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Branded Spaces: Exploring North Vancouver’s Shipyards District

Ana Arozarena

CMNS 323: Cultural Dimensions in Advertising

Simon Fraser University

Professor Fleet

July 9, 2020
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About the Shipyards District

Located in the city of North Vancouver in British Columbia, the Shipyards

District is a strong example of a successful urban development initiative. It

serves as a unique multi-purpose community and retail space. In addition, it is

conveniently located at the foot of Lonsdale avenue, adjacent to both the

waterfront and seabus terminals. The area was once considered a part of

“LoLo”, the affectionate nickname for the entire lower Lonsdale area (as

popularised by local residents). However, it was officially rebranded as “the

Shipyards” following development in 2016, the name largely inspired by its

historical ties with the ship-building industry, dating back to the 1900s. The new

district includes an outdoor plaza, retail shops, and even a multi-purpose

skating rink/ water park area. The plaza or “Shipyards commons” boasts 20,000

square feet of usable space. Focusing on the new Shipyards, this work will

explore the promotional meaning imbued in the area in an attempt to address

such questions as “How can a street be imbued with appeals to promotional

culture?” and “How does advertising influence one’s experience walking through

the Shipyards?” Through an exploration of these questions, the work will

recognize the success of the City of North Vancouver through the creation of a

strong brand image, as well as strategic investments in infrastructure. These

strategies have ensured the economic success of the area for years to come,

and will attract tourism to the North Shore. Yet, this paper has a dual-aim. It

also emphasizes the hidden cost of successful redevelopment: urban

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gentrification. In a city already failing to address the homelessness crisis, the

Shipyards district is yet another highly gentrified urban space

Branding strategies for the Creative Class: Highly Localized Economic

Development

The Shipyards District is deeply imbued with promotional meaning, if you

know where to look. Just like other urban spaces, advertising is everywhere.

Posters, billboards, and signage are plentiful, contributing to the success of local

business and creating revenue for the city. As Communications scholar Anne

Cronin writes, “The industry learns to see urban spaces as moments of visual

contact between the consumer and an advert.” (P.360). As far as urban spaces

go, the Shipyards is a particularly high traffic area. This is due to the seabus

located in adjacent Lonsdale Quay, connecting residents of North Vancouver to

the Downtown core. In high traffic spaces like these, moments of contact

between consumer and advertisement are still crucial, but must be implemented

creatively. In this sense, the area is not limited to traditional billboards and

print advertising. (see Figure 1). In fact, the success of the Shipyards area is

due to what Moor calls “experiential branding.”(P.40) As successful brands shift

towards these event based campaigns, urban geographical spaces can

effectively piggy-back off of their success by forming business relationships with

companies, and concurrently improve their own brand by hosting events

themselves. As Moor writes, “The strongest brands are increasingly those built

around “values and beliefs” rather than product-specific qualities.” (P.44) A

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pertinent example of one such brand is Lululemon. By hosting Lululemon events

such as live yoga classes on the pier, the Shipyards District successfully aligns

itself with the ideals of self improvement, community, and fitness, all imbued by

the Lululemon brand. In other words, by encouraging certain companies to use

Shipyards District spaces (such as the wooden pier seen in figure 1.2) to host

events such as yoga or dance classes, the physical area becomes associated

with the values and beliefs espoused by the brands of those companies. The

Shipyards District, owned by the City of North Vancouver, is also a venue for

events such as Pride at the Pier - a relatively small event celebrating the LGBTQ

community. Visibly sponsoring these sorts of events is important for the brand

perception of the area: aligning the City of North Vancouver and by extension

the Shipyards District as a space for community involvement. Events also

improve brand visibility, drawing attention to the area, and are a form of

targeted marketing - an LGBTQ event is sure to draw consumers in that market

to spend money in the area, but also (if the event is successful) may improve

consumer-to-consumer communication about visiting the area. As Moor

describes, this is an effective way of circumventing consumer cynicism about

advertising because people trust the recommendations of friends much more

than of an advertisement. (P.51)

The Cost of Rebranding: Soaring Housing Rates & Gentrification

A stroll down Lower Lonsdale towards the waterfront, followed by

shopping at Lonsdale Quay market, and climbing up the iconic ‘Q’ to take in the
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view are the quintessential North Vancouver tourist attractions. In fact, aside

from the incredible mountain biking and hiking trails, they may be some of the

only tourist attractions present in the smaller Vancouver-adjacent city. The

typical resident of North Vancouver is typically thought of as white, middle

class, nature-loving, and the city is home to a mix of families and young people.

Underdeveloped in comparison to the urban downtown core (though this may be

part of its charm), North Van used to represent a more affordable, family

friendly, ‘quiet’ area, but when the “rich, the young, and the (mostly) white

rediscovered the city, they created rampant property speculation, soaring home

prices, and mass displacement.” (Wetherell) This was ten years ago, and now

North Van is rapidly developing into a highly gentrified urban space,

predominantly geared towards the creative classes, which is signified through

the expensive cafes, vegan markets, and the (pun-intended) rising costs of the

high-rises in the Shipyards District area. The branding of the Shipyards District

targets a specific type of resident and consumer: one which is drawn to the

environment, seems to be community oriented, and has exorbitant amounts of

cash. Evidence of the appeal to the environment can be seen in a unique form

of advertising in the neighbourhood: wooden garden boxes placed strategically

in front of local businesses with the slogan “shipyards garden district” on them.

(See figure 1.3). This is ironic, as the garden boxes are sponsored by local

businesses (improving their brand image and encouraging consumption) yet

appeal to the values of environmentalism (which are inherently

anti-consumption). Similarly, the Shipyards District is home to a variety of

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events which also give off a community oriented ‘feel’. However, the exorbitant

cost of living in the area may mean that home-owners may be working up to 2

jobs, and are unlikely to have much time to spend in the community itself.

Unfortunately, the re-development of the Lower Lonsdale area may be a

glimpse into the future of what is to come for the rest of the city.

Promotional Culture - Embedded in Urban Spaces

The bustling Shipyards Night market (see figure 1.5) illustrates well the

concept of cultural commodification and promotional culture. This is because in

promotional culture, the meaning of building community relationships has

changed in an integral way. Social interaction has become less valued than

consumerism: therein being a community-oriented person does not mean you

must befriend your neighbour, let alone talk to them. Instead, the Friday Night

market (hosted at the Shipyards) provides a low-commitment opportunity for

residents and visitors to purchase food and drink from local vendors and food

trucks (which is indeed beneficial for the local economy itself, and is admittedly,

a fun market to visit). The market itself promotes the area, while signs and

word of mouth causes people to attend the event (promotion) and they then go

on to purchase products. This emphasizes that, in the words of Wernick,

“Advertising is certainly only one aspect of a wider process of cultural

commodification.” (1) For the event would not successfully be a part of

promotional culture if everyone arrived to simply talk to each other, then left.

Consumption is key for the success of the Shipyards District brand: “Promotion
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has become a key, structuring element of contemporary society’s ‘regime of

signification.” (P.3)

Conclusion

In his work on Neoliberal cities, Sam Miles describes the city as an

idealised space for consumption: “The city experience is effectively filtered

through the rose tinted glasses provided by spaces for consumption as

demonstrated for example by the symbolic hyper-modern city waterfront of

cities such as Barcelona in Spain.” (219) This ‘rose tinted glasses’ analogy is

also becoming true for North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale, which continues to

face rising homelessness rates. Despite the appeal of upscale restaurants

opening up along the waterfront, urban gentrification is resulting in rapidly

rising costs of living for families and low-income individuals. As rent and food

prices continue to increase, one begins to question how families and individuals

will be able to afford accessing the new “family friendly'' amenities in the

Shipyards. Ultimately, the Shipyards District is an example of successful

economic development, due to a mix of experiential branding and traditional

advertising. Calls to engage in consumer culture contribute to the success of the

area, and while they may appear to lie under the surface, experiential branding

is everywhere - even in the garden boxes and public yoga classes! However, it

is important to remember that the success of the area is measured in terms of

economic growth. While marketed as a community space for all, living in reach
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of the new Shipyards District is reserved for the lucky few that can afford the

soaring rents in the area.

References

Cronin, Anne M. 2011. "Researching Urban Space, Reflecting on Advertising: A

Photo Essay." Space and Culture 14.4 356-66.

Holt, Douglas B. 2000. “Does Cultural Capital Structure American

Consumption?” The Consumer Culture Reader. 212-252.

Lower Lonsdale Business Improvement Association, 2019. Marketing and

Promotions. Retrieved July 5

2020:https://theshipyardsdistrict.ca/members/marketing-and-promotions

Miles, S. 2012. "The neoliberal city and the pro-active complicity of the citizen

consumer. Journal of Consumer Culture 12 (2): 216 - 230.

Moor, Elizabeth. 2003. Branded spaces: The scope of 'new marketing'. Journal

of Consumer Culture. 3 (1): 39-60.

Wernick, Andrew. 1991. “The promotional condition of contemporary culture,”

Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression.

Newbury Park: Sage: 1-10

Wetherell, Sam. 2017. "Richard Florida is Sorry." Jacobin.

https://jacobinmag.com/2017/08/new-urban-crisis-review-richard-florida
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Appendix

Figure 1

Print (banner)
advertising at the
Lonsdale Quay seabus
terminal.
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Figure 1.2

The wooden pier at

Lonsdale Quay. This
area is often crowded
during events such as
the Shipyards Summer
Night Market.
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Figure 1.3

A wooden garden
planter located near
Lonsdale Street and
3rd with the words
‘Lower Lonsdale
Shipyards Garden
District’ on the side.
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Figure 1.4
An Indigenous
drummer at the ‘Pride
at the Pier’ annual
event, in front of a
large banner listing
sponsors: Vancouver
Pride, TD Bank, The
City of North
Vancouver.

Figure 1.5

The bustling crowd of

the Shipyard Friday
night market.
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Figure 2

A screen-grab from the

‘shipyards district’
website about the
marketing and
branding strategy for
the area.

https://theshipyardsdis
trict.ca/members/mark
eting-and-promotions