For those of you who are not Irish, Clonmel is the biggest inland town in Ireland with a population of roughly 20,000 souls. As school children, we learned this fact and it was always a source of pride with which we taunted our peers from smaller surrounding towns like Cahir and Carrick-on-Suir. In addition to this accolade, Clonmel is nationally famous for being the home of Bulmer’s Cider and in recent times, infamous, for providing stock flooding footage to RTÉ Television news.
'The Main Guard' - Clonmel Town Centre
The current recession (and coming depression!) is hitting this once prosperous market town hard. The retail sector is on its knees. Anecdotally, local traders in the town centre say that they can often go an entire shopping day without making a single sale. The disastrous effects of the economic downturn have been compounded by some insane planning decisions in recent years which saw the opening of multiple retail parks and shopping centres in the suburbs of the town, outside of walking distance. The town is now disjointed and the once bustling town centre is in need of resuscitation.
Local business people, in the main, seem content to cut costs and wait for the recovery promised by the government who say we have ‘turned a corner’. This is a mirage. In my own opinion (and it gives me no pleasure to say it), this recession is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. In order for the retailers in the town centre to survive, action is required. And fast!… while we still have retailers in Clonmel town centre.
So what, if anything, is to be done? How can the town centre attract more spending customers?
One thing that can be done is make Clonmel Town Centre a Wi-Fi Hotspot. (Ya what Gay!). Put simply, this means that people would be able to access the internet via their mobile device (Phones, iPhones, iPads, Laptops etc.) from anywhere in the town centre. It’s a way of branding the town as an ‘internet oasis’ in order to lure tourists and shoppers. Offering Wi-Fi to shoppers can be viewed as an additional amenity and gives them one more reason to come to Clonmel. The fact that the Wi-Fi service is free means customers can come without feeling pressured or obligated to make a purchase. However, and at the risk of stating the obvious, if local retailers offer appealing products or services, customers may be more inclined to make a purchase during their visit.
I’m not suggesting this is a panecea. I am suggesting that if executed and marketed properly, this could help attract valuable revenue to the town. I don’t want to get bogged down it the technical, hardware and financing issues just yet.
I’d be very interested to know what you think? Please leave a comment.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you seriously overestimate the amount of regular shoppers who would use wi-fi even if it was available. A number of pubs and restaurants already offer free wi-fi access in Clonmel but I hardly ever see anyone using it.
A far larger problem for Clonmel is first of all the fact that shop owners are being gouged for prices by the people they’re leasing off, as well as the fact that there’s insufficient parking, and the lack of high profile and unique shops. You can’t take 3 steps without coming across a women’s clothes shop, a pub or a discount store. We need something like an Argos to come in provide appealing shopping to others from outside of Clonmel as well as the residents.
This is kind of thinking that we need to get towns like Clonmel out of the hole that we’re in. It is a cheap solution that would improve the experience of the town for many shoppers, ultimately helping local traders. While it may not immediately bear fruit you can almost be certain that in years to come it will more than reward the investment.
For example, a few years ago touch screen phones were extremely rare. With the advent of the iPhone this has caused other manufacturers to redesign their products to compete. Also, PC sales have decreased in comparison with laptops and netbooks. The advent of the iPad has fundamentally changed how people use computers elsewhere, no reason it can’t happen here.
Also, it can be held up as a tangible example of how the town is at the forefront of the smart economy. As a result it will help attract the right kind of foreign investment as textile industries are a thing of the past. As a tourism tool it is also a no-brainer, coupled with a interactive website or other resource it would sell Clonmel as a modern, yet still historic town.
Thats a very good idea and something I tried to personally push in Clonmel over 4 years ago with very little traction.
I’m afraid the problems in places like Clonmel run much deeper than having wifi access. Infrastructure in general is a problem in rural places such as good transport links and sensible town planning.
Part of the issue is that Clonmel is very difficult to get in and out of making it a very difficult place to do business from. Rail links are badly run, over priced and the roads around the area are absolutely disgraceful. I also feel waterford airport could be put to far greater use to attract more business to the area.
With these infrastructure fixes you would hope to attract more companies into places like Clonmel thus providing more jobs for people which are going to spend some of their money locally.
Simple infrastructural problems like this need to be addressed as well as the problems highlighted by Pieter Vos.
There are indeed many challening issues facing traders and business in the town which have been highlighted above (parking, rates and the suburban Tescovilles on the outskirts ) but for all our professional cynicism what something like this might be marketed is more important that the actual practical application. A semi-deathly (commercial) pallor has started to pass over Clonmel, it’s center especially. The marketing of Clonmel as 21cent-digital-centre-ipad-loving-geek-nirvana might bear only a tenuous relationship to the reality of a scheme. But it’s something that could be marketed and sold thru Munster and further as unique to Clonmel. The fear is that all it will take is one councillor to make ill-concieved noises about security issue and hackers etc. Let’s be honest Irish politicos are not know for their embrace of the tech, I Imagine vested interested in keeping paid wifi will want to squash any attempt like this before it catches on in other towns. But the fact is that if it attracted 1 new business to the town , the rates (excessive as they are in Clonmel) from that, would probably pay for the cost of this scheme. So in summary the marketing value of such a scheme would be an excellent advert for the town but scared of what they don’t understand old school political thinking will kill this idea before it even gets off the drawing board
Thanks for the comments, keep them coming.
While I accept that the execution and marketing of Clonmel as a ‘Wi-Fi Oasis’ is not without its challenges (and that its not a silver bullet for this recession), it IS certainly something worth trying despite the risks of failure on both a marketing and political level. What has the town got to lose?
Perhaps we could market this new free Wi-Fi amenity in tandem with a ‘Clonmel App’ of some sort? The free app might allow users to avail of discounts in participating businesses, provide guided historical tours of the town using geo-location or even find a place to eat…. and all via a free Wi-Fi service…… you get the picture.
The whole point is that we give tourists/shoppers/business a reason to come to Clonmel. In the immortal words of Iron Maiden, “If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on!”.
The other question I’d ask of this potential wifi scheme is, wouldn’t its immediate effect be causing more companies to leave? Namely the companies in town that offer internet access as a service. I can think of at least 3 netcafés in town and there’s probably more, these would all be horrendously affected by free wifi.
This is a more than likely true Peter, in the same way that the people who tended the gaslights in old clonmel were unfortunately made redundant by the advent of electric lighting.
These ‘netcafés’ would simply have to focus on becoming cafés in order to survive. The increase in footfall from the hypothetical success of a ‘free-wifi’ scheme might even help these cafés. Who knows.
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory”
– W. Edwards Deming
Good idea and great comments.
Would have to say that the comment re rents is now probably out of date, as practically all landlords have addressed the crazy levels of rent that were reached during the boom.
Of more concern is the infrastructural defecit mentioned. Chaotic traffic flow, a lack of convenient parking, third-world rail links and a fragmented town centre due to crazy planning decisions have all taken their toll on trading conditions in the town. I’m not sure that free wi-fi will fix any of these, but it is a good “hook” on which to base a promotional campaign.
Sitting in the Park Hotel last week, for the launch of southtipperary.ie, I was struck by the contrast between the members of the “top table” who spoke.
On one hand, young, vibrant people in young vibrant companies, pushing the boundaries and their businesses, and on the other, the administrators and “people in power” who have been responsible for the development of our town/county over the last 30 years.
I wish that the latter group were the people to mount such a marketing campaign, but I remain to be convinced.
I like free and open wifi but don’t think that’s going to happen unless a mesh network is put into place–something like FreeFi in Dalkey. There’s Clonmel infrastructure in place for the free wifi oasis already. South Tipperary County Council already beam a wifi signal from their carpark to the top of the hill. Tipperary Institute does the same. The signals beam back down to clients. Both wifi services can be throttled so as to placate netcafes. Or both could be limited to specific MAC addresses.
Like Pat Quirke, I was in the Park Hotel for the SouthTipperary.ie launch. It would have better to let the entrepreneurs do all the talking. Some of the politicos couldn’t even correctly pronounce the names of the companies.
And like others who have commented before on this post, I believe there is enough energy to conceptualise and propose a campaign that the local authorities help fund. The right people are listening.
There’s a barcamp being planned for October. I’d like to connect a few of the dots between these ideas before then. How about a lunchtime Clonmel OpenCoffee before the end of June that follows an agenda that Hugh scratches out on this blog?
Sounds good. It would make the town grow and encourage more company’s to come and start up a business in the town. The town needs a bit of a buzz because for the population, I have seen very few with there own blogs which is a real shame. This would be a real “Pull factor” !
Hi,
I am not from Clonmel but came across this and thought I would add that I also think it’s a good idea. I don’t think you would effectively be running the net cafes out of town as they not only serve as a connection to the internet but they also provide the tool (a pc) to get on the internet. Even if there was free wifi it doesn’t mean their business model is dead.
In any case any loss of employment in this regard would be compensated by new jobs either online or helping more people get on-line.
Have you researched the infrastucture/costs required to build this? If businesses are already spending money to provide wifi you can sell the idea better to them by showing that collectively they may be paying less.
I am in Carrick on Shannon in Leitrim which is very similar in a lot of ways to Clonmel. I would be love to see how this goes so please give any updates you might have.
Finally I know I will not stay in a hotel that does not have decent WiFi – it’s not some extravagant ideal. To monitor servers etc I simply need to be able to get online 24/7.
Keep it going!
Fergal