And to try to explain what I mean I will revert back to my childhood and when we were all “wee bairns” we all played with Lego Bricks, Stickle Bricks, Duplo Bricks and probably Meccano (advanced types of bricks if you like). But what we never did was try to play with them all together or try to create a design that incorporated aspects of multiple differing bricks, as it simply did not work. No matter how hard you tried the Lego was not compatible with the Duplo or the Stickle Bricks and absolutely nothing was compatible with Meccano!
As a child
our worlds were completely consumed by one type of building material that
suited one specific age group until we were old enough to eagerly move onto
something else that suited a completely new older age group.
My own building
path went as follows; Stickle Bricks, Lego, Meccano and then Airfix, and I
would hazard a bet that many reading this article followed the exact same path
– age permitting of course.
This was of
course a deliberate ploy by each manufacturer and I am sure that they all
agreed in the confines of cosy “Golden-Circles-Boardrooms” that each would
target a specific market sector and by ensuring that each construction set was
non-compatible with another in the market they could ALL have some market share
and of course each would then have a chance to build brand loyalty. What
ultimately happened with each of these toys is that you were either a Lego boy
or a Meccano boy or Airfix boy and so on. We see this now replicated in the
twenty first century but with phone brands – it is either Apple, Samsung, HTC,
Nokia, Blackberry and so on.
What has
made many toy manufacturers and today’s modern phone suppliers so successful is
that they have literally moved heaven and earth to make you the consumer brand
loyal. They have ensured that you have made an informed choice to support one
particular manufacturer as you have become accustomed to that brands; quality,
feel, technology, design, the tactile nature of the product, the way the
product make you feel and so on. By sticking to one winning formula that is
ever evolving and ever improving, albeit in small increments, they have ensured
that you will stick purchasing what you know because you know “It does exactly
what is says in the tin.”
So what of
brand Waterford and the future development of the City and its City Centre?
There has
been much talk and debate in recent weeks around the future Urban Renewal
Plans, the North Quays, the Michael Street Shopping Development, the Apple
Market Development and of course much debate around the developed Viking
Triangle area and access in and out of this area of prime real estate or our
most expensive bus park, as some are now calling the area (and with some
justification too).
But in
terms of moving the City forward I often feel and so do many others that there
appears to be very little joined up thinking when it comes to actually
developing the City. Or in other words some are Lego users, some are Stickle
Brick champions and some are Meccano aficionados.
On the
surface we have many, many great and potentially future changing ideas but I and
many others do feel that getting them ALL to work together in harmony for the
betterment of Waterford citizens will be a monumental task, an impossible task
even. One does get the feeling that all the plans we read and hear about are
somehow being drafted and discussed in isolated underground bunkers where no
other opinion matters for fear of upsetting someone, and as a result we do not
get the much needed robust debate and we do not get people willing to put a
hand, never mind their head, above the parapet. It is almost as if there is a
collective fear around getting involved or perhaps there is a fear that decisions
have already been made and no matter what lobbying or interaction takes place
the only opinion that matters is the one that comes out of the underground
bunker!
I admit
that there is concern and apathy from many businesses that despite the circa €33,000,000
paid in commercial rates they will never really be listened to and the citizens
of Waterford at times simply feel “What is the point!”
We have yet
to build any brand loyalty towards the City and we are ALL confused as we see
too many different messages and this ultimately will create confusion,
bewilderment, apathy, indifference and so on. The City must start delivering
projects in real-time and delivering these in a proper logical order.So, let us deliver and build the Michael Street shopping centre, then deliver a North Quay development and if we see hundreds of thousands of extra tourists and visitors spending money in the City as a results of these two developments, then have a look at the traffic flow and roads.
But
whatever we do we must ALL be using the same type of bricks otherwise nothing
will get done.
ENDS
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