IN Freo

Celebrating the truly eclectic nature of our port town, the annual Fremantle Festival celebrates the start of Summer.

Anyone who has spent time in Fremantle knows its diversity and the Fremantle Festival celebrates the city’s colour, quirks, creativity and community spirit.

Well over 100 years old, Fremantle Festival is Australia’s oldest and longest-running festival.

“The festival has grown over the years and includes all facets of Fremantle life,” says Alex Marshall, the co-ordinator of cultural development at the City of Fremantle.

Much-loved highlights of the Festival which starts in the middle of November include the Sunday Street Parade featuring vibrant floats and the energy of Carnivàle, the indigenous festival of Wardarnji celebrating Nyoongar culture, a children’s fiesta, a youth music event, shows at the Town Hall and Black Box Theatre, a coffee festival on the strip and entertainment at Kulcha.

Continuing the varied nature of the fun and activities on offer, the community part of the Festival features everything from visual arts and a feast in the park to a reggae beach party and Tweed Run vintage bicycle ride, which should feature around 100 cyclists on old bikes. There’s also the return of the Sticky Maze and Alex says a record 106 different groups have activities planned.

“What makes it most exciting is when we have people coming back and talking about putting their event in the festival. The strength of the Festival is how people wish to use it and people are starting to respond to that. The many and varied things people want to do is exciting.”

Interesting inclusions this year include Unbuilt Fremantle which is an exhibition looking at planning applications for past and present Fremantle dating back to the late 1800s, including those for buildings which never went ahead.

Taking the Festival to the West End will be Projections on High where local visual heroes VJZoo will illuminate buildings on High Street with static and moving projections.

“The West End is one of the jewels of Fremantle and it’s an opportunity for people to remind themselves about what a fantastic part of town it is. We want people to move around the community more and discover new spaces and disused buildings.

“In the last few years people have been talking Fremantle down but there are a lot more people talking it up because we know it’s a unique place.”

The Fremantle Festival runs from November 18 to December 4. Program details at www.fremantle.wa.gov.au on the Festivals page. Most festival activities are free.

IN Fitness

Getting fit for your wedding is one thing, but a Perth personal trainer who specialises in training bridal parties is on a crusade to stamp out something called brideorexia.

Justine McInerney might have started a personal training business, but she has also got a serious message to teach her clients.

A nurse, midwife and personal trainer with 18 years of experience in the health care profession, Justine owns Runaway Brides, a training business which gets bridal parties fit for a wedding.

While Justine can help people look great on their big day, her ultimate goal is to educate brides and grooms to exercise safely and focus on the long term goal of maintaining their health and fitness during their marriage, rather than only on their wedding day.

“We want brides and grooms to start their marriage feeling healthy and strong, thinking clearly and glowing from within,” Justine says. “We encourage couples to train together. We like to say that couples who train together stay together.”

A good 70 per cent of her clients are women but Justine and her team – including fiancé and head trainer Colby Huggins – train all members of the bridal party and their friends. With a focus on fun (as well as plenty of exercise) they also work with young professionals through to older people, many of whom simply want to keep fit and aren’t necessarily married.

“The boxing sessions are really popular,” says Justine. “How often can you hold the pads when your favourite girl is banging the hell out of you? It seems to be a great release for people who are stressed out!

“We find it also gives couples something in common to talk about when they leave a session. It’s something they can share in as they are preparing for the wedding and being in a marriage.”

As well as seeing fit people head to the altar, part of Justine’s mission is to eliminate the rise of bulimic brides to be and brideorexia as an acceptable practise for wedding preparation.

Brideorexia is a term given to the extreme measures brides or grooms take to lose weight in order to look great on their wedding day. That includes strict calorie limits (anorexia), binging and purging (bulimia) and over exercising. It has been around for centuries and continues to be accepted as part of wedding preparations.

“We’ve all come across a friend, family member or work colleague who has dropped a significant amount of weight in a short time in the lead up to their wedding day. Of course most of this weight is put straight back on within the next few years of marriage as maintaining a brideorexia lifestyle is near impossible long term.

“We want people to consider their long term fitness future and in the short term before their wedding, we can help them get into that strapless dress. We’ll also show them how good fitness and regular exercise is an excellent de-stressor without turning them into bridezillas.”

The decision making process...

Consumers today are not following the patterns of the past. By that I mean consumers are becoming increasingly astute and in-tune to the property market and will now research the credibility of an agent as opposed to selecting purely on the basis of familiarity or proximity. Now, clients will investigate an agent’s integrity and reputation long before picking up the phone to engage in a conversation about buying, selling or letting.

Information online is also more accessible than ever and this has empowered customers to make informed decisions. In the past, people relied on a family connection to the brand or simply that an agent was located at the end of their street.

The emotional connection to a brand is also highly important. Not the emotional connection that comes from a previous transaction but an intangible emotional attraction that one self generates with a product or service. So in other words, people are not just buying a ‘Hoover’ because their mother bought a ‘Hoover’ anymore, it’s about the difference the product or service can make to them. There are much bigger points of differentiation from brand to brand these days and a higher consumer sensitivity to brand values. In terms of the property industry, we are certainly seeing that not all real estate agents are the same.

For the Realmark brand, associations such as; innovative, contemporary, progressive should be evoked. Our service offering includes tailored solutions, specialist advice and most importantly, quality results. Our list of awards is also an important expression of our potential value to a consumer and verification of what we can offer.

While the awards themselves might not be the actual trigger that brings clients through the door, it is professional recognition that helps to give the agency credibility. It also gives the consumer confidence that the advice they are being offered has some weight.

Today, clients are looking for independent ratification that they will receive expert knowledge and advice, a choice of strategies and solutions and that the agency can be adaptive to the client’s needs and wants. This is where awards come into play as they help to give affirmation that the agency is a stand out provider.

Client testimonials are not enough, in my opinion consumers want more facts around other consumers’ experience and circumstances, to provide credibility and reinforcement. Realmark are utilising specific case studies that address individual client scenarios and showcase the range of marketing strategies, solutions and selling methods that have proven to deliver results in the past. Provide more than an incomplete story but a reference for consumers to reflect their needs against.

But most of all, people are looking for confirmation that an agency actually has real answers and really understands the how and what to deliver the best advantage and this is the overriding factor when it comes to the decision making process in agency selection today.