Marketing town centres: Retailing and town centre management

Abstract

The role of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the UK has expanded to incorporate a more overt and explicit focus on marketing and promotion. This paper considers the marketing/promotional activities of TCM schemes in the UK. TCM schemes operate at the interface of the public and private sectors. The implications of this are discussed, including the need for a consensual approach by a wide range of urban stakeholders, and the actual activities undertaken, influenced by the funding imperative under which such schemes operate (which impacts on the feasibility of certain activities and the efforts made to evaluate them). Comparisons are drawn between specific place marketing practice by TCM schemes and wider place marketing strategies.

Keywords:

• Town centre management
• place marketing
• retailing
• marketing communications

Notes

Synthesising various definitions, Warnaby et al. (1998, pp. 17–18) define town centre management as, ‘the search for competitive advantage through the maintenance and/or strategic development of both public and private areas and interests within town centres, initiated and undertaken by stakeholders drawn from a combination of the public, private and voluntary sectors’.

Guy (1994, p. xiv) defines ‘off-centre’ as ‘any site outside the limits of a town centre or other established retail area’

Stubbs et al. (2002) identify various promotional and marketing activities that TCMs may undertake. They divide these activities into three broad categories: ‘footfall builders’ (intended to bring an increased number of customers into the town); ‘awareness builders’ (aiming to improve potential customer awareness of what the town has to offer); and ‘participation building activities’ (designed to increase support for the TCM scheme by demonstrating the applicability and relevance of the TCM concept to town centre stakeholders, and retailers in particular). The importance of this latter activity in terms of marketing the concept of TCM to what may be termed ‘internal’ audiences (comprising various urban stakeholders) in order to increase participation and minimise ‘free-riding’ is also emphasized by Forsberg et al. (1999).

There have been a number of critical assessments of the partnership modus operandi. Partnerships, despite variations in size, number and organisation, usually represent a narrow range of local interests (Peck, 1995), and in particular the privileging of a business-led agenda (Sadler, 1993). Peck (1995) and Peck & Tickell (1994) have cast doubts on the longevity of partnership agencies, arguing that many may turn out to be transient in nature because of the tensions between the various members. Bassett (1996) argues that many partnerships are built on a rather fragile consensus and continue to exist by avoiding hard choices that may prove divisive. Thus, the policies and actions of partnership organisations may be reduced to the level of ‘the lowest common denominator’ (Peck & Tickell, 1994, p. 261), increasing the potential of ‘overpromising and underdelivering’ (Wilkinson, 1992, p. 210).

The importance of an effective local public administration identified by van den Berg & Braun (1999) was borne out in this specific context. Despite the differing organisational structures of the four urban places in the qualitative stage of the research, in all places the local authority wielded considerable influence. In two of the partnerships the town centre manager was formally employed by the local authority, and in the company limited by guarantee the town centre manager was initially employed by the local authority. In the schemes constituted as partnerships the local authority had significant representation on steering groups, and in the TCM scheme constituted as a limited company the local authority provided ‘heavy support’ in financial terms.

While integrated marketing communications has been variously defined (e.g. Betts et al., 1995; Kotler et al., 2002), Pickton & Broderick (2001, p. 66) simplify the concept by defining it as ‘the process of integrating all the elements of the promotional mix’. They go on to identify various characteristics of IMC. These include: (i) clearly identified communications objectives (which are consistent with other organisational objectives); (ii) a planned approach which covers the full extent of marketing communications activities in a coherent and synergistic way; (iii) a focus on a range of target audiences; (iv) the management of all forms of contact between the organisation and its audiences; and (v) the effective management and integration of all promotional activities and people involved.

That is, ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement: Evaluating marketing activities is an essential part of the planning process.

That is, ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement: We regularly monitor and evaluate certain key performance indicators.

That is, ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ with the statement: We need to be more rigorous in evaluating marketing activities.

BIDs and their implications are discussed in more detail in Guy (2001b) and Hogg et al. (2003).