Customers Crave a Spectacle

Although the right layout, correct choice of tenants and convenient location are essential conditions for a shopping center to develop successfully, they are not the only factors. It is as vitally important to take care to entertain customers; otherwise, they will turn to more lively competitors. As such, promotional events and other entertainment spectacles are quickly becoming a central factor for rating shopping centers.

In order to ensure a flow of new customers, maintain existing ones and along the way, resolve a series of imagerelated tasks, shopping center owners need to constantly uphold interest in their creation. Therefore, for a shopping center to enjoy a long life, it makes sense to employ the full range of marketing events. At the same time, it is important not to forget that each event serves its own purpose. Events aimed at the press do not generate an instant growth in profits, and seasonal discount sales are unlikely to help change a shopping center’s image. Depending on the established tasks, specialists distinguish between seasonal, calendar and imagerelated events, special events and promotional events (used mostly to promote the products of a particular tenant). We will look at each of these in further detail.

The standard type of seasonal event is regularly repeated sales, reflecting the change in season. Sales should be accompanied by special events, as good execution of such events in combination with more sales will ensure a new flow of customers. As a result, a circle of allseason permanent visitors is ensured. A good example is the fashion show held every spring and autumn by Stokmann, where collections for children and adults are displayed in a playful manner. At the same time, presentations are made on the cost and discounts of the collections .

Recently, shopping centers have begun paying attention to calendar holidays. Display windows are decorated for “Beauty and femininity days,” “Real men days,” New Year and Christmas. Traditionally, shopping centers just used the image component of these events and did not always take full advantage of them. However, the potential of seasonal holidays is considerably higher than is generally accepted. Ideally, holiday events should attract a maximum number of visitors, most of whom should directly become customers. For example, as part of the “Mega Christmas” on the territory of Megamall, several areas featured games for children (competitions of remotecontrolled cars, dance competitions, etc). In order to receive a gift from Santa Claus, it was necessary to obtain a stamp from all of the locations. In this way, the parents attending the children’s holiday were obliged to visit the entire complex, finishing in the restaurant area.

Imagerelated events may be associated to significant dates or take place without having to announce a specific reason (for example, as part of an anticrisis program). In this case, the issue is not to increase sales, but rather to change or establish the shopping center’s existing image, increasing the loyalty of the target audience. Another objective is to attract the interest of the mass media, which is why imagerelated events should always be as original as possible. For example, Park House in Yekaterinburg, in collaboration with a car firm that was also a tenant of the mall, held the Orange Drive event. A car filled with oranges was installed on the first floor. A poster next to it read “this car holds 1,867 oranges the largest amount of oranges ever held in a car.”

Tenants themselves frequently support special events for the purpose of increasing sales and maintaining visitors to the shopping center. A successful example of such a collaboration was at the Park House shopping center in Volgograd. All of the mall’s stores received a particular color based on the average ticket: green from $3 to $15, yellow from $10 to $70, and red from $50 to $300. Customers who obtained three different colored tickets received a present from the information desk. It is important to remember that irrespective of their originality, events should satisfy customers’ genuine requirements.

Another type of event designed primarily for tenants is promotional events, which can stimulate sales and serve to promote a product to the end customer. Usually, animators play the main part in such actions, or promoters who hand out flyers. As an example, I recall the action organized at the Megamall Khimki to promote an event in Stokmann. Promoters dressed in spook costumes and worked on the territory of Mega, handing out flyers and telling customers about the action’s location and conditions. Mega organized a costumed flashmob in special buses. In parallel, specially for this event, a spook was installed on the tower of the building, which was visible from the road near the entrance to Mega.

In order to create the most comfortable atmosphere for visitors to shopping centers, shopping center managers should identify exact mechanisms for selecting interesting promotional events. It is also worth considering formulating exact requirements for personnel to avoid hassling visitors with excessive pressure.

A precise longterm strategy is needed to develop each shopping center, including eventmarketing. Events should not be random: the calendar of events to be held in the shopping center should be prepared a year in advance and be included in the marketing plan. At the same time, it is important to show considerable mobility and flexibility in order to be able to respond operatively to changes in the market. It is vital to consider significant events for customers, such as calendar holidays, football championships, the start of the tourist season, etc.

A range of criteria has been formulated that should be understood in order to develop the concept for a new event: mainly, the creativity of events and the promoted product. Events should always contain an emotional element, like a brand, to attract its target audience. For an action to be successful, the presence of a communicator is likewise important to provide additional information on the product/brand/event in question.

Specialists agree that the best thing is to allow this job to be carried out by professionals. Statistics show that 9 out of 10 shopping centers use outsourcing when it comes to establishing marketing plans and organizing events. The cost of each event is calculated on the basis of criteria such as technical requirements, staging requirements (actors, personnel and so forth), marketing and advertising support. Usually, the budget divides expenses between tenants and letters. At the same time, a considerable proportion of the costs is often covered by sponsors. It is possible to also attract outside partners. The most effective scheme is one that contains all four elements.

A large number of varied events designed to take into account the needs of shopping center customers make it possible to resolve a whole range of issues. The main ones are to stimulate sales and to increase customer loyalty. Nowadays, visitors to shopping centers increasingly come seeking primarily entertainment and leisure, rather than just pure retail therapy. As such, shopping centers in Russia have already felt the pressure and competition to create a spectacle, as the classical formula of “selling while entertaining, entertaining while selling” already lacks originality. Consumer entertainment has become a crucial tenant of the business and marketing strategy for many market participants.