Market Rasen Racecourse

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Town TransformationTown TransformationTown TransformationTown Transformation

Action PlanAction PlanAction PlanAction Plan

V1 V1 V1 V1 28282828thththth March 2012March 2012March 2012March 2012

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INDEXINDEXINDEXINDEX

Introduction 3

Our Vision 4

Key Challenges 5

BIG Ideas 7

#1 BIG Town Tidy Up 8

#2 Put the Market back in Market Rasen 10

#3 Sustainable Shopping Strategy 15

#4 Pulling in the Punters 17

Communications – Group & Community 18

Measuring our Success 19

Calendar of Events 20

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IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

To all our BIG friends,

It’s hard to believe that our first BIG meeting was only 6 weeks ago on the 20th

February.

We’ve made huge progress in a short space of time, thanks to the energy and

effort of all those traders and business people who’ve been involved so far.

We’ve had excellent attendance at our open meetings. We’ve got 51 people

signed up, generated a huge volume of ideas and we’ve gone a long way towards

structuring our thinking into a plan.

But there’s still a lot of work to do.

The past 5 weeks have seen us investing our time and effort in making an

application (and video) to submit to the Portas Pilot scheme. It’s been incredibly

hard work, to a very tight deadline, but it’s testament to teamwork that we’ve got

it done. With thanks again to everyone in front and behind the camera for

fantastic contributions.

Whether we secure funding from the Pilot or not, the exercise has been valuable.

It’s forced us to focus our thinking and take some decisions together about what

our priorities need to be, if we are to transform our town.

Win or lose, the truly hard work starts here. Our plans will only be realised if we

work together to make them happen, so we hope we can look forward to your

continued support. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and get down to serious

graft as we take our shared vision and ideas and start to revitalise Market Rasen.

The more supporters we have, the more likely we are to achieve our goals. So

please spread the word about MR BIG and get other traders and business owners

and managers to join us. The MR BIG blog is updated all the time with news and

interesting info, so keep an eye on http://marketrasenguide.co.uk/wordpress/

And don’t forget it’s yours to use for job vacancies or promoting vacant premises

so anything you think worthy of inclusion just email [email protected]

With very best regards,

MR BIG

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BIG VisionBIG VisionBIG VisionBIG Vision

Our vision will see:

• Our high street realising its potential to be a busy, vibrant destination for

local residents, regional visitors and tourists.

• Our market reinstated at the heart of our community, famous for its

authentic shopping experience via a lively mix of independent traders.

• Our traders working as one with a passion for quality and value, offering

products and services that excite and engage with the modern shopper.

• The development of a distinctive Market Rasen identity that builds on our

traditional heritage, offering customers a warm, Lincolnshire welcome

and timeless standards of customer service.

• A contemporary twist provided by exciting and relevant offers,

promotions and services.

• A town that is tidy, inviting and well-maintained; always dressed for the

occasion, with a tempting calendar of events that appeals to all.

• Our traders and our broader community working together to take actions,

confident that small changes and quick wins can make a BIG difference.

• Sustainable plans that implement new ideas, encourage start-ups, create

employment opportunities, retain talent, develop skills and attract spend.

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Key ChallengesKey ChallengesKey ChallengesKey Challenges

Market Rasen is a classic Georgian Market Town, with a single main street, great

form, some lovely buildings and traditional market place. At the edge of the

Lincolnshire Wolds, with its own Racecourse and en route to popular coastal

destinations, we are served by our own award-winning train station and have

plenty of free parking. With so much going for it, Market Rasen should be a

honeypot for tourists and shoppers.

But our town needs some TLC. Our High Street is scruffy, our Market has

dwindled to one or two stalls, we have vacant and dangerously neglected

commercial properties.

Market Rasen has plenty of passing trade – but unfortunately it passes us in

favour of smarter local towns and cities with retail parks and a diverse and

better-developed offer to shoppers and residents. Many live here, shop there.

Our ‘BIG 4’ challenges:Our ‘BIG 4’ challenges:Our ‘BIG 4’ challenges:Our ‘BIG 4’ challenges:

BIG Town TidyupBIG Town TidyupBIG Town TidyupBIG Town Tidyup

Market Rasen needs a makeover. Tackle grot spots, give boarded over premises

a face-lift, introduce (BIG) signage in keeping with our heritage and clean up our

public places.

Put the Market back in Market RasenPut the Market back in Market RasenPut the Market back in Market RasenPut the Market back in Market Rasen

Our market should be a focus for our town’s retail offer. Re-invigoration is vital.

Drawing in Lincolnshire established and new traders, we must make our town a

contemporary shopping destination for value and quality-hungry consumers.

Sustainable Shopping StrategySustainable Shopping StrategySustainable Shopping StrategySustainable Shopping Strategy

Fill vacant shops with businesses that bring something fresh to the mix and make

Market Rasen a one-stop-shopping and ‘doing’ destination. We need landlords

and estate agents onside, plus a plan to encourage and support talented newbies.

Pulling in the puntersPulling in the puntersPulling in the puntersPulling in the punters

Shop revenues, employment and inward investment rely on coaxing customers

back to our town and driving footfall. We must market ourselves anew to

traders, potential partners, bigger corporates, tourist businesses and consumers,

promoting relevant offers and incentives that keep customers coming back.

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BIG IdeasBIG IdeasBIG IdeasBIG Ideas

For all of you that have attended our meetings, you’ll know the amount of effort

that’s gone in to arriving at a plan that combines practical action with really BIG

and innovative ideas.

We’ve also done our bit to keep ‘Post-its’ in business and filled plenty of BIG

sheets of paper. . .

Before we get into the ideas themselves, let’s remember how we got here:

• Our group was formed out of a kick off meeting following the 3rd Rasen

Neighbourhood Plan meeting on the 5th January 2012

• Two of our team distributed over 140 letters by hand, to invite Market

Rasen businesses to a business only open meeting on 20th February 2012

• We’ve managed to keep interest and involvement high, with over 40

attendees at each of our 2 open meetings to date

• And we’ve had weekly informal meetings and project workgroups to keep

plenty of momentum in between times

• We’re communicating on a daily basis via our blog

• And we’re developing a close relationship with our local media to ensure

our activities are understood by our own community

Regardless of how we do in the Portas Pilot, we’ve got Mary Portas to thank for

giving us the extra push to lift our ideas out of the ordinary and begin to build a

plan that we can all be proud of.

Mary has done us a favour, because win or lose, we’ve now got firm foundations

that will hopefully inspire people to get involved and interest the media enough

to generate the kind of positive publicity that will put Market Rasen on the map.

So the scene is set. Let’s take a look at the detail. . .

Note: You’ll notice there are still some [Who/How?] questions against plenty of points, plus lists of additional questions. Finding the answers to these will be our next challenge as we begin to drive forward to action.

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#1 BIG Town Tidy Up#1 BIG Town Tidy Up#1 BIG Town Tidy Up#1 BIG Town Tidy Up

Market Rasen is a town in need of a makeover. MR BIG has highlighted a number

of grot spots and unkempt areas in need of some serious TLC. So our objective is

to improve the look and feel of our town to tempt in local shoppers, regional

visitors and those summertime tourists on their way to and from Skeggie.

BIG ideaBIG ideaBIG ideaBIG ideassss::::

• An 8 week Town Tidy-up programme to systematically tackle all the

priority grot spots (1 day per week, with a target of at least 8 volunteers

for each day of activity)

• Invite volunteers from all areas of our community to have a hand in giving

our town a cosmetic overhaul, including traders, residents and youth

groups

• Regular cosmetic ‘maintenance’ activities after the first 8 weeks

• Re-instate a town design statement to encourage shop and property

owners to maintain their shop-fronts in a fashion that promotes visual

consistency throughout the town, in keeping with our Georgian heritage.

A statement exists from 1995. We plan to update this document, but

importantly we must communicate it to all shop owners via a launch

event and one-to-one meetings to ensure that its intention is understood

and we secure as much buy-in as possible.

• Operation Ice Cream. We would like to see all of our shop fronts

repainted in co-ordinating colours within a 3-year time frame (accepting

that this can be a costly exercise for owners and landlords). The team will

suggest a palette of colours and we will look to secure discounts and

sponsorship to assist with the cost of materials for participating retailers,

as well as negotiating an opt-in scheme to get a competitive price from a

local contractor to fulfill the work, for those who don’t want to DIY.

• Launch a ‘BIG Love’ adoption scheme to encourage some of Market

Rasen’s larger businesses to take care of key public places on an ongoing

basis. E.g. Ask Tesco and the Racecourse to plant up areas, ask some of

our big building supplies/DIY firms to adopt street furniture and traders

to adopt the pavements outside their shops. (We recognise that this

activity will be subject to permissions from WLDC and will be

supplementary to services delivered by the Council). The Co-op and

Network Rail are also on our list of organisations to approach, with

specific grot spots to tackle. [Who & how?]

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• Building a volunteer database

• Organising and managing a programme of activities

• Getting appropriate permissions from landlords/owners/council

• Securing low cost or no-cost materials

• Access to necessary equipment

• Generating publicity and goodwill

OpportunitiesOpportunitiesOpportunitiesOpportunities

• Market Rasen has a lot of hardware & DIY shops

• Some of our grot spots have been identified as possible communication

points within the town – the potential to tackle two birds with one stone

• Opportunity to showcase good work and be seen to be making a visible

difference

• Gives us a clear reason to engage with bigger local businesses

QuestionsQuestionsQuestionsQuestions still to answerstill to answerstill to answerstill to answer

• How can we expand this idea to make it inclusive and get local schools,

community groups involved?

• Are there any competitions we can run to generate visuals for some of the

boarded areas?

• Are there any areas where specialist skills and equipment is required, if

so, how do we tackle these?

• How do we approach the property owners, landlords involved?

• Can we draft letters now? Do we organise meetings? If so, who and how?

• How do we get non-BIG shops and traders involved?

• How do we ensure that all of our activities achieve coherence in the actual

standards delivered/achieved?

• How can we muster support from the bigger businesses in town?

• How do we get money into a kitty to make some of this stuff happen?

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Sample timetable of activity for BIG Town Tidyup Sample timetable of activity for BIG Town Tidyup Sample timetable of activity for BIG Town Tidyup Sample timetable of activity for BIG Town Tidyup –––– details tbcdetails tbcdetails tbcdetails tbc

Week Activity People Materials/

Equipment

1 Street Cleaning –

Town Approaches

Sacks, Gloves,

Transport

1 Letters to landlords

for permissions

1 Coverage in Rasen Mail

1 Launch competition for

graphics in local schools

(requires themes/number

of locations)

2 Street furniture

clean down/repair

Jacksons - benches

2 Letters to local businesses

to adopt a specific area

3 Green fingers – plant-off

Identify key areas, get

sponsorship and plant up

4 Paint off – identify obvious

public paint jobs – lets ‘av

em!

Can we organise a social

event to tie in with this.

BIG BEERS??

5 Poles/Brackets/Jubilee

flags

Sally Spring - flags

6 Vacant premises boards –

consistent black base coat

Black paint

7 Vacant premises boards -

decorate

Printed/painted

graphics, glue,

sealer

8 Street Cleaning in Town –

Areas x, y, z

Sacks, Gloves,

Transport

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#2 Put the Market back in Market Rasen#2 Put the Market back in Market Rasen#2 Put the Market back in Market Rasen#2 Put the Market back in Market Rasen

The market should be at the heart of the shopper and community experience for

any thriving market town. We want to re-instate and re-invigorate our market

as a focus for commercial activity in Market Rasen and in doing so, make us a

destination for local shoppers, regional visitors and tourist trade.

We need to ensure that the activities in the market tie in and add value to other

businesses in town, whether they are shops, pubs, restaurants or professional

services companies.

Our ideal is that our town centre would work like a fabulous department store.

It would be a brilliant one-stop-shopping experience, packed full of interesting

independent retailers with great quality and value goods that appeal to people of

all ages and all interests.

We know Lincolnshire has a strong reputation for food tourism and our own

town has existing strengths and variety in this area. Lincolnshire also has a

vibrant circuit of existing farmers’, arts and crafts markets. We need to go one

step further – create a point of difference and give people a reason to come.

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• Give our Saturday market a BIG boost. Aim to have 20 stalls+ in the

market place on Saturdays. Once Saturday is established, roll out to boost

Fridays and Tuesdays. We will do this by:

o Clearing the market place of cars on a Saturday

o Offering stalls at low cost [£10 tbc]

o Professional marketing to quality Lincolnshire traders/producers

o Reserving a % of stalls for Market Rasen businesses, with the

option of shared stalls to reduce people required to run these

o Food focus for the 1st Saturday of each month

o Additional themes for 2nd, 3rd & 4th Saturdays (arts & crafts,

country pursuits including gardening, antiques and vintage, books

- all discussed and to be developed).

o Use the covered Auction area for BIG demos or BIG music

o With traders booked, BIG promotion is require locally and

regionally to encourage footfall, options include:

� Local press & radio (PR & paid Advertising)

� Leafleting

� Poster campaigns

� Social media

� Promotion through existing groups e.g. Chamber of

Commerce, Select & Tastes of Lincolnshire, Lions, Rotary,

Churches, Schools. WLDC [any more to add?].

� Semi-permanent signage

• Relaunch our Market this Summer with the Market Rasen Festival of

World Food (A BIG artisan food market). [Date tbc]. This would involve:

o Positioning our event as the ‘Chef’s choice’

o Get local ‘celeb’ chefs to champion us Rachel Green, Dom Franks –

who else?

o Booking stalls to showcase artisan produce and the finest quality

ingredients

o BIG up provenance as this is a huge trend in UK food, so focus on

the ‘produced, grown, made in Lincolnshire’ Market Rasen has so

much on its doorstep (poss more than anywhere else)

o Plenty of sampling and demos

o Cook-off competitions (eg Mr Huda’s vs The Gate of India)

o Tie ups between stall holders and eateries so key produce is

featured on Pub/restaurant menus throughout the town for a full

day gastro experience

o Vouchers to takeaway to pull trade back into town, post-event

o Promotional recipe cards tie local producers and retailers together

with chefs at our eateries

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o Preview event – ‘Meet the buyers’ a breakfast/lunch time mini

trade fair that introduces Lincolnshire producers to chefs,

restaurant owners, local B&Bs, deli and food outlets, on-trade

buyers etc – accepting that restaurant owners and caterers are

unlikely to attend a Saturday market

o Give traders VIP treatment so they want to come back for more

o PR, advertising and promotions campaign to maximise interest in

the event (real time social media, blogging and IG coverage) to put

Market Rasen on the map for Lincolnshire Market

• Duplicate launch event activity for Christmas MarketChristmas MarketChristmas MarketChristmas Market with similar BIG hit

• Develop a calendar of key eventscalendar of key eventscalendar of key eventscalendar of key events and promotions to tie in with other

events organized in Market Rasen. eg: Churches Festival, Wolds Walking

Festival, Market Rasen Races, Diamond Jubilee etc.


• Co-ordinating logistics and volunteers to assemble market

• Ensure that the traders’ experience is not only professionally managed

but that theey are given a warm VIP treatment, best in county, follow up

post event, lots of free PR so that they will definitely return

• The weather

• Cost of promotions (This is the make or break – getting the message out

there and ensuring a BIG turnout on the day and on a regular basis)

QuestionsQuestionsQuestionsQuestions still to answerstill to answerstill to answerstill to answer

• How can we expand this idea to make it inclusive – get local schools,

community groups involved (pull in the parents)?

• Are there any competitions we can run on the day or in the run up to the

day to build some excitement?

• How can we attract visitors into main street retail premises on the days in

question?

• What add-ons or attractions could we include to create some theatre and

make it newsworthy? Local young bands (or musicians from Jam night at

the Swan to give a taster)

• How can we muster support from the bigger businesses in town?

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#3 Sustainable Shopping Strategy#3 Sustainable Shopping Strategy#3 Sustainable Shopping Strategy#3 Sustainable Shopping Strategy

BIG Up our High StreetBIG Up our High StreetBIG Up our High StreetBIG Up our High Street

We want to BIG up our main street, but there’s a lot of work to do. Once we’ve

begun to improve the look and feel of the physical environment in our BIG Town

Tidy-up, we need to develop the quality and variety of the shopping experience

to give our shoppers plenty of opportunities to relax and enjoy themselves after

some retail therapy.

We have to put Market Rasen on the map and attract 3 key shopper groups:

1. Our priority is to get residents residents residents residents to buy local

2. Quickly become a destination for rrrregional shoppersegional shoppersegional shoppersegional shoppers

3. Attract vvvvisiting touristsisiting touristsisiting touristsisiting tourists and become both a spot-off and place to stay.


• Town Team task force spotlight on:

o Landlords – to fulfil responsibilities in maintaining vacant

premises

o Estate Agents – to ensure properties are effectively marketed to

improve the breadth of offer and set terms to attract new

businesses into Market Rasen

• Pop-up shop programme to encourage existing traders and fledgling

businesses to try (premises) before they buy.

(Begin with single premises pilot and roll-out).

• A development and mentoring plan for traders to include:

o A monthly BIG breakfast meeting with guest speakers to help

traders improve knowledge and skills (Topic examples: Social

media for business, H&S, practical accounting etc)

o A coaching and mentoring BIG Buddy scheme where experienced

and successful traders and business owners buddy start-ups

o A clear and supported journey for successful trading (a succession

plan of sorts), that sees startups ‘earn their stripes’ as market

traders, helps them secure ‘incubation’ premises for short periods

at reduced rents and helps them move into bigger premises when

they are ready, freeing that space for another new retail journey

o A MR BIG retail apprenticeship scheme – to encourage young

people interested in retail to gain experience and qualification,

whilst supplying much needed, appropriately skilled workers to

help our existing businesses expand

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• Limited power to force landlords & estate agents to co-operate (must be a

charm offensive)

• Get landlords on-side with pop-up concept (sound business case is key)

• Need CG Partnership on side for apprenticeship

• Real joined up thinking across different areas of retail and long-term

commitment

• Need to establish a channel to engage with talented young entrepreneurs

and fledgling businesses

QuestionsQuestionsQuestionsQuestions

• Need to compile a list of landlords and premises in question

• Can we use a proven pop-up model that’s been used elsewhere (Pop up

people report)

• Can we borrow a coaching/mentoring framework from elsewhere to get

us going?

• Should we consider embracing an off the shelf loyalty/incentive App

scheme (Tik Tap / Beep Treat etc)

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#4 #4 #4 #4 Pulling in the PuntersPulling in the PuntersPulling in the PuntersPulling in the Punters

Once we’ve got our town looking more loved and a plan in place to BIG up our

shoppers’ experiences, we need to tempt them into town. Our priority has to be

local people on our doorstep who will visit town day to day and week in, week

out. But we also need to cast our net further a field, so that Market Rasen

becomes a ‘day out’ destination for regional visitors and ultimately an attraction

in its own right for tourists. (Although in the short term coaxing in customers as

passing trade would be great).

BIG ideas:BIG ideas:BIG ideas:BIG ideas:

• BIG bag promotion.BIG bag promotion.BIG bag promotion.BIG bag promotion. We print 1000 branded BIG bags and offer them for

sale for a nominal price (to cover production costs) in shops along the

Main Street. Once purchased, customers presenting these bags in

participating retailers are entitled to a discount (10% tbc), for the

duration of the promotion. We are suggesting that this promotion is

piloted for 1 month to correspond with the Jubilee

• BIG Signage scheBIG Signage scheBIG Signage scheBIG Signage scheme.me.me.me. Our town is already organising ‘Free Parking’ signs

to be appended to our existing town signs, but we want more. We want

appropriate brown signs for our Town [who, how and what cost].

Additionally, we would like to see traditional style wall signs in keeping

with our Georgian heritage, making use of some of the dead space in our

town centre, to publicise some of our key attractions (free parking,

eateries and food businesses). [Who, how and what cost]

• BIG VisitorBIG VisitorBIG VisitorBIG Visitorssss’’’’ Centre.Centre.Centre.Centre. One of our longer-term aspirations is to have a

Market Rasen Visitors’ Centre. Learning from the success of 28 Plough

Hill (The Arts and Heritage Centre in Caistor), we would like to see a place

where visitors and residents can go to learn about our town and its

attractions, as well as a display space for local project, initiatives, arts and

crafts. Early discussions have included the Court House and the

Goldmine – both vacant at present. Although we recognise this is

potentially an investment-heavy idea, requiring much more development

and planning

• Tap into the tourist mTap into the tourist mTap into the tourist mTap into the tourist markets.arkets.arkets.arkets. Thousands of visitors come to Lincolnshire

each year and to the Wolds, the coast and the Racecourse in particular.

We need to put Market Rasen on the map for them by posting publicity

materials in Tourist Information locations and on ‘pick-up’ in surrounding

hotels and B&Bs. We also need to market to all our local accommodation

providers, and nearby attractions to get them to signpost their visitors to

Market Rasen to eat, shop, drink etc (not to Louth or elsewhere)

• In addition to the above, we want to muster a bedrock of publicity

through the following:

o Regular press coverage in the Rasen Mail and other Lincolnshire

local titles

o Social media and word of mouth

o Posters, promotions and incentives

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Communicating as a Group and to the Wider Communicating as a Group and to the Wider Communicating as a Group and to the Wider Communicating as a Group and to the Wider CommunityCommunityCommunityCommunity

We recognise that our communications activities must perform on two levels.

1) to engage the business owners and traders who will be hands-on in

transformation projects.

2) To make information regarding projects, decision making and funding

publicly available, to promote broader awareness amongst our community and

muster additional volunteer and shopper support.

Given that our Town Team – MR BIG was only established in January, we have

already made huge in roads in establishing effective communication and

information sharing channels.

Business Owners & TradersBusiness Owners & TradersBusiness Owners & TradersBusiness Owners & Traders

Using blog as a communications hub for all Town Team activity. We are actively

promoting use of Facebook and Twitter amongst traders to ‘share’ key points of

information and drive traffic to the blog.

Regular monthly meeting, turn out in excess of 40 traders per meeting is

allowing for plenty of direct communications, which in turn delivers excellent

word of mouth.

All traders who are signed up to MR BIG have submitted their email contact

details which are held within a cloud based Capsule CRM system, allowing for

fast, effective email updates, integrated with calendar and tasks and other tools.

Community & General PublicCommunity & General PublicCommunity & General PublicCommunity & General Public

Already developed a strong working relationship with the Rasen Mail and have

secured a weekly column to allow us to publish project related information and

publicise positive outcomes out to our broader local audience.

We have an established information website for locals and visitors using the

town, this can be developed to publicise key consumer-facing messages.

We can build a similar database of individuals and well established voluntary

groups (Christmas Tree etc) for joined up strategy and co-ordination.

We also report in to the Rasen Neighbourhood Planning Group, which has its

own blog to keep residents updated. We have links to this blog and the close

relationship between the two working groups means that BIG information can be

published to residents via this channel.

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Measuring our SuccessMeasuring our SuccessMeasuring our SuccessMeasuring our Success

We have identified a nationally recognized benchmarking toolkit from AMT

(Action for Market Towns). The system will enable us to gather and analyse the

economic performance of our Town Centre based on 12 key performance

indicators (KPIs) including:

• Retail offering

• Footfall

• Business Confidence

• Town Centre User Surveys

• Shoppers Origin

We are in the process of appraising this service. If suitable, AMT would deliver

us annual performance data to a standard format and in doing so, allow us to

formally track our progress.

We anticipate that annual data gathering will be driven by MR BIG and

administered via a combination of volunteers and 6th Form Students from our

local school.

Regular Healthcheck ReportingRegular Healthcheck ReportingRegular Healthcheck ReportingRegular Healthcheck Reporting

However, we will also be implementing additional measures that will give us

regular healthcheck reporting on our Town Centre, they are:

• Capturing an index of trader revenues from all traders signed up to MR

BIG. Using a 100% +or- benchmark

• Qualitative customer satisfaction surveys conducted on-street at

[suggested] quarterly intervals

• Before and after photographs for key areas of cosmetic rejuvenation

• Reduction in vacant properties, tracked and published

• Trader attendance at markets and special events

• Trader feedback forms to follow up attendance

• Google alerts to track our media presence

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Calendar of EventsCalendar of EventsCalendar of EventsCalendar of Events

Market Rasen Racecourse

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