What is Crowsnest Pass?

I am an owner of a small retail shop. A bicycle shop to be exact. The statistics for the bike retail business does not paint a rosey picture. The number of bike shops in North America has been declining steadily for about 20 years. The number of large chain box stores has obviously been increasing. To keep a viable business and to compete against box stores I know I have to do a better job - better than I used to do and better than what the competitors are doing now. I am a keen reader of anything touching upon the psychology of the consumer and the market - especially stuff that helps the little guy compete in a market jammed full of big guys. I'm a keen observer - always remarking or critical of business operations. I'm in my 7th year of business, we're in the grasp of a serious recession, half the people out there think exercise is something to be done a their Wii, we have an aging population and my business is thriving. I will allow this success to go to my head and call myself somewhat of an expert in business and Marketing. I'll even be pompous and say, if you haven't started a business with virtually nothing, built up that business, experienced the challenges and sleepless nights, been up against strong, wealthy competitors and succeeded - unless you've gone through it and created something successful, you don't know squat.

So now that I'm the expert, I'm going to offer free, expert ideas for Crowsnest Pass. Why? Well, I hate waste. I hate "throw away society". I like things that are authentic - people, places, whatever. It all culminates in a place called Crowsnest Pass - an authentic place, with authentic people, with a chance to save and celebrate its history rather than wasting and losing it.

So my title to this post is "What is Crowsnest Pass?". This is the question any business or person has to ask themselves before they can either improve or work with what they have. For this purpose, I'm going to consider the Pass as a business; one that needs an identity, needs direction, needs to know its strengths and its weeknesses and one that needs to know how to compete and essentially take business away from its competitors. If anyone says a town isn't a business, I say wrong. This town is a struggling business. It is losing population and soon will lose services if things don't get fixed. Crowsnest Pass needs to attract visitors, businesses and residents. As I have pointed out, I am an expert and I say for Crowsnest to compete, it has to find a couple things that differentiate it from other little towns then enhance those things then get the image in people's heads that Crowsnest Pass is about something - now what is that something?

We need to find our niche. Yes we're in the mountains and yes there is nature around and yes you can do stuff here but I would argue that none of these features are outstanding when compared to our competitors. There are more spectacular mountains, more prestine wilderness, world class ski hills, immense trail networks with great signage, watersports etc. But the places with these things have been exploited to the point where there is no remaining soul. The Pass has history and soul - sell that and let our mountains, recreation, scenery - let that all be icing on the cake.

Municipality: without knowing the details of the formation of the municipality all I can do is comment about a couple things. The word "municipality" is the least charming description I have ever heard for a place. Hamlets and Villages are romantic, Towns have history. Cities are impressive but the word Municipality creates no emotion and is just a corporate description - if anything, I hear municipality and I think about property taxes - not a great emotional connection. Municipality is a corporate description and should be lost from any and all references to the area.

This brings up a competitive advantage for Crowsnest (note I do not use the word "Pass"). For the sake of subtle suggestions in marketing and product naming. Crowsnest is, in fact, a place where baby crows stay - Crows are tough, glizzled animals yet nest is a very welcoming image. Pass is a way to get through or over something. Lets keep the message: tough grizzled place I'd like to stay, from now on, this is "Crowsnest". Sorry, I got off track. Competitive advantage; within Crowsnest we have 5 distinct towns each with their own story, history, tragedy, personality. Rather than being a municipality and wiping the personality from Crowsnest, how about playing with the richness of these 5 towns (and couple surrounding Ghost Towns too!). Seems ironic that Frank, the smallest town in Crowsnest is the one with the best known story and biggest tourism draw. There is so much to draw from: 3 remaining commercial areas that could each be attractions on their own (after some well thought out restoration and business stimulus - especially in Bellevue). The tragedy of Frank Slide, the tragedy of the Hillcrest Mining Desaster, the only woman hanged in Alberta, Bellevue shootout, the almost tragedy of forest fire, heroic fire fighting, the multiple fires in Coleman and Bellevue, the plane crash by Coleman, the numerous old mining sites, the cool creations in the creek above Flummerfelt, the wind, crooks stealing piles of money from investors with promise of fantastic returns and Las Vegas style resorts (oops got off track). This is interesting stuff when presented well you know!

The new pathway system - I sure hope the talked about 27 km of trail happens! where else could a family go and explore 5 different towns, each with their own story from the comfort of a bicycle - not worrying about being hit by cars, while riding through areas of beauty, tragedy, history, shopping, exploring. Perhaps us mountain bikers can build some sections of adjacent singletrack off-road trails so the thrill seekers can get some extra thrills along the way.

Do you see where I'm going with this? We need a strong story - a way visitors can describe Crowsnest in a few short sentances. We become a place to go to, not drive through.

To Be Continued... must go work.