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for social media. “We took a big gamble in Pretoria East is tackling. “We are Facial recognition will be taken even
by putting all our marketing effort into adding 50 000m2 which will take [it] to further in the mall by using it to assess
social media and using no traditional 178 000m2,” says Marketing Manager customer sentiment. “By comparing
media at all,” Vanessa Fourie, founder of Andrea de Witt. When expansion is entry and exit images it will enable
brand communication specialist, Purple completed at the end of 2016, the mall us to judge whether customers leave
Plumm, tells the IMM Journal of Strategic will be second only in size to Durban’s our mall satisfied or not,” explains De
Marketing. Purple Plumm provides 220 000m2 Gateway Mall. Witt. “We place a lot of emphasis on
communication services to the mall. customer experience.”
Menlyn Park’s owner, Pareto,
Amusingly, one of the messages put is clearly confident of its regional From a marketing perspective, De
out prior to the opening was ‘all roads dominance. “Pretoria East is the most Witt says the strategy being followed
lead to Mall of Africa’. Traffic gridlock that heavily traded area in the Southern by Menlyn is – like the Mall of Africa –
marked its opening day was not intended Hemisphere,” observes De Witt. a shift of emphasis from promotions
to support the message, quips Fourie. to social media communication with
TFG – which includes major retail customers. “We get our biggest return
Social media remains the focus of chains such as Foschini, Markham, Due from social media,” she notes.
Purple Plumm’s marketing strategy. South, Totalsports, Sterns, @Home and
Mall of Africa’s social reach is also OPTIMUM MALL SIZE
growing. It had 30 000 followers on ?
Facebook at the time of its opening and Social media has With South African super-regional malls
now has 86 000, with a further 8 000 become central getting ever-bigger, the optimum size of
on Twitter, says Fourie. to marketing to a mall has been called into question.
mall shoppers Opinions vary widely.
These numbers have left Purple
Plumm fielding tens of thousands of American Swiss in its portfolio – is also Industry veteran Marc Wainer,
engagements a week. “We have a big confident about Menlyn’s prospects. Chairman of Redefine Properties which
team in place,” explains Fourie. “We are “We will go from nine stores in Menlyn owns seven malls, considers things
achieving a 54-minute response time on Park to 17 or 18,” says Rothenburg. have already gone too far. “Anything
94% of engagements. On response time over 80 000m2 to 90 000m2 is too
we are kicking the pants off other malls.” A mall expansion brings with it big,” he says.
major inconvenience for shoppers. It
From a retailer’s perspective, TFG’s is a problem Menlyn Park has tackled Campett disagrees. “If the demand
Rothenburg hails the Mall of Africa as with its 12 Concierge Ambassadors is there from consumers and retailers it
a success. “Our 14 stores [there] have appointed to assist shoppers. “It is the should be met,” he believes. Similarly,
a total retail space of 8 000m2 and are best thing we could ever have done; we De Witt says: “The size of a mall must
all doing well,” he says “If we believe in are expanding the service and making be matched to market demand. For all
a mall, we back it to the hilt.” it a permanent feature,” De Witt tells practical purposes, there is no size limit.”
the IMM Journal of Strategic Marketing.
The dominant message put out on Indeed, while South Africa boasts
social media is that the mall is a lifestyle Also coming is a first for a South many super-regional malls, they are
destination rather than a mere shopping African mall: a dedicated VIP lounge. no match size-wise for many of their
venue. Building it as a super-regional “We will issue VIP cards at our discretion. foreign counterparts.
mall from the start gave its designers a A key focus will be the big diplomatic
big advantage, believes Fourie. community in our area,” she explains. In Canada, for example, the West
Edmonton Mall comes in at 350 000m2.
“We started with an absolutely Menlyn Park is pioneering another In the US the largest mall, the
blank canvass,” she explains. “When South African first with the introduction creatively named King of Prussia Mall,
existing malls expand they tend to be of facial recognition technology. is a hefty 260 000m2. South Africa’s
constrained by the framework already Management claims it will give the flagship Gateway Mall ranks as only
in place.” mall the most accurate foot [customer] the world’s 53rd largest, while the
counter system in the country. African continent’s largest mall is the
EXPANDING 267 000m2 Mall of Arabia in Cairo.
EXISTING MALLS It ranks 29th in the world.
Expansion is a challenge 36-year- For a number of South African
old Menlyn Park Shopping Centre super-regional malls the big problem >>
August–September 2016 strategicmarketing 11
