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Stage 2: Fieldwork

Stage 2: Time to rebrand | Rebranding strategies | Managing urban rebranding

Time to rebrand

Idea	Brief description of methods
How has the function of the CBD changed over the last decade?	Obtain a GOAD map from 10 years ago and itemise the types of shops and services. Carry out a present day function survey and look for differences in the number, range and type of facilities. Are there hotspots and deserts? You could also develop a shopping quality index
Assessing the environmental quality	Hand-draw a large-scale base map which zones the urban district into a number (say 5) different areas or quarters. For each area carry out a qualitative survey to 'profile' the nature and characteristics of the zone. What type of 'feel' does it have - vibrant or lifeless and dull (remember this varies at different times of the day). Use photographic evidence to support your findings
Interviews with town centre management teams and residents	Set up an interview with someone from the town centre management team, using a series of structured but open questions to find out what changes have happened. Are the changes for better or worse? Are they evenly spread throughout the urban area or concentrated in pockets? A similar techniques can be used to explore the attitudes of local residents, either a face-to-face-survey or drop-and-collect

Clone town surveys

One innovative fieldwork technique which you could use to investigate the shopping quality of a town is carry out a clone town survey. In a 2001 survey, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) argued that shopping streets in Britain are steadily becoming more similar - i.e. increasingly dominated by a narrow range of chain stores rather than independent shops. The method that the NEF used to assess the 'degree of cloning' for each town can easily be adopted for your fieldwork.

Use a GOAD map and/or a pilot survey of the town to determine the boundaries of the shopping areas of each town. Include all indoor shopping centres.

Visit all streets in the shopping area and categorise every shop into 1 of 25 categories. You can download the form from the NEF website (pdf, opens in new window). It is important to carry out this work methodically, making a careful note of when streets have been surveyed.

Retail value

As well as making an overall survey of the degree of cloning, it is possible to look at individual streets of the town centre in more detail. There are likely to be areas of higher and lower retail quality. One way in which this can be done is to choose a study area, then score each shop within the area as follows

Shop type	Score
Department store	5
High street chain	4
Independent specialist shop	3
Convenience store	2
Charity shop	1
Vacant retail premises	0

This is based on the assumption that large shops like department stores act as 'anchors', attracting many shoppers, while smaller shops have a lower attractive pull.

Add all the scores together to calculate the retail value for the area.

Worked example

Shop type	Score	Number in High Street	Number in Market Street
Department store	5	3	0
High street chain	4	10	2
Independent specialist shop	3	7	7
Convenience store	2	2	2
Charity shop	1	0	6
Vacant retail premises	0	0	2
TOTAL RETAIL QUALITY		80	39

In this example, High Street has a higher retail value (80) than Market Street (39).

One theme is to explore the notion of a 24hr city . This is an interesting idea since it raises opportunities concerning:

• Questionnaire to explore patterns of usage and exclusion (see pedestrian flow map above based on Camden Town ) over a 24hr period. Where are the 'hotspots' and 'deserts' at different times of the day?
• Surveys of daytime, early evening and late night-time facilities - three different functional surveys. Where are they located and what are the reasons for this?
• Research and a questionnaire to reveal patterns of availability ands usage of night-time public transport vs private / individual transport.

Rebranding strategies

The focus of fieldwork at this stage is to collect evidence that rebranding has happened. Ideally you need to be able to compare the place before and after rebranding. Use photographs and sketches, which you can contrast with images taken in the past. Another strategy is to arrange photograph images around a base map of the town centre to illustrate the main changes that have occurred. Other sources of information which may be useful here are interviews, both with key officials and with local people, to obtain an oral history of changes.

Common strategies that it would be useful to consider include

• Urban heritage - regeneration of historic buildings and other features. Use historic and present-day photographs to document the changes. To what extent is the city being marketed to tourists? Survey the facilities (such as hotels) that are available.
• Waterfront developments - both coastal and inland waterfronts have been used as a focus for urban rebranding. Again, compare present-day maps and photographs with historical sources.
• Signature buildings - large and expensive new buildings have been used to improve the image of an area. Collect evidence where this has happened.

Investigating the 24 hour city

A common strategy used in urban rebranding has been to develop the 24 hour city. Cafes, restaurants, bars, clubs and supermarkets have extended their opening hours.

There are a number of issues you could investigate.

• Questionnaire to explore patterns of usage and exclusion (see pedestrian flow map above based on Camden Town ) over a 24 hour period. Where are the 'hotspots' and 'deserts' at different times of the day?
  
• Carry out three different functional surveys, showing the number and distribution of daytime facilities (e.g. schools, banks), early evening facilities (e.g. supermarkets open until 8pm, restaurants) and late night-time facilities (e.g. clubs, minicab offices). Where are they located and what are the reasons for this?
  
• Research and a questionnaire to reveal patterns of availability and usage of night-time public transport vs private / individual transport.

Managing urban rebranding

Two possible ideas for evaluating the success of attempts to manage urban rebranding.

Map surveillance and efforts to make safer	Map the occurrence of CCTV within the urban zone. Also record other attempts to make the area safer, e.g. improved lighting at night, overlooking
Compare facilities and footfall with similar urban area	Carry out a pedestrian / footfall survey in different parts of the town / city where reimaging has taken place. How and why are there differences in pedestrian flows and numbers?

Try and build up a 'profile' of the area to evaluate the impact of re-imaging schemes.

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