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DEVELOPERS REFINE MALL-MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

BY ED MCKINLEY

All politics may be local, but helping retailers isn’t that simple. Developers who want tenants to prosper, have to coordinate assistance at the local, regional and national levels, mall-marketing experts say.

For example, a centralized program can provide merchants with a one-stop, corporate-level approach to distributing table tents in far-flung food courts or to posting specials on individual malls’ Web sites. But a regional approach offers the advantage of cutting a huge job down to size, while a local approach incorporates the vital expertise of individual mall marketers and managers. But landlords don’t have to choose between these options — they can pick all three.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich, which owns interests in 64 regional malls, launched its three-tier program, called “Merchants First,” in early 2002. At the national and regional levels, Merchants First allows retailers with stores in multiple Macerich properties to contact a single person at the developer’s corporate headquarters to handle marketing in malls.

“They can work with me,” said Michaela A. Marraffino, SCMD, vice president of strategic marketing programs. “Then I can work with the individual malls and allow them to put signage up in the common areas, table tents in the food courts, advertise on our mall Web sites.”

Merchants First represents a business philosophy and a brand, says Marraffino. “It’s not just a marketing program. The leasing, management and real estate philosophy is that our retailers are our No. 1 priority, and their success is our success.” Macerich reinforces the brand by using it as the name for a Web site, newsletters, memos and meetings, she says.

One retailer taking advantage of those and other Macerich services is Select Comfort Corp., a bedding chain with headquarters in Minneapolis. Heather Martin, Select Comfort’s retail marketing manager, says her company has benefited from Macerich e-mail messages alerting shoppers to Select Comfort specials. Thirty-seven of Select Comfort’s 371 stores and leased departments are located in Macerich malls, Martin says.

Macerich also strives to deliver demographic data into the hands of retailers. Statistics and maps that detail population, income and shopping habits of the areas surrounding the company’s centers are posted on Web sites set up for each mall as well as on the corporate and Merchants First Web sites, says Gary Butcher, Macerich’s vice president of marketing and consumer research. More detailed information is available to retailers who request it, Butcher says.

Meanwhile, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, which controls 296 U.S. properties, set up a retailer marketing team in the first quarter of last year and brought in Robin Blunt as vice president of promotions and retailer marketing.

Working at the corporate level, Blunt’s team aims to integrate retailers into mall marketing. If a retailer wants to launch a portfoliowide marketing initiative in Simon malls, for example, Blunt and his people can act as a centralized support system to facilitate the campaign.

On the simon.com Web site, consumers can “pre-shop” before visiting a Simon property because retailers’ specials, discounts and promotions are listed for each mall. Blunt’s office offers a one-stop opportunity for retailers to convey those messages about stores in multiple locations.

Simon also keeps shoppers apprised of what’s happening at stores in its malls by sending targeted e-mail messages to lists of customers who have chosen to receive them. Blunt says he has been impressed by the open-and-read rates, as well as pass-along.

In addition, Simon helps retailers by drawing people to the malls through national promotions that have included Simon Kidgits Club, which provides discounts and events for children; Simon DTour Live, a music and brands road show for teenagers; Simon Super Chefs Live, a series of visits by famous chefs and Simon Mall for You, a women’s program of fashion and wellness.

Simon Data Direct, a direct-marketing tool developed in-house, allows retailers to define target customers by choosing from more than 500 variables, such as ZIP cluster zone, age, income and home ownership. Working on an ordinary PC, the retailer can then find out how many names matching those criteria are available in a given trading area and rent the lists.

Mall media — everything from table tents to posters — also comes into play in Simon’s work to help retailers succeed, and the developer even designs marketing campaigns for tenants, Blunt says. Simon also is testing digital media, he adds.

At Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL & Associates Properties, retailers can call the advertising office at the headquarters for help in coordinating marketing plans in multiple malls, says Barb Ivankovich, SCMD, CBL’s vice president of marketing.

Four years ago, CBL & Associates Properties launched a national campaign to help retailers, says Ivankovich. Under one program, called the Time of Giving, consumers buy $5 wristbands, with the proceeds going to charity, and then are admitted to centers during times when the properties normally would be closed. Retailers that open their doors for the event offer discounts.

Other CBL campaigns have included partnerships with Coca-Cola and NASCAR to draw traffic. Visitors to the malls buy souvenirs for race drivers to sign and some stop in at stores like Wilson’s Leather to buy apparel with racing logos.

National efforts, like those at Simon, CBL and Macerich, complement rather replace marketing efforts at the mall level, representatives of each company say.

Macerich mall management convenes informal weekly meetings between mall management and store managers called Coffee Talk, in common areas of the malls or in stores. It’s considered part of the Merchants First program, Marraffino says.

Simon’s Blunt calls mall marketing directors the centerpiece of the company’s dialogue with retailers. “Our objective is to do this retailer marketing development across all of our touch points, so that our local and regional guys are engaged and are supporting our national initiatives,” he said. Responsibility for meetings with mall merchants falls to mall management, Blunt says. In his estimation “the local mall marketing director is the mayor of that community.”

At CBL, mall managers hold annual meetings to provide store managers with sales statistics for the centers, information on changes in the trade area and plans for the coming year, Ivankovich says.

“We find that working closely with our retailers, working with them as a team, is very important,” said Ivankovich. “Management in the malls even solicits new and potential retailers. They’re canvassing in their regions. They’re the eyes and ears for headquarters.”

It’s all part of finding the right blend of the local, regional and national.