BUILD IT AND THEY (WON’T) COME

(Or Aberdeen’s Retail Recovery Strategy fixes the map, but the other problem lives in the minds of shoppers).

I sat in on the presentation of the Aberdeen Retail & Property Strategy with a mix of recognition and unease.
Recognition, because the diagnosis is sound. There's too much space, too fragmented, not enough coherence. The proposed fixes, consolidation, re-anchoring, improving the flow etc are all correct.
But a slight unease, because this is really only half the problem.
This is a strategy that fixes the map.
But the real issue isn’t the map, it’s in the mind.
Improve the place, and people will come back? I dunno.
People’s habits have rewired. The default is no longer 'I’ll go into town.' It’s retail parks, online, or not bothering at all and hang around Inverurie. Aberdeen city centre has slipped from being the obvious choice to just one option, and often not the easiest (or best) one.
And there’s a harder truth. The city centre hasn’t just declined, it’s been struggling for so long that many people can’t remember when it was good. For some, especially younger audiences, there’s no positive memory to return to at all.

So you’re not just asking people to come back.
You’re asking them to reconsider something they’ve already written off.
THAT’S A BEHAVIOURAL CHALLENGE, NOT A PROPERTY ONE.

One stat from the report says it all. Union Square accounts for a minority of space but the majority of sales. People already have a mental shortcut for where to go.
You don’t break that with better paving or a slightly improved tenant mix.
At the same time, leisure is filling space but not driving proportional value. We’re replacing retail with activity and calling it recovery.
The missing piece is how people actually decide to come into Aberdeen in the first place.
When does it come to mind?
For what reasons?
In which situations does it feel like the obvious choice?
This is about mental availability.
Category Entry Points. The cues that make something easy to think of at the moment a decision is made.
Without that, even a well-designed place struggles. (With it, even imperfect places can thrive.)
Right now, the strategy tells us how Aberdeen should function.
It doesn’t yet tell us how Aberdeen should be remembered.
And that’s the difference between improving a place and making people choose it. Aberdeen city centre isn’t competing with other places on a map.
It’s competing with whatever comes to mind first.

IN OTHER WORDS, TO TREAT ABERDEEN CITY CENTRE NOT JUST AS A PLACE, BUT AS A BRAND.
Because when it all comes down, that’s what it is competing as.

And in that competition, the rule is simple.
If it doesn’t come to mind, it doesn’t exist.

The good news is, we are here to help.