Spirit Marketing places a huge emphasis on the importance of research and spends a lot of time researching shopper demographics and analysing who actually shops at specific shopping centres, how many people attended certain events, what brought them to the event and how successful that event was. Enda McShane, managing director of Spirit Marketing Group, says: "What we've found is that footfall figures are only one measurement of a successful shopping centre. Exit surveys provide a much deeper knowledge of what's going on.

"At Whitewater in Newbridge we're increasing the footfall year on year but the actual conversion of footfall to spend is 6 per cent higher than the national benchmark for Ireland. So we can work out through the exit surveys exactly how many people are coming in and how many are spending.

"This summer we introduced a voucher campaign where all the retailers give discounts, but the vouchers are only redeemable on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We're now 19 per cent up on those days compared to last year. So it's not just about looking at the information, it's about using it."

At Manchester Arndale, Spirit examined the demographic breakdown of shoppers in their exit surveys. The research showed 58 per cent of shoppers fulfilled the ABC1 profile but of that 78 per cent were C1s. As a result Spirit set out to target the As and Bs.

"We've now seen a 4 per cent swing on AB shoppers," says McShane. "We targeted the media that communicates with those people, as well as using direct mail."

With new technology coming to the fore, analysing shopper trends is now easier than ever.

Path Intelligence's FootPath system, available from FootFall, calculates the movement of shoppers by measuring signals from their mobile phones using unique technology that can locate a consumer's position to within one or two metres.

This information is then used to track shopper movements throughout a centre, enabling the management team to quantify dwelltimes; assess the relative strength of anchor stores and customer dwelltime in these stores; ensure stores are being charged the optimum rent; understand the linkages between certain stores and brands; measure the impact of mall promotions or events on store visits; identify underutilised areas in the mall; and help in the development of the centre's tenant mix strategy by identifying optimum locations for specific uses.

Sharon Biggar, chief operating officer at Path Intelligence, says: "We are able to give you information that can change your business. The technology provides daily dwelltime figures, counts the number of people coming to your event and the way people link and group shops together during their shop."

Martin Davies, director of Experian's Business Strategies Division, adds: "We can see how people move around centres. Where they visit first when they leave the car park, the route they take and so on. These are the issues people have been trying to address, but now we have a concrete way of discovering, for example, whether if you visit Gap, will you visit Primark? What are the widest used circuits in the shopping centre and what do they offer?"

Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth was the first shopping centre to install the FootPath system. Mike Davidson, retail operations director for Land Securities, says the company was extremely keen to try out this new innovation.

"It gives us an insight into our customers, and that's incredibly valuable. The retail at Gunwharf Quays is factory outlet so we know all our sales and we can apply a common-sense test. We use FootPath for assessing dwelltime, the impact of events, customer density, linkages with stores in the same category and interaction between the Spinnaker Tower and the centre.

"Dwelltime is probably the key reason we use this system. We can measure it by the hour, by the day, by the week and by the month, and we now understand the impact of other, external, factors. This has proved extremely beneficial and useful for us."

During the recent 'Italian Job' event, for instance, the centre was able to see how much business the event generated for retailers in the main square where the event was held, and whether it had an impact on footfall to other stores across the site.

"We could go down to store level and see the store conversion generated by an event of this nature," says Davidson. "Because we're a turnover-based scheme we can see areas where there's high footfall but low levels of sales or low footfall but high sales generated. We can see a correlation between footfall and sales conversion."

The system also analyses the effect of store pullers and pleasers and whether or not they're fulfilling their job within the scheme. For example, do people who are drawn to the scheme because of a particular store then proceed to go on and shop elsewhere?

Ian Wilcock, group sales and marketing director at Experian, adds: "We're really at the beginning here. It's something new and it's taking us to the next level."

Melbry Events' online ticketing service is also proving hugely useful for marketing managers, both in the marketing of their events and in monitoring their advertising campaigns.

Customers are able to cut the queuing time by booking for Santa's grotto in advance, and can also ensure they don't miss out on other shopping centre events by booking their tickets early via the new and innovative ticketing service.

Melbry Events' Melanie Hurley explains: "The online service not only cuts down on queuing time for the customer but is also about the power it gives the marketeer. I can tell the shopping centre that a certain number of people booked online after picking up a leaflet in the centre or after seeing an advert in the local paper. We're able to monitor where people first saw the advert. For the centre that's really important information. Shopping centres spend an awful lot of money on marketing but perhaps they're not doing it the right way."

The barcoded ticket system also provides a useful platform for sponsorship. "I'm looking at this as a whole new platform for marketeers," adds Hurley.

An industry first for The Mall

The Mall has announced it is to sponsor the next series of the talkbackTHAMES-produced show, All Star Family Fortunes, which will air on ITV1 - making this an industry first for a shopping centre.

Significant investment in development and refurbishment at all 23 Malls is continuing with a major branding exercise culminating this autumn that will see all remaining centre names converted to The Mall brand. This sponsorship deal is a key element in an extensive marketing, branding and communications plan for the business.

As part of the agreement, The Mall has also secured an off-air package of rights from FremantleMedia Enterprises, licensor of the Family Fortunes brand, which will grant The Mall rights to mount an integrated series of in-mall promotions, POS, merchandising, experiential and local advertising activities, all under The Mall and Family Fortunes brands.

Ken Ford, chief executive of The Mall, says: "The branding and marketing exercise we are undertaking at The Mall is central to our revenue-generating business strategy. By providing our shoppers with the best possible shopping experience we want to encourage them to spend more time and more money, more often, in our Malls.

"Raising The Mall's profile with our shoppers has always been central to this strategy and, alongside the physical branding exercise that will complete later this year, this sponsorship is key to achieving targeted, high-impact public recognition of our brand."

John Wringe, consultant marketing director of The Mall, comments: "This is an industry first for shopping centres. The fit between Family Fortunes and The Mall is perfect and we're excited about both being able to leverage our brand nationally as well as integrate all of our local pre-Christmas activities with our shoppers. This is part of an ongoing programme of branded activity from The Mall."

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