My little office in the centre of town is looking a lot more upmarket these days. It’s all thanks to Debbie Osborn, a talented local artist and designer (and blogger) who has provided me with some of her original artwork to hang on my walls. They’re really eyecatching pieces - I’ll bet lots of visitors will be asking where they came from when they drop in to ‘talk websites’.

Keith, her other half, is a pretty fine local photographer. One of his prints – a cracking seascape in the sunset –  is also adorning my office. How bad is that?

So you see, it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know Thanks very much indeed guys.

The Advertising Standards Agency have upheld complaints about the BT ad that says it’s, “rolling out up to 20 meg speeds” to give “consistently faster broadband“. The ASA stated that “it had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim and concluded that the advert was likely to mislead“.

The problem I had with that advert – the one where Adam and Jane are talking over the phone about viewing houses and the estate agent’s connection is slower than Jane’s –  is slightly more obvious…

The estate agent showing Adam the houses online is using his laptop inside a property being viewed. Surely it wouldn’t be using the property owner’s broadband connection, would it? So it’s not comparing like-for-like, is it?

Schoolboy error!

..

A couple of signs I’ve spotted over the last few days. Who makes this stuff?

That’s the first phantom comma I’ve ever seen, plus a probable record for the number of phantom apostrophes on one sign. Impressive!

Have you seen one of these in the wild yet?

How cool is this? It’s a funky purple eco-friendly jute bag bearing the message…

“Fakenham. Bloomin’ Lovely.”

It was designed by year 10 pupils at Fakenham High School for the Fakenham Area Partnership, who obtained some funding for the project via a bid to  ‘Awards For All’.

The bag is 100% recyclable and will be sold through local markets and retailers, plus schools, community groups and the Tourist Information Point. A Farmers’ Market postcard/calendar will be placed into each bag to underline the “shop locally, eat healthier, live sustainably” message.

Want one?  They’re £3.50 each. Find them at…

Corders Budgens
Lawnwise & Leisure
Fakenham Heelbar
Fuglis
Get Smart
Sweets-n-things
Secrets
NewsKlip
Fakenham Garden Centre

And they’ll also be available at…

Chemstop
Whichcraft/Witchcraft?
Amie’s – Hairstylist
Fakenham Racecourse
Tourist Information Point/Library
Connect Office

The town of Fakenham seems to be in a bit of a state of flux right now – at least the shops in the town centre are. That shop next to our town sign which I originally described as a ‘bathroom shop’ and which then morphed quietly into a clothes shop is now on the march. A bright yellow display of balloons adorns the windows, with posters stating that the shop will be moving (see photo inset). It all seems very strange. Anybody care to start a conspiracy theory?

Local shoppers love bargains, but local business owners don’t go for them!

In the past, I’ve talked to somebody at Fakenham Chamber of Commerce as well as Kick Start Fakenham about a local shopper loyalty scheme, but nothing has so far become of it.  I think the Chamber has also recently and independently discussed an idea like this, but maybe somebody needs to give it a nudge and/or get some feedback from the local public…

I think the town’s traders could do with some kind of mutually-beneficial loyalty scheme. Something which would reward local shoppers by giving discounts or special offers and which would, in turn, keep some of their trade in the town rather than see them shop further afield.

I have had some ideas already, having mulled it over for the best part of a year. What has rekindled my ideas now? Well, I was speaking to another business owner from this area yesterday and we were comparing notes about local advertising and promotion. His thoughts were (and my past experiences bear this out) that local businesses are usually very reluctant to promote themselves – even if the method offered is extremely inexpensive or even free! They’re not at all pro-active when it comes to publicity and many smaller businesses in the area will happily admit to being complete technophobes – not at all helpful when somebody like me is trying to convince them to promote their businesses online!

We came to the conclusion that if local businesses could be shown an obviously consumer-driven scheme, they’d be more likely to see the advantage of promoting themselves through it. Our reasoning was that they’re historically used to being consumer-led and would react to a more traditional idea that shoppers would want to use.

So… I’d like your ideas. If you’re a shopper, what would convince you to use a local business rather than one from Norwich or Lynn? If you’re a Fakenham trader or shop owner, do you have any ideas to make a scheme like this work?

You can leave comments here on my blog or email me via steve (at) wensum.net. Alternatively, feel free to give me a ring at the office on 01328 856688.

There’s been a spate of smartening-up in the town centre. It started with work on Benbow’s Greengrocers on the corner of Norwich Street and Bridge Street, then seemed to migrate to the cafe next door and has now spread to Clive’s tattoo shop downstairs from my office. I must say, I like the new look of Clive’s place now – its olive and black livery looks classy.

The new shop in Norwich Street, Fakenham – on the site of the toyshop which only recently closed. Apparently (and hopefully somebody in the know will correct me if I’m wrong) they’ll be selling army surplus gear, which sounds a tad obvious being as they’re called ‘Quartermasters’. Well, that’s a bit different anyway and better than having yet another baker/butcher/optician in the town centre. I hope they do well.

I know – I didn’t have to go far to take this snap as it’s right opposite my office door!

 
FAKENHAM NATURAL HEALTH CENTRE

I promised the owner of a new business in town I’d give his new venture a bit of a plug. This info is gleaned from their website…

Opening this Saturday 12th June at 10am
There will be therapists offering taster sessions for £5, with a wide variety of therapies available on the day. Come and have look round and meet the therapists.

They’re running a competition on North Norfolk Radio too. Prizes include various kinds of massage, hypnotherapy sessions and a Wellness & Nutrition consultation. One of their upcoming workshops is, “How to play Tibetan Singing, Talking & Charma Bowls”. Sounds a bit different!

You can find them opposite Tesco’s entrance, behind the Salvation Army hall.

1 Royal Oak Chambers,
Oak Street, Fakenham,
Norfolk, NR21 9DY.

Fakenham’s a small town. You’d think it would be easy to let everybody know when you had some news to tell. Unfortunately, I haven’t found that to be true over the years. We all seem to be involved with friends and colleagues in small groups and news doesn’t always escape into the outside world efficiently.

Newspapers like The EDP, Fakenham Times and The Fakenham Sun play their part. In fact they do a really great job in keeping us all informed. Trouble is, they can only ever print a limited snapshot of what’s going on at any one time and they don’t all pick up on the same information.  Also, there are lots of different people you need to contact when you have something happening and need to tell the world - and if your news is business related you may not be able to reach your target audience easily.

When Kick Start Fakenham held its first tentative meeting over a year ago, I mentioned the fact that there was no central point of information distribution. No single place you could go to make sure that your news reached the right people. At the time, it looked like Kick Start might provide that central point, but their website is still to be published and if the truth’s known, they’re probably finding the same old problems themselves when they need to get their info published.

So, I’ve come up with something myself. It will be launching soon