Well, I'm afraid you are wrong.

This is why. A 'brand' is an indelible impression made in the minds of consumers. It imparts presence and charisma - and its value is incontestable.

If you want me to put a figure on this, then let's look at Coca Cola: the stock market value of the all-time champion of the American Dream in 2002 was $136 billion, and the estimated 'value' of the 'Coca Cola' brand was more than half of that amount...$80billion!

Coca Cola has achieved such huge brand value because it benefits from the concept that defines a brand this way: a product or service that possesses specific attributes in the minds of people. An identity. If it's positive, then it means that, in the perception of consumers, it keeps the promise that is wrapped up in its identity, attracting loyal buyers who will keep returning. But brands are also an emotional thing. That's dangerous in business and, over time, companies have to stay in control by ensuring that the identity matches the emotion.

Now let's look at branding in a field a lot closer to shopping centre management than Coke: retail. Why is it that Waitrose, for example, is so successful despite avoiding reliance on noisily-trumpeted special offers? It could well be that it has forged a brand image of quality and value simply because it doesn't brawl in the price-promotion ring with Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison. The result? Well-heeled customers believe that Waitrose meets their lifestyle needs better than the competition.

What Waitrose has done is to exploit some of the attributes that consumers associate with retail. In their instance, it could be defined as style and distinctiveness. Other attributes for retailers include such notions as quality (a ubiquitous claim), value (ditto), modernity, innovation, tradition and so on.

So surely, the same brand logic works for a shopping centre? Hmm. OK, Bluewater thinks it's a brand and Bullring strives to be. And the Glades in Bromley? I would place a safe bet that if you change the name of any of these centres the footfall would remain the same. Their identities are really no more than names and logos and the reality is that the true charisma of the centre rests in the hands of the tenants who choose to locate there - or elsewhere.

They have attributes: an accident of location, a state of the art building. and their presence is geographical, not emotional. No-one goes looking for a shopping centre's charisma or receives an indelible impression (although I will say Bluewater gets close). In reality, a mall embraces many brands that have already made an impression (good and bad) on their public. And so, the true and real opportunity is there for the centre to exploit the brand assets of its tenants.

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