Retail Distinctiveness
The development of distinctive communities has been an important area of work for Miller Research with pioneering studies across the United Kingdom. As a response to the changes in Britain’s High Streets, our retail distinctiveness® work has focussed on how to create balanced retail offers within town centres and the role of the built environment, accessibility, culture, food and markets in their sustainable growth. Our retail distinctiveness® model helps communities to assess how distinctive they are, areas for improvements, opportunities for local partnering as well as marketing and promotion.
Outputs from the work include retail distinctiveness surveys, delivery plans as well as brokering the formation of partnership and task groups to ensure future sustainability and action.
We have worked in smaller towns such as Wooler in the Northumberland Cheviot Hills through to larger centres such as Newcastle Under Lyme in North Staffordshire, with clients ranging from local development trusts, regional development agencies and local authorities.
We have recently combined our destination planning work with our retail distinctiveness work to develop brands for towns, which has involved local organisations developing mood boards and creative briefs leading to storyboards and visuals that help underpin a town’s product.
