The Kelpies & the Falkirk Wheel

big ideas about Scotland’s past and future

The Kelpies & the Falkirk Wheel

big ideas about Scotland’s past and future

​Over lunch, at a café next door to the Scottish Crannog Centre, we decided to shorten the trip by one day to allow some shopping time in Glasgow. This meant a longish drive; plus we had to un-book our accommodation and find new accommodation.

We then booked The Premier Inn in Falkirk – direct no affiliate site. I like the Premier Inn business model and the unique product value proposition [UPVP]. To me, the Premier Inn is good value for money. I believe they achieve this by focusing on the core product and the things that matter. What we refer to as low price with minimal augmentation – clean, modern rooms, a comfy bed, free WiFi, a quiet location, and staff that say hello.

To me the Premier Inn business model is appealing when the destination is more important than the hotel [to me, the opposite would be a resort]. The Premier Inn is part of the Whitbread Group of companies [according to their 2015/16 Annual Report they have over 700 hotels in the UK] and often, they have restaurant located on the site, which, in my experience are also extremely good value for money.

However, I also believe there are jobs and there are jobs.

Some hospitality organisations provide short-term employment for young people; however, often long-term career opportunities within these organisations are non-existent. Some organisations are preoccupied with reducing operating costs that they have a revolving door of young people [often students] coming and going – why? because they are cheaper to employ and accept short shifts. On the other hand, the hospitality industry can be a great industry with some organisations providing excellent training and excellent career opportunities. I have the general impression that The Premier Inn, as a large and growing publicly listed organisation, is driven by customer satisfaction. It appears that they are focused on reducing costs through efficiency and this require a high standard of training. Therefore, a young person will be more employable from having worked at The Premier Inn – therefore by supporting The Premier Inn I am supporting an organisation that supports young people.

It was a long drive, and eventually I finished my ‘rant’ on the benefits of quality staff training [marketers call this ‘internal marketing’]. We had a quick detour through Dunblane, the birth Place of Scottish born and Wimbledon tennis champion Andy Murray.

Falkirk

There were two real reasons why Falkirk was our next destination; the first was The Kelpies – a magnificent sculpture by Andy Scott, and the second was the Falkirk Wheel. It is worth mentioning that the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel have a historical connection; they are both monuments to the social history of the area and to the industrial revolution that transformed Scotland and later the world. The Kelpies honour the horses that provided the muscle to pull the barges along the canals of Scotland and the Falkirk Wheel was a millennium project to reconnect the canals that connected Glasgow in the west and Edinburgh in the east.

Both The Kelpies and the  Falkirk Wheel are magnificent structures. The Kelpies seldom appear the same, due to the changing sky during the day and the lighting at night, so I was keen to visit The Kelpies in both daytime and nighttime. The Falkirk Wheel is a kinetic and functional sculpture; which gracefully transports barge boats between two canals that are on different levels.

The Scottish canals once provided a competitive advantage for many businesses. One nearby business is particularly historic – The Carron Iron Works was located in Falkirk at the start of the industrial revolution, there was a good supply of iron-ore, coal, and water for power and transportation. The Carron Iron Works was initially famous for ship cannons, and cannonballs; then expanded into boilers for steamships, post boxes, man-hole covers, kitchen stoves, and pots and pans. The company was an early example of vertical integration, however, unfortunately after two centuries the company closed its doors in 1982.

Scottish history is often communicated as a struggle and a rebellion against a more powerful and domineering neighbour, however, it is also a history of a people with ideas that have changed the world. Scotland has a central position in the evolution of marketing.

From a marketing academic’s perspective, I believe that it is rather difficult for many people to consider ‘ideas’ as a dominant product component – as the basis for a product. The marketing of goods and services is well understood [or misunderstood] by most consumers, however, when the dominant product component is an idea then it becomes a more difficult for people to recognise that ideas can be exchanged. It is also important to recognise that the value of ideas needs to be well communicated to be understood and adopted by the consumer.

Although The Kelpies and The Falkirk Wheel represent Scotland’s social history they are also symbols of Scotland’s future as they highlight Scottish design and innovation and they communicate a powerful message about Scotland to its people and to overseas visitors.

Scottish history is often communicated as a struggle and a rebellion against a more powerful and domineering neighbour, however, it is also a history of a people with ideas that have changed the world. Scotland has a central position in the evolution of marketing.

From a marketing academic’s perspective, I believe that it is rather difficult for many people to consider ‘ideas’ as a dominant product component – as the basis for a product. The marketing of goods and services is well understood [or misunderstood] by most consumers, however, when the dominant product component is an idea then it becomes a more difficult for people to recognise that ideas can be exchanged. It is also important to recognise that the value of ideas needs to be well communicated to be understood and adopted by the consumer.

​Some, marketing academics, who should know better get confused and even suggest that if something is not a tangible good then it must be an intangible service – but this thinking misses the point completely.

Clearly, ideas are not goods – but –  neither are they services. Sure – goods and service have ideas embedded.

Services have quite different characteristics to ideas. Services are ephemeral; that means that a service cannot be stored for later delivery and once a service has been performed it cannot be reconstituted and resold. However, ideas can be sold then resold. For example: The ideas that someone gains through reading, or education, can be sold and resold. People attend university to enable them to get a job and/or to get a better job and may sell their ideas time and time again.

In the classic book; Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill; Hill (1938, p.18) states that:

“All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!”.

We arrived at the Premier Inn, Falkirk late in the evening. The lady on reception was a born for this job, she asks what brings us to Falkirk and we tell her The kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel. She suggests that the best time for photographs would be after dark. Keep in mind that in Scotland, in summer, the sun sets late. She then mentioned a ‘meal deal’ at the restaurant next door [diner and then breakfast] and being hungry after our longish drive we sat down to enjoy a meal and in the process struck up a few conversations with fellow travelers, who like us were there to see The Kelpies; then around 10:30pm we were back in the Ford Focus and once again glad of the navigation system in the car.

Since I first became aware of The Kelpies I had wanted to photograph them –  I even brought a tripod from Australia specifically for this occasion. You may think we would be alone on that wet and windy ‘Scottish summer night’, but, there were many visitors; who like Anna and I, were keen to capture some of the Kelpies’ magic [I agonised over the word capture because it conveys the wrong meaning for these magnificent sculptures]. The glow from the many smartphone screens indicated that people were uploading their photographs and sending them to their Facebook friends. If we think about this deeper we can see that they are communicating the ideas, the experience, and the place that are part of The Kelpies.

Since they were completed in 2013, The Kelpies have become a much loved attraction. Andy Scott, the sculptor, mentioned that by June 2017 two and half million people from Scotland, the UK and overseas have visited the sculptures ‘despite the Scottish weather’. I believe they have come to gaze at the beauty of the horses, connect with the past, and draw inspiration for the future from Andy Scott’s ideas.

When I see the Kelpies I think about strategy. I can see that Andy Scott could see exactly what he was trying to achieve before he commenced construction. I can see that once he had a strategy he then did everything possible to achieve and be true to the strategy.

Then it was off to the Falkirk wheel to witness the transportation of barges from one level to another. What is interesting is that the Falkirk wheel employs the principle of Archimedes this ensures that the weight in both gondolas is equal, regardless of the weight of the barge; the weight displaces an equivalent weight of water. This engineering principle results in an enormous weight being transported vertically 25 metres [a guide at the centre told me that the weight was equivalent to 100 elephants] with only a small amount of energy being consumed. That he said was “all achieved by Scottish ingenuity and engineering”.

suggestions

I would like to suggest that if you wish to know more about some of the concepts raised in this article you should visit themarketingconcept [e-book] and read the evolution of marketing, then read ideas as a product component, then Blue Ocean Thinking and Design Thinking.