Perception is everything!

When marketing or branding a product or service, that is predominantly aimed at members of the public, our perception is all encompassing to the process of actually successfully buying that product or service.

In circumstances where we have a poor perception of a product or service we are pre-programmed to avoid at all costs and to a greater degree we imagine, rightly or wrongly, that said product or service is inherently poor or inferior, regardless of what the marketing messages might be telling us.

By definition, perception is the process in which we use our senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or a particular situation.

And how does this exactly relate to Waterford City.

It is very simple. Everyone’s perception of Waterford City varies in an ever so slightly different way because we all sense experiences in slightly differing ways.

To my mind the City still has a huge untapped potential that needs to be realised in the short and medium term to get the City back as the economic hub of the South East. In my current work role and through my involvement with various groups and committees I see firsthand the enormous amount of work being planned and being carried out. This work will, without any doubt, benefit the many businesses and therefore all the people of Waterford City and County in the very near future.

However, as I am so immersed in these processes my perception more often than not differs from that of my family, my close friends and my business colleagues. I just constantly see that the City and County have not really scratched the surface of what is possible to drive the region forward and for Waterford City to regain its rightful place as the fourth City of Ireland (in economic terms). 

I am always a glass half full person.

I do often feel that I am sometimes alone in that positivity or at the very least I am one of a very small minority that sees a positive future vision that will literally put Waterford back on the map.

I have advocated on many occasions, both in print and on radio, that every voter in Waterford should attend at least one Council meeting in their lifetime. This will give voters the chance to see at firsthand how Council runs, functions and operates through our locally elected representatives. It will also help people understand how the City and or County are perceived through the eyes our elected representatives and the council executive.

Is your vision of the City the same as that of our elected representatives?

With an ever improving retail offering we must encourage even more people back into Waterford City Centre to experience these new shopping opportunities and with the proposed additional shopping centre to come on stream we must take every opportunity to drive up footfall in the City Centre.

It is more important than ever to get this right as we now see out of City Centre retail villages offering a real carrot to attracting shoppers – lots of free car parking!

The many City Centre retail shops can encourage people across their threshold with sales, end of season sales and lots of seasonal special offers. So why can we not look towards opportunities that offer a similar enticing promotion based around parking your car?

Monaco where the first hour of car parking is FREE!

Will further reduced car parking rates or specific car parking offers, similar to those in Cork, Limerick, Dungarvan and Kilkenny, bring increased footfall back into to the City Centre?

Well, we will not know until we have tried and until we try we will always be perceived, by the people of Waterford and many of our visitors, as an expensive place to park a car - no matter what the car park sign states the hourly rate might be.

Have we misplaced our shovel?

Don't hold your breath. 

Waterford City Centre was literally buzzing last weekend and this in part could be attributed to the current promotional programme that is “Summer in the City” and of course the good weather helped also.

This is a cooperative effort by the Waterford Council, Waterford Chamber and the Waterford Business Group who have combined with the Council’s Art Department to organise a series of free entertainment events every Friday evening and Saturday afternoon right through until Saturday 12^th September. In addition there will be a concurrent ArtBeat project that focuses on young emerging local talent playing in New Bailey’s Street.

These two projects are truly a collaborative approach to making the City and its Centre a viable and attractive place for us Waterfordonians and our many summer visitors to congregate and enjoy some excellent entertainment. ArtBeat is also an “edgier” option for the younger members of Waterford at explore budding talent and New Bailey’s Street is certainly swinging to a different beat every Saturday afternoons right through until 29^th August.

It is by working together that we will move Waterford forward and create a product that we can all be proud of and to a certain extent we can all shout about in a positive manner.

But like so much positive news stories there is always a wee word of caution.

Whilst the City Centre is busier at the weekends we are seeing the start of the week becoming increasingly quieter. This is a concern to the many businesses and employers around our City Centre. The need to get increased footfall into the City Centre has to be a priority and increased footfall on the weekends cannot be at the detriment to the start of the week. This imbalance of peak shopping times needs to be looked at and, dare I say, we need to incentivise shoppers to come into the City Centre at the start of the working week.

In fact we need to incentivise shoppers to come into the City Centre on every day of the week!

With another large development about to open in Ardkeen Shopping Centre we will see further erosion of the possible market share for the City Centre and there can be no doubt that this will have an adverse effect on the footfall. We know that there are so many people who have simply gotten out of the habit of venturing down the Dunmore Road or down the Cork Road or coming across the bridge to access the City Centre and this has to be of immense concern to everyone.

Are we now inadvertently creating our own City Centre doughnut and are we ever so slowly strangling the life out of the City Centre?

I would be concerned that we are not creating enough incentives for people to come into the City Centre and this always brings us back to the age old problems and fiery topics of car parking and retail mix. When we hear and read about proposal to spend money on the North Quay and other areas “outside” the actual City Centre we must ask the question would such large sums of money not be better spent addressing the South Quay car parking. Is not the solution staring us in the face?

We need to “take back” the South Quay and reinvent this space/area as public realm space thus allowing us, our visitors, our tourists and alike to actually access this wonderful piece of real estate. I am sure the costs involved in claiming back these areas would be much less than any investment into the North Quay and would an attractive South Quay ensure an accelerated development of the North Quay. This proposition along with a radical solution to cheaper and more affordable car parking would drive up footfall in the City Centre and encourage a better retail mix. After all no big retailer will invest in an area that does not have the creative potential to deliver ever increasing numbers of shoppers and therefore income. 

Yes, the proposed Michael Street development will help our retail mix but just how long will this project take to come to fruition and will it come on stream in time to help boost the footfall to the City Centre. A North Quay development will also help in attracting “business people and suits” to the City but again just how long will we have to wait for this development, and judging by how long it has taken to knock down the old mills I would not be holding your breath.

Groundhog Day.

Surely, we need to be acting now and we need to be acting collaboratively to get our City Centre re-energized once more and the clock is ticking extremely fast and if we and the powers that be are not prepared to act in an accelerated manner surely it will be too late. And in years to come will we all be lamenting that we “should have done this and we should have done that” way back in 2014 and 2015.

Well, we are now halfway through 2014 and still we waking up to the same “Groundhog Day” issues and concerns that have been dragging on for years and years. Surely, we no longer need to wait for another consultants report or another enquiry. Rather we need to act now and we need to act radically once and for all to get the people of Waterford and our visitors back into our City Centre.

The very heart of Waterford’s future plans has to be the City Centre and if we are serious about positioning the City as an economic driver of the south east, as a future University City, with a University Hospital and so on, then we need to be proactive in our solutions in tackling the falling footfall in the City Centre.

Why can’t we introduce a creative car parking solution and give free car parking to support promotions such as “Summer in the City” to attract even more people into the City Centre? Why can’t we have reduced car parking rate rates at the start of the week and so on? Why is taking back the South Quay off the agenda?

Only three possible suggestions, but suggestions that will have real economic impact and at a time when all we will be hearing in the run up to the next budget and next general election is “this will create REAL economic impact” then that economic impact needs to hit Waterford pretty fast and very hard.

You don’t have to dig too deep to find those creative solutions. Maybe we have just misplaced our shovel?