit.  “To be sure I can provide the excellent service I promise, I have to limit my client numbers to xx per quarter.”  Something along these lines communicates that you are aware of your constraints and limit your offers accordingly.

Scarcity is a powerful marketing tool when used properly.  Don’t use it unless there is really no alternative.

Can you describe how you have used scarcity successfully?  Or have you used it improperly and been found out?  It is easy to do, without realising what you’re doing!

0 Resources for the Local Economy: In-Store Proximity Marketing

Will In-Store Proximity Marketing support local economies?  The idea is you download an app that suggests items to explore when you enter a shop, according to your interests.  When you visit a store, the app will tell you of offers that might interest you, via beacons attached to the products in the shop.  A helpful introduction to this technology can be found at Will Shoppers And Developers Adapt to Proximity Marketing In-Store?

So, let’s be clear.  This app works once you enter a store.  It doesn’t necessarily help you find the store in the first place.  What it does is connects you with items in the store, the app knows will interest you.  It can also make special offers.

So, does this technology potentially support the local economy?  My answer is a qualified yes.  One major threat to local shops is the Internet.  In my post Our Town Centres Today, I reference Julian Dobson’s book, How to Save Our Town Centres, where he describes three threats to neighbourhood centres and one of them is the Internet.

How so?  Well, some people look at products in stores and then search for them online where they can purchase them at a more favourable rate.  Proximity shopping can to some degree mitigate this by making the in-store experience more like the online, offering favourable deals to people known to be interested in the product.

So, imagine being in a bookshop and you are looking at a particular book that interests you but it is a bit pricey.  The app knows your past purchasing and that you enjoy that type of book.  It pings you with a special offer, perhaps a 10% reduction if you buy it now.

This could easily be combined with local currencies.  The 10% discount could be made conditional on a purchase with a local currency.  If the local currency provided the app, it could build a local database of information about local customers.  In effect the app would help shopkeepers get to know their customers.  (Normally, a large store will have its own server to manage proximity marketing.  For small businesses, smaller stores could share a server and even allow the app to take customers between shops.)

To some extent this is speculation.  Whilst there is no doubt people are working on these apps, there is no guarantee they could be integrated with local currencies.  But then we never know if anything works, unless we experiment.

Serendipity

However, I have one reservation.  One common feature of apps that personalise the retail experience is they reduce potential for serendipity.

One big advantage paper books have over electronic books is they are far easier to browse.  Similarly a bookshop or library can be browsed.  This increases happy accidents, finding things you would never predict would be of interest.

To what extent would proximity marketing form or shape our preferences?  The effects could be subtle, after all the app working well would point us towards things we know we like.  Who would argue with that?  What if a shop opened and no-one went in because their proximity apps told them, it contained nothing of interest to them?  The shop closes and no-one would miss its contents.

So, what do you think?  Would proximity marketing mitigate the effects of the Internet on local centres or would it subtly impoverish our lives?

0 In-Person Marketing Techniques

So far, most of my posts under the category “Technique” have been about online marketing.  Online marketing is hard to escape these days, especially if you are in business.  Customers do not have to go online but if they are online they are aware of marketing daily.  However, online marketing is secondary to in-person marketing.  It always will be so because in-person interactions will always have a more profound impact.

This is especially true for local marketing.  We can use the Internet to market offers nationally and even globally.  In-person interactions will be fewer under these circumstances.  Cost is the reason for this.  Few people can afford to fly all over the world and meet people in expensive hotels.  The traditional approaches to marketing on this scale such as newspaper or TV advertising, are still very expensive.  The Internet has opened up global marketing to many more people.  It is cheaper.  It is still difficult but certainly possible.

However my focus is on community-based marketing and there are many in-person techniques you can use to build a marketing strategy locally.  Mostly these remain unchanged.  The Internet can support most of these approaches but they are much as they always were.

Marketing

In this blog, I apply the language of marketing to community development.  The way I see it, local businesses need to market to communities, while community organisations need to recognise business as an essential element within their neighbourhoods.

When I write about promoting or campaigning, what I say is just the same.  There is, however, one difference between marketing and promoting / campaigning.  Marketing aims to make a sale, usually in a business context.  It may make sense to keep this distinction.  I market when I’m aiming for a sale; I promote or campaign when I seek to do something else.  This is fair enough if only because it allows these three words to retain distinct meanings.

Marketing in its narrow meaning has a business context and aims for sales.  In its more general sense, marketing means any kind of promotion.  Why?

1. Whether you are marketing towards a sale, promoting or campaigning, the methods are indistinguishable.
2. The marketplace is central to community development and not solely for financial transactions. Fundamentally I want to distinguish between genuine marketplaces, where people have a right to promote whatever they wish (so long as its legal) and the private shopping centre where the campaigner is moved along.  The private shopping centre is not a marketplace because it lacks the fundamental right we all have to live our lives in public; they are leisure centres, where the primary leisure pursuit is shopping.

Promoting

In its specific sense, promoting is where you are seeking support for an activity.  So, you are organising an event where there is a guest speaker and you want people to attend.  A flyer or email to a list informs people of the venue, time and place.  You’ll say a little about the speaker and their subject and hope people turn up.

There are many activities that need to be promoted.  Here are a few:

There may be a charge for some of these but the main point is the political message; charges cover costs.

Conclusion

Whilst most people agree these are distinct approaches, there is significant overlap of the activities involved.  The in-person marketing techniques I will describe in this sequence of posts can equally be used to market, promote or campaign.

Do you agree all these approaches are marketing methods?  How do you set about promoting your activities?

0 Soft Evidence

While hard evidence is researched and independent, you generate soft evidence as you go about your business. It is sometimes called social proof because those who use your products or services produce it.  Soft evidence, reproduced in your marketing materials, is usually quotations from people who have used your services.

Use soft evidence to show that people are doing business with you and what they say about your business.  It is likely you will have little soft evidence when you start your enterprise.  Everyone has this problem but over time it becomes less of an issue.

Remember soft evidence is an essential output from the work you do.  Think of it as part of the payment for your services or products.  Ask for it at the outset and get agreement to provide it before you start work.

Examples of Soft Evidence

• Testimonials are perhaps the most common type of soft evidence. They can be presented as text, video or audio.  Testimonial interviews are often most effective and can be used in various ways.
• Anecdotal evidence may seem the least convincing type of soft evidence. However, you may find you are able to use this approach effectively.  The place to use it is where you are describing examples of work you’ve done with clients.  Their testimonial might not go into the level of detail where a particular incident, you need to illustrate a point, will be mentioned.  You’re saying, “this is what I did under these particular circumstances”.
• Celebrity endorsements may be helpful I suppose. Your celebrity need not have universal appeal.  If you know someone in your field, with a significant track record, they may be willing to endorse your offer.
• Reviews of your work can be helpful. You could, for example, ask someone to review your blog or ebook.  This could be published as a blog post and quoted on your site.

All of these accumulate as and when opportunities present themselves.  You need to be alert to such opportunities and be ready to ask at the right time.  If you need a couple of sentences, some people may be able to write it on the spot.  Longer documents, such as reviews, take time to prepare.  They can be recorded in about 20 minutes on the spot or drafted at leisure.  The risk is promises of long reviews are not always delivered, so any support you can offer is likely to be productive.

Have you any tips about collecting and publishing soft evidence?

0 Eight Questions to Help You Identify Innovation

Perhaps innovation is as much about people’s’ perceptions as it is something new in a product or service.  To what extent is innovation a product of brilliant marketing?  Sometimes it’s possible to promote something old in a new way.

Sometimes business owners have a good product or service but take time to understand its market.  They may find they have marketed to the wrong market.  So, they can market an innovation to the new market even though the offer has been around for a while.

If you remember the diagram from my last post, the innovation diffusion curve represents the market for the offer and not the whole world!  The model represents how the market for an innovation works for a relatively large market.  The market is not always huge but even a small market can support a small business so long as it is possible to contact the market.

Here are a few questions you can ask to help you work out what is innovatory about your offer:

Is it better than the status quo?

This question relates primarily to step 4 on the awareness ladder.  This is the stage where the potential customer is aware of your offer and you need to show how your offer is better than other offers addressing the same problem.

The status quo is the solutions to the problem that are already on the market.  You need to show why your innovation is superior, at least for some potential customers.  If it is better for some customers and not so much for others, this will help you target your market.

Occasionally the status quo is a problem your market believes has no solution.  You will be working at rung 1 of the awareness ladder or even rung 0 (where people are not aware of the problem).  Your marketing will need to establish the problem and then show there is a solution to it.

Will people perceive it as better?

People may have a fixed idea of what solves their problem.  If you offer a different solution, they may not perceive it as better.

If people do not perceive it as better, you have a problem.  You perceive it as better but potential customers do not.  This is essentially what an innovation is.  It is introducing a new product or service that changes expectations.  This is why sales can be frustrating, because people resist something new in the face of evidence that it will be better for them.

This is why you need to marshal evidence and understand your offer.  However, it is also important to understand the potential customer.  You need to listen to them and help them decide whether the offer is really for their benefit.

Does it fit with peoples’ past experience?

If it does, it probably isn’t an innovation.  Innovations challenge experience.  This is why the innovation diffusion curve begins with customers who enjoy trying out innovations.  The challenge for many businesses is finding these people in a small market.

Past experience forms the expectations of markets.  Markets do not look for new ways to tackle old problems, unless the old ways are inadequate.  If everyone is reasonably happy with the old ways, few will sacrifice reasonable happiness for delight!

Does it fit with peoples’ current needs?

When old ways are proved wanting, some people seek alternatives.  Sometimes people need a new approach because everything else they’ve tried does not solve their problem.  It can actually be difficult persuading people that there is a solution to their problem.

Or perhaps the problem is new and any solution worth a try!

Does it require a change in existing values?

This is exactly what many innovations offer, a new way of understanding an old problem.  So, organic gardening requires a change in values from the old ways, using chemical fertilizers and poisons.  The point about organic gardening is that people need details of techniques and approaches that substitute for their old approach.  The incentive to learn these new techniques is driven by a change in values.

A household seeking lower fuel bills might opt for solar panels and in so doing, value the environmental benefits.

Sometimes a change in values will drive sales and sometimes sales will drive a change in values.

How difficult is it to understand and apply?

Organic gardening may be a difficult idea to promote because it involves maybe dozens of changes to the way you garden.  However, someone who values organic gardening may be willing to learn and seeking help in various ways.

Something difficult might be perceived as challenging and therefore worthwhile because of the benefits it brings further down the road.  Don’t forget some prospects might value the challenge.

Don’t forget for online offers in particular, a monthly retainer for support can be a big incentive.

Can people “try it out” first?

There are two aspects to this.  Innovators and early adopters (see the innovation diffusion curve) may value an offer that provides benefits for being in at the start.  For early offers, it may be possible to offer a low fee and allow early customers to stay on that fee so long as they continue to support your scheme.

For majority customers, online offers often begin with an first offer of 30 or so days free service.  This enables them to try it out and decide whether they need it.  If the monthly rate includes support, upgrades, etc it can be attractive once the customer believes the product will benefit them.

If people adopt it, can the difference be discerned by others?

This makes a difference where there is a large market.  A visible presence helps make the breakthrough from early adopters to early majority.  If word gets around or the offer has some visible presence, this will enable the wider population to see its value.

Perhaps the most common difference is through word of mouth.  The benefit may be invisible but something people will tell their friends about.

These questions are not mine and I don’t know who first assembled them.  Do you find them helpful?  Are there other questions you might ask?

2 Online Spirituality

Over the last few weeks I’ve explored some aspects of online spirituality.  This is the final round-up and the temptation is to state the obvious.  Spirituality is about relationships and the Internet at its best supports relationships.

However, many people believe spirituality is about our relationships not so much with each other as with God.

We become aware of God’s presence when we pay attention, through our awareness of the world around us.  This is prayer and meditation’s essence.  As we pray, we become aware of what is happening and of how easily we  distract ourselves, allowing our minds to override experience.

There is probably nothing more distracting than the Internet.  Walk down any high street these days and you will encounter dozens of people whose attention is held by their mobile phone or some such device.  We speak to friends, text them, play games, listen or even watch recordings as we walk the streets (or many people do!)

The problem is not the Internet as such but screens.  This was first true of television.  Screens draw the eyes and where eyes focus, so too does attention.

Spiritual traditions have been aware of this for hundreds of years and spiritual techniques such as prayer or meditation, centre on controlling the senses, especially vision, to allow space for attention to focus on the world and not on distractions.

The paradox is spiritual techniques focus on awareness of the material world.  The problem is we often base our lives on how we think the world is, losing track of reality.  Indeed this has become so common it is dofficult to believe there is a reality to focus upon!

Our brains filter everything we perceive.  If our brains did not filter our perceptions, we would be overwhelmed but filtering means we do not always perceive everything around us.

We might call this passive filtering.  We have not made any conscious decisions about what we filter, it is just what happens.

Active filtering is where we adopt a worldview and filter everything to fit it.  Problems start when we equate our filtered world with reality.  This is common among religious people who believe they have the truth and so see everything that way.

This is a stage in faith development and most traditions recognise the need to let go of these prejudices as faith develops.  This progress from certainty to awareness is sometimes called formation.  The idea is you experience it through your chosen tradition.  As you go deeper into your chosen tradition, you find you are able to reach out to others with confidence because your faith is no longer threatened by reality.

The Internet provides us with a great deal of information but it does not give us the means to process it.  The screen itself compels us to consume information and disables our ability to process it.

Like a lot of things, the power of the screen is not so great once we become aware of it.

Techniques

There are things we can do to reduce the power of the screen.  It is not simply “don’t watch it”, that would mean many of us would be unable to run our businesses or take part in modern society.  But here are a few things you can try.  Some are more religious than others but none are specific to any particular tradition:

Screens can be tyrannical but they can be our friends if we use them properly.  They are a portal into the Internet.  Once we break the hold screens have on our minds, we can be more discerning about the content we view on them.

The aim is to be alert to the reality around us, using the Internet to inform and enhance our lives and work.  How do you do this?  How do you make sure you are not driven by the pressures of modern technology but use it to enhance life activity?

0 Hard Evidence

Evidence is wonderful stuff and hard evidence is the best!

When to Display Hard Evidence

The first thing to note is when to share evidence with a prospect.  It is not generally a good idea to introduce evidence too soon.  The early stages of conversation with a prospect is better spent listening to them and establishing what they need.

A website needs to establish its offer and the benefits to the visitor first.  Evidence at this stage should be minimal.  It might be worth displaying an award or trustmark early on a web page.  But at this stage, if you do it at all, point towards evidence but don’t actually supply it.

Why?  Well, there’s little point introducing a prospect to evidence until they are ready to hear or read it.  Evidence introduced too soon may be seen as a hard sell.  It could put the prospect on the defensive.

The best time to present evidence is at stage 4 on the awareness ladder, after you have introduced and explained your offer.  Evidence helps fill in gaps or answer the prospect’s questions.

How to Display Hard Evidence

If there is a lot of detailed information, it should be available to those who are interested.  However, it is usually best if it is available on request.  So, a key paragraph from a report can be quoted on your website, with a link to the full paper.

Most people will note the link but not follow it.  The fact the information is available is enough.  However, be sure the full report supports the details you quote.  There is nothing worse than providing information that contradicts your main account.

If you link to a web page on someone else’s site, keep an eye on it!  If they move the information, you will need to revise the link.

You can provide hard evidence in summary on your website and in your literature.  If you are going to do this, make it accessible.  So, use graphs, charts and diagrams.  You can use key quotes and of course Frequently Asked Questions.

What is Hard Evidence?

Hard evidence is backed by clearly sourced research.  Like everything else it is a matter of judgement.  So, an independent source is usually better than the results of your own research but selectively quoting independent evidence might devalue it, whilst well-designed personal research might carry real persuasive power.  If you are using independent source material, quote from it and offer a link to the original.

There may be other options. Evidence can be considered hard if it is well-researched and ideally independently generated.  It is not always available and so don’t worry if you can’t produce hard evidence, there is always soft evidence to consider.

Have you good examples of using hard evidence in marketing?

2 What is Innovation Diffusion?

You may be familiar with the idea of Innovation Diffusion and the diagram below.  In this post I’ll explain what it is about and ask how it applies to small enterprises.

The diagram shows how people take up new products or services.  Time flows from left to right. Where a product takes off, the curve shows how people take up the offer.  This pattern is particularly helpful where there is a large potential market and the product becomes popular.

Testing the product or service takes place among a few innovators, who enjoy trying out new ideas. They are not too worried about investing in something that might not work.  Early adopters take up an improved product and feed back more information.  The big step is moving to the early majority.  A product that breaks through to its potential market sees rapid growth in sales as the product becomes fashionable.  As sales increase, they will inevitably pass a point where sales start to decline and these are the late majority.  The laggards are people in the market for the product who are not interested or choose to delay purchase for some reason.

The thing to note is this is the typical life cycle of a successful product.  There is no guarantee an innovation will follow this pattern.  Most innovations fizzle out in the innovators or early adopters stages.  Why?  The reasons are complex but quality of product is no guarantee of success.

Innovation Diffusion and the Small Business

To what extent is this model helpful to the small entrepreneur who has a new idea and sets out to sell it?  A big, established company can pay innovators to test their product in return for testimonials and other publicity.  This is an option open to a small entrepreneur but many may not able to give it away to many people.  Also fear that it may be copied and promoted more efficiently by a more established player, may inhibit those early stages.

Another issue for small businesses is the size of their market.  Successful products may have a huge potential market and for small businesses, servicing a niche or local market, building up a head a steam as implied by the central part of the curve may be difficult.  This is not to say that a business in this situation is necessarily doomed to being unsuccessful.  If it can communicate with its market, it may be possible to generate enough sales.

So, for the small business the issues are the size of their potential market and how effective they are at reaching it.  Next Friday, I shall review a few questions entrepreneurs can ask, when marketing a new idea to a limited potential market.

Have you seen this model before and how helpful do you find it?