Snapshot of the Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar
Published: 25 October, 2011
Last Thursday, 20 October, marked the first Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar for Centre Management, held at the Emirates Stadium.
The day was packed full with marketing insight and advice with presentations from six leading marketers, lively panel debates and a debate-fuelled lunch.
AL Marketing’s Melanie Lillie kicked off proceedings with a presentation on brand building, giving M&S as a prime example and providing tips and advice on how to apply these techniques to create an integrated shopping centre brand.
“Understand the relationship between the centre, what makes it special and unique, and the needs and attitudes of the customers,” she said.
Path Intelligence’s Sharon Biggar spoke of the value of data and research, and thinks that physical retail stores and destinations could learn from online platforms like Google and eBay, which are able to gather a phenomenal amount of information about their users. As she demonstrated, monitoring shopper behaviour, using technology like Path Intelligence’s FootPath product, could be invaluable.
Brandspace’s Jens Tangen gave an insight into the mind of the media buyer and how to attract brands to take promotion space and ad sites. He advised doing reciprocal deals whereby brands might get a discount on space in return for vouchers to be used as competition prizes. Incentives like rate negotiation, facilities like broadband and wifi, cross-media packages and a discount for multiple venues could also go a long way.
The Virgo Consultancy’s presentation focussed on customer loyalty and ways to identify and reward best customers, something that comes down to experimentation.
“It comes down to understanding the customer and the relationship they have with you,” said The Virgo Consultancy. “The more information you gather the more effective your communications.”
Toolbox Marketing’s Michelle Daniels spoke about retailer relations, using football as a metaphor to mirror the iconic venue.
She advocated encouraging a two-way communication relationship with tenants and creating a healthy competitive working environment - by hosting an annual awards ceremony for retailers, for example. She also gave an overview of Toolbox’s new B2B app, Mallcomm, a tool that allows centre management teams and retail staff to communicate with ease.
Madisonsoho’s presentation set to bust social media myths. Delegates were reminded that there isn’t an off-the-shelf solution - what works for one centre might not work in another. Broadly, social media should be experiential, brought to life with engaging content, and marketers should instigate and steer conversations with ‘fans’ or ‘followers’ rather than try to control it.
Providing practical advice on how to build marketing strategy and produce innovative campaigns as well as acting as a networking forum, the Shopping Centre Marketing Seminar proved to be a great success, culminating in plenty of positive feedback.
A full report will be published in the November issue of Shopping Centre.
We look forward to seeing you next year!
