23
FEATURE: CONSUMER
So what does all this mean for marketing? “It changes the want to socialise. So if by design or by policy you can create a place
way brands talk to us,” says White. “It’s about cutting out the fluf_f: to socialise, people will come. The music industry’s already seeing
consumers just want the facts.” that and now it’s making more money from live events than it does
And he adds: “We’re seeing the emergence of new brands and from recordings. As people become more isolated in their lives
this is reflected in the language they use. They’re inclusive not there’s a greater desire to commune, so we’re seeing a new focus on
exclusive, and they use conversational not corporate language.” As local and regional events.
an example, he cites Starbucks’ move back to locally-branded cof_fee “A few years ago shopping centre events were pretty sub-par.
shops. Many were poorly executed partly because the mall environment
With this will come a bigger focus on experiential marketing and isn’t actually designed for that sort of thing. But perhaps the public
events as brands seek to develop a fan base, rather than a client is now more accepting. We can all dial up and see amazing things,
base, White believes. and places like the O2 have opened up dif_ferent events to people’s
So how will all this theory be put into marketing practice, and consciousness.
how are shopping centres reacting to this changed consumer “Suddenly, though, we’re finding that local’s cool. For example we
environment? Shopping Centre asked a panel of industry experts. held a science-based event recently at the Brent Cross shopping
centre and nobody came along and criticised it because it was on a
Stephen Court trestle table.
Head of retail marketing and commercialisation “It’s increasingly a pay-per-view member-get-member society.
Hammerson People want to be included but they want to opt out when they
“It’s tough being a marketer in shopping centres today, trying to want to.”
understand a fragmented customer base. At Hammerson our view
is that changes are happening quickly, not just on a decade-by- Martina Sloan
decade basis. National retail and marketing manager
“But inevitably the shopping centre product isn’t changing that Westfield
quickly – they take 10 years-plus to develop and by definition they’re “Westfield London is exactly one year old which makes it an
in danger of being out of date the day they open. And every mall interesting time for us because for the first time we have year-on-
now has a new competitor in its catchment although over the next year comparisons. And internally, with Stratford City coming in 2011
few years that will settle down with fewer new schemes coming our brand needs to evolve, but there are global considerations to
through. bear in mind as well.
“Perhaps because there’s a lot of fragmentation in society, people “The biggest change we’ve noticed in marketing terms is the
www.shopping-centre.co.uk November 2009 SHOPPING CENTRE
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44