Marketing your town - why retailers are better than councils

We love Stamford. It’s the nearest town to RVHQ, we love the pubs, the shops, the restaurants, the hotels, the architecture. It’s a lovely town and you can see why it was named the best place to live in Britain, by The Sunday Times (though they didn’t mention the, ahem, rougher parts of town and flat-roofed pubs).

As well as some great independent shops and pubs (Paradise Found, Snow Designs and Interiors, The Fine Food Store, TheTobie Norris), the town has big name, but higher-end, chains like White Stuff, Fat Face, The White Company, Cook and The Cosy Club. All these are big draws to Stamford for people who live outside the town and they promote themselves well, with a touch of style befitting the general feel of the town.

This year, a group of business owners have got together to arrange two late night shopping events, with a prize draw on each night. It’s a great idea and the poster (designed independently) for it is prominent around town and on social media. It’s simple but stylish and gives a great feel of what the town is about.

The late night shopping poster - thumbs up

Also this year is the town council’s official Christmas festival (we may have mentioned this in earlier posts…). The poster for this event is, well, not exactly in keeping with the town’s image.

We’re hesitant to criticise the designer – we don’t know who did it and they may have had their hands tied – but is this really a classy, sophisticated poster for ‘the best place to live in Britain’?

The council's poster - we're not impressed

One local business owner told us they felt the festival was completely geared – and marketed – towards the wrong audience for the town’s retailers and that it did not benefit them in any way.

It’s just another example of why we feel the powers-that-be are out of touch with the way the town – and life in general has moved on. And it’s not just Stamford Town Council – the district council, South Kesteven, recently produced a video to attract investment into Stamford.  To us, it feels terribly dated, with a stuffy voiceover, 80s graphics, shaky camerawork and a general lack of flair and imagination. Again, we don’t know who filmed it, so we really don’t want to be ultra-harsh, but it’s not good when you compare it to the work of some local freelancer videographers who we’re sure would have made a much better job of it. Take a look at the work of Chris Rigby, or this video recently unveiled by Rutland’s best restaurant, The Olive Branch.

Maybe the poster was designed for free, maybe the video was done in-house. We understand that taxpayers' money has to be spent carefully (like councils have ever wasted our money…) but surely it’s better to invest in a quality product (and they’d probably be surprised at how reasonably priced most good quality freelance designers and videographers are) and give off a better, more modern, vibrant image of the town, than to do it on the cheap.

What do you think? Are your local councils the same? Can you find examples of councils getting it right when it comes to design and marketing? Comment below.

Where are all the men?

Take a look at the Facebook pages featuring painted furniture and shabby chic* stuff. Notice anything?

What’s that? They’re all great and very talented? You’re not looking hard enough. Try again.

Yes, that’s right, the vast majority are run by women.

And it’s not just on Facebook either, pop into a shop, or search online for an interiors company. Women, women, women.

So what’s the deal? Why do more women than men seem to pick up a paintbrush and set about a piece of furniture? Or, perhaps more to the point, why do so few men do it?

It’s not like it’s a particularly unmacho thing to do. It’s pretty much like DIY. A bloke will spend hours in the shed, bashing stuff around, but paint a chest of drawers? Get lost.

Personally speaking, I find it boring. Not the business, or the product, or the idea of upcycling, but the actual process of painting a piece of furniture – it’s just so bloody dull. If you want to do a good job, you need a perfectionist mentality and patience by the bucketload. I have neither. Just ask Laura.

There are, or course, some exceptions – I’ve come across some very good male furniture painters, but they are definitely in the minority.

It seems the women have definitely got a stranglehold on this particular industry, but some just take it a little too far. I’m talking about ‘mumtrepreneurs’. Good god, just typing it makes me feel dirty.

These are the members of the cutesy, mumsy wishy-washy brigade, who want to exclude anyone who has so far failed to produce a tiny, screaming person from their innards.

Why make such a fuss about being a mum? It’s hardly an exclusive club. And you don’t see any movements founded by dads who also work.

It’s almost like they brandish the ‘mum’ badge to excuse their largely unspectacular work. Yes, their Disney rip-off beanbag looks like it was assembled by a thumbless lunatic in the dark, but it’s ok, hun, cos ur a gr8 mummy to ickle Wilson or Johnson or Fairie-Lil-Let-Tinkabell-Boo-Boo or whatever horrendous name you’ve saddled your poor offspring with.

I was recently tweeting Rutland-basedblogger Lisa Batty who, as far as I can discern from her name and her avatar, is a woman. She told me: “I run a beauty blog & was asked to contribute to another blog, I agreed but then they asked me to confirm I had kids, I said no and they then rejected me! But the article they wanted was about make-up.”

Mental.

I get that, traditionally, the world of business has been male-dominated and it has been a long, hard struggle to get to the stage where women are even considered for top roles at major organisations. I get all that. I’m all for equality. I’m a feminist, I guess.

But I fail to see how the mum squad are helping, with their discrimination of non-parents, making women without kids feel excluded and inadequate and basically telling all men they’re of no interest.

I’m a dad. Laura’s not a mum. We both look after my daughter. Where’s the Facebook group for us? We don’t want one, of course, because we want our work to be recognised on its own merits, not because we need to lean on a child-shaped crutch.

I’d love to hear your thoughts (unless you’ve given yourself a middle name on Facebook that’s something like ‘Mumsy2MasonandKyesha’. Then I couldn’t care less, obviously…). 

Am I missing something? Am I just being a bit of a dick? Or do you agree? Does the mum mentality hold women back?

*By the way, in the coming weeks I’ll be blogging about why I hate the term ‘shabby chic’, miserable old grouch that I am.

**DISCLAIMER** All my views are my own and not necessarily shared by Laura, who is the real brains (and beauty) behind Reloved Vintage

Stamford Town Council 2: The Reply

Well, we got a reply...

Dear Mr & Mrs Harvey, (Good start... we're not married and my surname is not Harvey)

RE: Complaint – Stamford Christmas Festival 2013

Your complaint received on 31 October 2013 was examined by a complaints panel on Tuesday 05 November and its findings are as follows:

{redacted}

On examining all the paperwork and associated correspondence relating to your complaint, no reference to the alleged free offer made by Alison Hawley Smith could be traced, other than the copy you forwarded from Alison Hawley Smith which was dated 31 October 2013.

Stamford Town Council has identified Alison Hawley Smith’s communication to Reloved Vintage of 13 December 2012 re-stating the responsibilities of all traders participating in the 2012 Christmas Festival with a reminder of the requirement to hold valid insurance.  As per the Terms & Conditions of the (signed) contract no refund should have been made; however it is evident that a full refund of £75 was made by bank transfer on 20 December 2012 by Alison Hawley Smith as an unauthorized ‘goodwill gesture’.  

The delay you experienced in obtaining a response is regrettable but was unavoidable and we wholeheartedly apologise for any inconvenience.  However, such matters must necessarily follow due process, which I am sure you can well appreciate.

Stamford Town Council does not accept any liability in this matter. However, the offer of a 50% discount on the cost of a stall at the 2013 Christmas Festival remains and Stamford Town Council will ensure that a stall is held available for you until 15th November latest should you wish to take up the offer.

I trust that you find the above answers the points raised.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Brian C. Sumner

Mayor of Stamford

Copy to: Cllr Mrs S Sandall, Chairman of Events Committee

So, they've basically said: "Even though you say you were offered a free stall, and the organiser says you were offered a free stall, we don't believe you were offered a free stall."

They also think that taking three weeks to reply to an email, or return a phone call is "unavoidable".

Ladies and gentlemen, Stamford Town Council, where common courtesy is an alien concept.

We have, of course, replied:

In accordance with the complaints procedure detailed at: http://www.stamfordtowncouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012-STC-Complaint-Procedure1.pdf 

we are asking you to re-examine our complaint and come to the only right decision, which is to honour the offer of a free stall. As this appeal process will no doubt take the full 20 days to be concluded, we suggest you make your offer applicable to the 2014 event.

We feel it is pretty clear that the weight of public opinion is on our side and that anyone of fair mind and sound judgement sees that the right, decent and proper action for you to take is to honour the offer of a free stall that was made to us by Ali Hawley-Smith.

We should not have had to go through all of this in order to get what was promised to us. We should not have had to email Ali Hawley-Smith ourselves to ask her for confirmation of the offer of a free stall. You should have done this the very moment, on 11 September 2013, that we asked you about the free stall.

The fact that you still refuse to budge on this and quote only the paperwork you have seen, suggests you think that both Ali and ourselves are lying.

Your heel-digging, back-covering and time-wasting stinks of stubbornness.

We accept your apology for your slow response, but strongly disagree that it was 'unavoidable'. It is simply common courtesy to return phone calls and reply to emails - even if just to keep us updated. We think the council needs to address this problem and make changes to the way it deals with communication to keep more in line with the 21st Century.

Also, my name is Thorpe, not Harvey, as has been abundantly clear throughout our unnecessarily long-winded correspondence.

Jack Thorpe and Laura Harvey

We would really, really, really appreciate your support. You can help us to make sure justice is done. On behalf of all small traders who have to deal with witless, feckless, self-serving councils, please email townhall@stamfordtowncouncil.gov.uk to show your support.


You can copy and paste the text below if you like:


We fully support Reloved Vintage's appeal against your ridiculous decision to not honour the offer of a free stall at the 2013 Christmas Market. We urge you to make the right decision and give Reloved Vintage a stall, free of charge, at the 2014 Stamford Christmas Market.