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Shopping Centers Today -> October 2002
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BRAZIL, U.S. MALL EXECS COMPARE NOTES AT MEETING
By Debra Hazel
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| Brazilians spend much more than their U.S. counterparts to market their centers. |
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A Brazilian shopping center marketing director is likely to make his North American counterparts jealous by the mere mention of his marketing budget: Brazilians spend much more to promote their centers than do U.S. owners, it was noted at the seventh annual International Congress of the Brazilian Association of Shopping Centers (ABRASCE) held in São Paulo, Brazil, in August.
A typical Brazilian center may spend nearly twice as much on marketing as a comparable U.S. project, albeit in very different ways. The typical U.S. mall spends $821,000 a year on marketing, versus a Brazilian property’s $1.5 million. U.S. open-air centers make do with even less: Those budgets run from $5,000 for a small neighborhood center to $135,000 for a large lifestyle center, said Gary D. Rappaport, SCMD, SCSM, CLS, president of The Rappaport Cos., Vienna, Va., and this year’s ICSC chairman. (In Brazil open-air centers are a rarity.)
“We’d love to have your budgets,” said James W. “Wally” Brewster, CMD, senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications at General Growth Properties, Chicago.
The Brazilian shopping center industry has doubled in size in the last seven years, to 245 centers (mostly regional malls) totaling 5.6 million square meters (60.3 million square feet) and serving a population of 174.5 million people. The United States, with a population of 278 million, has about 1,172 malls.
A comparison of the yearly budgets for U.S. and Brazilian centers offers a study in contrasts. The prevalence of local stores in Brazilian centers compels their managers to focus more on advertising (47.3 percent of a typical budget versus 17 percent in the United States), while U.S. owners, with a greater proportion of national chains in their mix, spend more of their precious budgets on mall promotions (64 percent versus Brazil’s 42.5 percent) and administrative costs (19 percent compared with 4.2 percent in Brazil).
Unlike in North America, Brazilian local stores and even anchors do not advertise, but leave such promotions to the malls themselves.
Brazilian shopping centers need all the help they can get, given the nation’s economic woes. Shoppers continue to visit centers, but, with their incomes squeezed, spend less.
Marketing events have become more frequent and elaborate in Brazil. Customer loyalty programs, already commonplace in North America, are becoming increasingly popular in Brazil.
“You have to have bus tours, launchings [openings],” said Paul Duval, co-founder of Rio de Janeiro management company ShopInvest.
Malls are on their own, however, when it comes to promotions. Sponsorships like those in the United States are nearly nonexistent in South America, where companies are rattled by economic instability. Consequently, centers have to work hard to connect with their customers.
“We have to keep on conducting community campaigns ...[and] strengthen the feeling of belonging,” said Marta María Penedés Solares, marketing manager of Montevideo (Uruguay) Shopping.
ABRASCE organized the conference, but this year it also served as ICSC’s Conference of the Americas.
 | Current Issue December 2008 |