Situation
Up to a point, it pays to advertise….unless, like Honey Creek Mall, you have the reach to attract nearly three-fourths of the people in your market area at least once a month. At that point it’s time to think about exploring new channels of communication that can increase the frequency
of visits and the amount of sales.

A market survey by Honey Creek Mall confirmed with emphasis what the mall’s managers already knew: that Honey Creek Mall is a powerful retail draw for the nine counties of the Wabash Valley (west central Indiana and east central Illinois). Mall manager Kim Ingalsbe said of the results, “We were astounded to find out that 97% of the population had visited the mall at one time or another.” The mall’s research showed that customers want their regional mall to be more than just a shopping center. They expect an entertaining experience and family oriented activities. They are Internet-savvy and will read eMessages from the mall.

Problem
“People know where the mall is, they know our stores, and much of the time they make us their first choice for retail,” general manager Kim Ingalsbe said. “But we needed help to think outside the ‘marketing box,’ and achieve the business goals of the mall’s management company.” These goals were to move aggressively to grow sales and maintain market dominance, to create a new image/brand, to increase sales per square foot and sales in the food court, and to build additional sources of revenue.

Solution
To help, mall management brought in its marketing firm, MillerWhite LLC, as a strategic partner. MillerWhite proposed a detailed data analysis and integrated marketing plan. Bill White, a partner in the firm, said, “After we defined the mall’s business goals and analyzed the research, we put together an initial two-year marketing plan that proposed marketing goals, objectives, strategies and tactics that were new to the mall.”

• Creating a new image/brand
Through an exercise called "Unlocking the Power of Your Pledge®," MillerWhite helped the mall develop a pledge that in turn led to the creation of a new tagline, jingle and creative direction. Analyzing responses to questions about the company’s benefits, customers and competition, the pledge that emerged was, “Honey Creek Mall pledges to make each shopper’s visit an experience that is entertaining, family oriented and one-of-a-kind,” and the tagline that was created was “It’s All About You.” That new brand/image became a part of all of the mall’s marketing.

• Increasing sales per square foot
This objective targeted the mall’s frequent shoppers, its not-so-frequent shoppers (which included people over 50 and those under 25) and potential tenants as well. MillerWhite focused on the mall’s web site as the message outlet for many of its strategies to support getting more people to visit the mall, getting current customers to visit more often and getting them to increase the amount of their purchases. A web site audit and resulting re-vamp added maps and bus routes for older customers and students, as well as a popular job listings page.

An on-line MeClub and an eNewsletter for frequent shoppers featured store specials to encourage them to come in more often and spend more. Periodic eMails to MeClub members offered an incentive for every new member they got to register. All marketing efforts, even traditional advertising messages, were designed to drive traffic to the web site.

• Increasing food court sales
The mall established a community room and offered more activities, centered in the food court, through the mall’s kids club for the younger and family audience. It made the community room available for special activities of civic groups, schools, the mall itself and mall partners, and started a Lunch & Learn series that encouraged customers to grab lunch at the food court and attend a craft lesson or other seminar.

• Building additional revenue
In light of the mall’s popularity, MillerWhite developed several 12-ft. by 4-ft., free-standing, eye-level indoor billboards that would be attractive as an advertising medium for businesses outside the mall because of the large number of people who come to the mall to shop. Businesses buying space on the billboards became preferred partners with the mall and had the benefit of using the community room free of charge.

Result
Implementation of the marketing plan has definitely paid off, White said. “In the plan’s first year, our goal was to increase sales-per-square-foot by 2%. We beat that with an actual increase in sales-per-square-foot of 5%.” This was at a time when retail nationally was suffering its weakest holiday shopping season since 1970.

Honey Creek Mall hasn’t abandoned traditional advertising. Special events, the kids club and the web site get airtime on local radio and TV. But with sales continuing to do well and the eDatabase growing, the fact that mall management and MillerWhite can control, through the Internet, when and what messages are being sent to drive traffic, was seen as an invaluable asset.

“This is an ongoing process,” White said. “You implement and then evaluate specific integration tactics, then begin to develop the next
two-year plan.”