A story about Building a pie shop in a one pie town.
The Tucson Arts district is one pie. Every arts related business,
gallery and arts organization is one slice of this one pie. Every
artist or person who puts energy into this pie is an ingredient.
There is only one pie.
So we have a one pie town with a one pie strategy, a one pie marketing
plan and a one pie arts district. Each slice is trying to
make itself the best slice of this one pie, and that is not a bad
idea. Each slice of this one pie chooses and pays for its
own ingredients, pays for a an oven to bake its slice, pays for
a place to show their one slice, and pays to keep their slice cool
when its hot outside. Each slice markets itself independently to
the people who enjoy a good slice of pie. As a city we have
one great pie, made up of the most flavorful slices, it could be
the best pie in the country but one great pie is not marketable
as other good towns have pie shops with many great pies.
“Think Fixed Costs and Marketing our City”
Maybe the Tucson Arts District is not a one pie town?
Maybe each gallery or arts organization is its own uniquely flavored
pie, made from their own secret recipe, choosing the finest ingredients,
processed and baked in their own special way. We have 40 to 50
or more great tasting pies. When we get hungry we want each
pie maker to bake their own special recipe, the pies they have
always made. We have our traditional pies and non traditional pies.
Some pies you watch move and perform on stage, some you hang on
the wall, some you just listen to them hiss and sizzle in the oven.
Some are consumed just by looking. And some are so modern and conceptual
you would think…… (that’s all you’re
supposed to do). They are important to citizens of this town and
they are import to citizens around the country, they all make us
feel different inside. We have peach apple pecan pie, strawberry
blueberry cherry banana cream pie, coconut chocolate rhubarb pie.
Some want it hot some want it cold, some like it tart some like
it sweet, high fat low fat no carb low carb, we want to be able
to offer them all because citizens want choices and variety when
it comes to filling that emptiness inside. Growl…
“Think Brand or Branding”
Are you hungry yet?
Citizens all over this country are hungry. They drive around their
towns going from strip mall to strip mall searching for something
that will feed their souls and make their hearts sing. They can’t
find it in their towns because their leaders built buildings and
places to store citizens but forgot about the pie makers, they
just did not think it was a priority for their community. These
citizens search their empty towns looking for the pies we have
in Tucson but they don’t know about the marketing plan for
our one pie town. They keep searching trying to fill that hunger
they have in their lives. When given the chance they leave their
towns to search for towns that have built pie shops to fill that
hunger. Our towns citizens are hungry for the same reasons. They
hunger for knowledge, they want to know where the pies in our town
came from, what were the pies like that were here hundreds of years
ago? Some want the elder pie makers to show us the secrets of the
pie makers who have gone before. The citizens cry out, “this
is our town what should we do?”
“Think Search for Identity Culture Connection Passion Heritage
Education Foundation Society”
What can we do? We have all these great pies spread all over town.
Some are hard to get to, some are in dark scary alleys, some have
no place to park a car and some are not accessible to the handicapped.
All these pies are so far apart its not possible to walk to them
all on a good night. We need a low cost way to store all the ingredients
so they are available when we need to make more pies. We also need
a good way to bring citizens to our town so they can experience
our pies and the rest of our cities resources. What about building
a new pie shop? Well maybe, sometimes its difficult to get all
those great tasting pies to realize we need to build a pie shop
so more people will come. Who will come? The citizens of the world,
there are many of them. The citizens of the world are all hungry
and searching for something missing in their towns, a great pie
shop.
“Realization Stage One, Consolidation of Assets to create Critical Mass”
So how do we build a pie shop? We have to start someplace, before
its too late. Too late? Yeah, we need land to build a pie shop
and its disappearing fast. How come? Well, there are other groups
of people who want land, and they are better organized they have
plans. They submit these plans to the city, they have investors,
they have builders, they get things done. We will just call them “the
people who get things done”. The people who get things done,
build places to store people, like condos, lofts spaces and hotels,
they build places to sell things like strip malls, retail spaces
and chain restaurants. Well maybe we can get them to build a pie
shop for us? Don’t they want a great pie shop like everyone
else? Well, not really, building pie shops is not as profitable
as building places to store people, but there might be a way. So,
would they help us build a new pie shop or not?
“Realization Stage Two, Energy to move forward”
Well, an interesting fact, people who stay in these hotels and
buy those really expensive condos really love towns with good pie
shops. We will just call these people “visitors and future
residents”. Can that help us build a great pie shop? Just
maybe. The people that get things done have a problem. What’s
their problem? Well it turns out, our visitors and future residents
don’t want to move to or visit our town until we build a
new pie shop. So now, the people that get things done, can’t
get anything done. So what you’re saying, if we don’t
build a new pie shop nothing downtown gets done? Yep, you got it.
So, if the people who get things done, help to build the new pie
shop it will help them, get their things done and sold. So what
needs to happen next?
“Realization Stage Three, Motivation”
Well the pie makers and the ingredients have to get together and
they all need to realize, they need to start working on building
a new pie shop and they might need some help from the people who
get things done. And “The people that still have dreams to
build a better city” I’ll just call them “The
Community Leaders”, have to figure out a way to secure the
last bit of land that the pie shop could be built upon. Maybe the
community leaders can place the land in a non-profit pie shop trust
that would make sure that the pie shop would have a place to be
built within walking distance of downtown.
“Realization Stage Four Communication”
What happens next? We all get together to build a new pie shop.
The people who get things done, get things done. The people who
want to live in a town with a new pie shop buy the things that
got done. They move to this city and tell their friends about our
new pie shop and how our town has the best pie shop they have visited
in the Southwest. These Visitors and New Residents really like
knowing, wherever you are downtown it seems like the pie shop is
right around the corner. You can walk to it from the things that
got done, and the other great resources of downtown. Those words
get around, the stories get told about a great little town with
the best little pie shop in the Southwest. Then what happens? It
gets better, the things that got done, get “sold out” and
the people that get things done, have to get more things done,
so people can continue to move to and visit our town. The people
that make pies are selling so many pies they have to get more ingredients
and expand the pie shop. The ingredients are so busy making the
new pies they forget how it used to be before we had a new pie
shop. The people that still have dreams to build a better city
are amazed at what has changed in their town and say quietly to
themselves “why didn’t we do this a long time ago?” Now
there are so many visitors and future residents coming to visit
our new pie shop because the word has spread across the country.
The people who still have dreams to build a better city, use the
pie shop to market our town to other pie makers, ingredients and
to other industries who want to move their shops to a town with
a great pie shop.
“Realization Stage Five, Critical Mass”
Even better, the people that visit the pie shop start talking
with everyone they meet. They are so excited about all the new
pies. They get pies to hang on their walls in the places that got
done, they listen to the pies that hiss an sizzle and they watch
the pies that perform. All of these new pies make them feel different
deep down inside themselves. A feeling lost, has now been found,
just around the corner at the new pie shop. Now, not only do they
feel a connection to the pie shop but everyone who is part of making
the pie shop happen. They strike up conversations with people they
do not even know, they talk with the pie makers, the ingredients,
the people who get things done and they make new friends with the
residents who already live here. Everyone feels different, they
are grateful, they all thank the people who still have dreams for
a better city, for building the pie shop. Now it seems like everyone
is talking to each other and everyone has something to say. They
say good morning and good evening to each other when they pass
on the street. A short “hello how are you” turns
into a long conversation about this pie and that pie and before
you know it, they have talked for an hour and they have made a
new friend. It is about this time our new citizens and our future
visitors realize, what they have a hunger for in their lives is
right here, in our town. They don’t have to search anymore.
They have found a new place to call home. When we started this
journey we thought we were building a new pie shop, but now we
realize what we were actually building was a community.
“Realization Final Stage, Community Building”
Summary
The Pie Makers- Happy, they have a new Pie Shop, not only can
they market their unique brand of pies but they are an important
part of marketing and selling their community to hungry citizens
everywhere!
The Ingredients- Happy, their community is hungry for what they
create and their community realizes they are just as important
as the people who get things done.
The People Who Get Things Done- Happy, they have gotten so many
things done and sold they realize building communities is better
than building places to store visitors and future residents. They
also have lots of new friends including the ingredients and the
pie makers because they helped build a community and a new pie
shop.
The People Who Still have Dreams for Building A Better City- Happy,
they have always thought of themselves as Community Leaders but
what they realize is they are actually Community Builders, the
pie shop will not be built unless they want it more than they want
to build places to store visitors and future residents. And without
the pie shop nothing in their community gets done!
The New Pie Shop- The catalyst for getting things done and building
a community.
“It starts with building a pie shop, things get done. Those
things get sold, more things get done. So basically your saying
we need to build a pie shop then? Yep!”
Then what happens? Everything! © A.T.
Willett 7/31/2007
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