Does Your Marketing Program Create Audiences…or Customers?
How to create the right kind of promotion for the right kind of center — and carry it through.
Lois Fletcher

Fletcher

We recently received a request for a proposal from a landlord whose center was experiencing competition for the first time from a newly opened neighborhood shopping center in his center’s trade area. His tenants were experiencing a drop in traffic and sales. After conducting our research I recommended two marketing programs — each featuring the food, services and merchandise his tenants offered. Most importantly, these programs were designed to motivate customers to go into his center’s stores and spend money.

His response was that he wanted a parking lot event — specifically, kiddie rides, characters in costumes and live music all day to entertain families (traffic), on a Saturday.

This would be a great day for families and I’m sure the kids would have a good time and parents would appreciate it — but with all this action in the parking lot, how much time would they spend shopping, increasing traffic and sales in the stores of tenants who really needed it?

Here’s what we’ve learned after 20 years of creating and implementing marketing programs for open-air and enclosed centers: Don’t count on traffic in the mall’s center court, or the open-air center’s parking lot, to translate into sales for tenants. While people are being entertained, they’re not shopping. Look for the bags. Look for sales associates interacting with customers. Check the sales at the end of the day.

As it relates specifically to open-air centers, traditional Saturday shoppers have a certain mind-set. They want to pick up their dry cleaning; buy groceries; shop in a favorite boutique or get a fast haircut. They’re destination-oriented. They’re accustomed to patronizing familiar businesses. They want to get in and get out.

When valuable parking spaces are taken up with antique cars, boats, kiddie rides and lots of people milling about, loyal customers can’t conveniently park near their intended destinations. Of course, deserving food tenants will always see business during a traffic-building event. But what about the others — the tenants looking out their windows at all those people in the parking lot?  So did he pay for a promotion that entertains people — or one that motivates them to spend money? Audiences or customers.

This is also true for enclosed malls. In fact, most stores visible to customers are located far away from center court where the entertainment is usually performing place so you can’t be certain customers are going to patronize their stores as a result of the entertainment. Maybe they’ll browse afterwards, maybe they won’t. In fact, even tenants located near center court sometimes complain about sound level or the number of people watching the show, rather than shopping.

I’ve learned that the best way to get results for our shopping center clients is with targeted marketing programs that educate consumers about the tenant mix and targeted to promote the food, services and merchandise they offer. The goal is to motivate customers to go into tenants’ businesses to participate in a promotion that has real value to them or to take advantage of a compelling offer.

Promote Your Tenant’s Businesses In the Marketing Plan

Because the tenant mix of open-air centers varies wildly, one center to another, most potential customers are aware of only the anchor stores and possibly another three or four tenants. As marketers, we must assume responsibility for educating consumers about all businesses in the center and use tactics that drive traffic into the stores and create sales for participating tenants.

The following tactics are just a few of the integral components of marketing plans our consulting firm designs for open-air centers. The importance of the focus on tenants is the same for our enclosed mall clients and some of these tactics also get results in malls.

•  Don’t assume customers can identify what the business is selling from the store’s name. When listing tenants for a directory or ad, always categorize their names and provide their telephone numbers. Enclosed malls always do this. Open-air centers rarely do.

Here are some categories  — Apparel; Cards & Gifts, Electronics, Health & Beauty, Shoes, Specialty, Financial Services, Restaurants and Eateries. If there’s space, place a one-line description in italics beneath the store’s name.

• When a newspaper is selling a co-op coupon page, insert or special section to merchants, don’t allow them to list a directory featuring only the merchants who purchased an ad for the promotion. Provide the media rep with a categorized listing of all tenants and their telephone numbers. In addition, give them with a location map, with cross streets placed beneath it and anchor store logos. Anchor logos should be near the center’s logo, making it easy for customers to identify the shopping center.

• Just like enclosed malls, open-air centers can implement gift-with-purchase promotions. These programs encourage customers to shop if (a) the minimum amount to be spent is appropriate for the number of tenants in the center and (b) the gift itself has a high-perceived value. Important:  since most open-air centers don’t have a customer service booth, tenants can be redemption centers. As a result, they’ll see traffic in their stores when customers come in to redeem their receipts for the free gift. In enclosed malls, customer service and tenants can be redemption centers. In our experience, once a tenant agrees to be a redemption center, they’re the first to volunteer the next time it’s offered.

• When producing a coupon program, inform merchants that only the best 15 (or number of slots available) offers submitted by the deadline will be produced. Review each offer and work with merchants to submit one that will motivate shoppers to redeem it. Don’t accept an institutional ad since the response can’t be measured.

Inform your merchants that:

1) Three or more great offers in a coupon program will motivate customers to drive to your center to redeem them all in one trip. The promotion has provided three or more good reasons to shop at your center — and who knows how many other stores they’ll discover.

2) All tenants should have a stack of the current coupon inserts or books on the counter next to their cash registers — ready to be offered to customers. You can establish a community of tenants cross-promoting one another by asking them to do this. It’s great for merchant morale and creates the synergistic environment we all want for our tenants (and customers). Some tenants will object to this recommendation. They’ll say they want to attract new customers who received the coupons in their home. Emphasize that maximum distribution of coupon programs provides maximum cash flow and new customers in all participating tenant’s stores.

•  Increase the number of coupon redemptions, by hiring a friendly, clean-cut person or two to distribute coupon programs to customers already shopping at the center on the weekend. Ask your “greeters” to point to specific good offers and point out the store’s location when giving the coupon piece to customers.

Depending on the weather, provide your greeters with colorful long-sleeved T-shirts or sweatshirts with the shopping center’s name printed on it. If a customer is made aware of a great discounted offer available only 50 feet away from where they’re, standing, they’re more inclined to take advantage of it. And while looking over the piece, they might find other good discounts.

•  When designing your center’s annual marketing plan, make decisions on when to schedule promotions at your center, based on the tenant mix — not the holiday or retail calendar. Always determine the number of tenants that will benefit from each promotion and schedule accordingly.

If you’re going to produce a traffic-building event, hire “greeters” to pass out a perforated coupon sheet or individual coupons in brightly colored envelopes to everyone attending the event. Ask merchants to provide two coupons — one good for only the day of the event — and another that can be redeemed within 30 days, in order to encourage a return trip to your center.

To avoid paying for a traffic-building event, work with service clubs, schools and non-profits that can frequently provide opportunities at no cost. In an open-air center, always be sure to set up on the center’s sidewalk and not in the parking lot.

In enclosed malls, fashion and merchandise shows are traffic-building events that are worth the time and labor — and will benefit tenants. Also, community groups can draw traffic to your mall with a worthwhile event — such as a health fair, at no cost, so it’s important to take advantage of them. Don’t forget to hand out coupons or tenant’s sales or promotion information to attendees.

However, if you’re considering paying for entertainment or activities that have no direct benefits to your tenants, ask yourself if you’re creating audiences or customers.

Lois Fletcher is president of Los Angeles-based Center Marketing Group. She can be reached via email at lfletcher@centermarketinggroup.com.