13 MARKETING


Longstaff, who was centre manager at thecentre:mk between 1994 and 2004. “There has been a scrutiny of service charges and transparency in the last 10-15 years - people want good value for money and they need services that are appropriate. In these credit-crunch times, it’s important to get more for less. “You have to ask yourself: is it working? Are you imparting a message? And is that attracting improved performance?” Longstaff and his team go through every element of a centre’s


marketing plan and performance data in order to highlight where the centre’s getting a return, so that the marketing team can focus their efforts – and spend more of the budget – on the types of campaign that work best based on centre size, location and catchment. He gives The Brewery in Romford as an example. “The Brewery was trying to attract shoppers from outside


Romford and Essex, aiming for a catchment up to 20-30 miles away,” he says. “But it was their community events that were paying dividends. “They changed their strategy based on what we told them and


now they’re doing a lot more with things like school engagement, helping to develop fresh ties with the community and helping to protect against the impact of the economy.” The most effective campaigns aren’t always the most


expensive. “The world is moving away from pretty little creatives and


towards returns, footfall delivery and spend,” explains Longstaff. “There doesn’t seem to be an embracing of media like newsletters and email shots but they are really measurable and low cost and we’ve seen some really great results. “If brands advertise on a billboard, 1bn people might walk


past in a month but do people actually see it?” he adds. “With a newsletter, people are already engaged because they’ve given out their email address and have chosen not to unsubscribe. Pound for pound you get a much better response.” Finding the right incentives that encourage people to give up their data could reap rewards. Manchester Arndale worked in conjunction with marketing


specialists Maynineteen to come up with its ‘student discount night’.


The centre struck a partnership with bus company Stagecoach,


allowing promotional teams - wearing branded hoodies and purple wigs - to approach students using the buses, as well as in the streets, and offering them free ‘I love Mcr’ T-shirts as well as a £5 gift voucher and a McDonalds meal for the first 100 students to sign up with their email addresses and other information. Moving away from data capture, sales data, of course, is a


sturdy measure of marketing successes. With a focus on landlord/tenant relations and an increase in


performance-based rents bringing communication to the fore, retailers are having to be more forthcoming in providing owners with sales data. When Maynineteen works on campaigns with a shopping


centre client it sets up a meeting with retailers to explain why they’re there, how they’re going to work with them and that the aim is to provide them with year-on-year sales increases. During fashion events where there might be stylists on hand to advise shoppers, Maynineteen will ensure there are people available to direct customers to the stores after their consultation. And it can even encourage staff to take people on a longer route through the centre so they walk past more of the retailers than they might have done otherwise. Using competition prizes and other incentives to encourage


data capture, keeping databases up to date and using newsletters and email shots to communicate with your shoppers will help to squeeze as much as possible from marketing activity, proving that preaching to the converted can be a good thing.


Find out more: For more information, please contact the author: mia.hunt@jldmedia.com


www.shopping-centre.co.uk October 2011 SHOPPING CENTRE


“The world is moving away from pretty creatives and towards returns and footfall delivery.”


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