Each week, we bring you a brief profile on one of our fantastic readers. Know someone we should be writing about? Let us know.

Name: Helen Rozanova
Title: Marketing Manager
Company: DTZ Ukraine
Properties: Riviera Shopping Center

Location: Odessa, Ukraine

How long have you been working with these property?
I joined DTZ Ukraine in April 2009 after relocating from DTZ Moscow.

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping centre industry?
I began my career in the shopping center industry as a corporate marketing manager in 2005. I then switched to shopping center marketing 18 months ago within DTZ Moscow.

What is your primary goal this year?
We’re launching Riviera Shopping City this fall and hope it will have a bright and successful start. Our major goal is for the scheme to become the top-of-mind shopping and leisure destination for our customers, and do all that with minimum budget.

What is your biggest challenge this year?
Launching a new scheme located outside the city center in this present economic situation can sound like a challenge, but we believe in our retailers. We work closely with them to both optimize the existing marketing budget and organize a consistent, strong campaign to guide customers to Riviera Shopping City.

Which primary media outlets do you intend to target for your center’s launch?
As we entered the project, we carefully studied the existing media. In the end, we narrowed our choice down to four major channels: radio (most probably two stations), the Internet (three Websites), Out of Home (billboards and city-lights) and print publications (one local and one national).

How big a role will online media play in the launch?
We are going to launch Riviera Shopping City’s Website and will use this marketing tool for our promotions. At the same time, we’re also looking closely at other online opportunities. We will place some adverts on a few Websites (similar to Linkedin.com and Facebook.com), using geo-targeting technology.

How much will you be counting on media partners to help stretch your marketing budget?
We are now considering a few opportunities, so hopefully it will all work out well.

What would be an ideal media partner for your center and why?
It’s hard to say. Due to the recession, the quality level of media has dropped significantly. So I cannot specify a media channel at this point.

Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Look around. Learn about different industries, discover other cultures and listen to colleagues from all over the world. It can help you to get more ideas on how to make your shopping center a better place for its tenants and customers. Sometimes the hint can come from the unexpected source, so be ready to make the most of that opportunity.

Each week, we bring you a brief profile on one of our fantastic readers. Know someone we should be writing about? Let us know.

Name: Martin Rendle
Title: Center Manager
Property: The Buttermarket Shopping Centre, owned by Targetfollow Estates Ltd.
Location: Newark on Trent, UK

How long have you been at this property?
I’ve been Manager here at The Buttermarket for the past three years.

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping centre industry?
I’ve been involved in the retail industry for most of my working life, including four years owning and running a successful retail business on the North Norfolk coast.

Which December holiday services do you plan to offer shoppers this year?
As we do every year, we offer a great Santa’s Grotto, present wrapping service and live music on the weekends running up to Christmas.

Will these services be free, or will there be a charge?
The Santa’s Grotto attracts a small charge to its visitors. However, I always try to work this in tandem with local Newark charities, and therefore most of the money raised from the Grotto goes directly to the chosen local charity.

If the services are complimentary, will you bring in a sponsor to offset the costs or will the centre pay for the services out of its own marketing budget?
Generally the cost for this comes directly out of our marketing and promotions budget. However, anything deemed as non shopping centre recoverable, such as an amount towards gifts for the Grotto, is donated directly by us.

What is your primary goal this year?
In the current economic climate, obviously my main goal is the leasing of vacant space. We’re lucky here as we are currently enjoying around an 80-percent occupancy rate and are managing to retain the tenants we have.

What is your biggest challenge this year?
Well, maybe this is a little unrealistic in the current climate, but I’d very much like to see a 95-percent occupancy rate by the end of January 2010.  I’m pleased to say that at the moment we’re on target for this—fingers crossed!

Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Think as you’ve always thought and get the results you’ve always got! Think laterally to move forward.

Thanks Martin!

Each week, we bring you a brief profile on one of our fantastic readers. Know someone we should be writing about? Let us know.

Name: Dani Boisclair
Title: Promotional Director
Property: Les Galeries du Cap
Location: Trois-Rivières, Canada

How long have you been at this property?
I have been with the Plaza Group since 2005.

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping center industry?
Four years.

What is your primary goal this year?
To exploit the advantages of shopping at a community-based mall and encouraging local merchants in this struggling economy. It’s simple and practical! No-fuss parking, easy highway access, a wide-variety of stores to serve all needs and knowing that the money spent here remains in the community.

What is your biggest challenge this year?
Strengthening our position in a very competitive market by offering destination stores as well as creating younger customer loyalty.

Do you plan to revamp your shopping center’s holiday décor this year?
Not this year, simply because we’ve been revamping it over the past two years. We usually do our outdoor decorations one year and then our indoor decorations the following year. We also had a new Santa’s Village built a couple of years ago.

What is your approach to décor planning? Do you always order new décor that’s been specially designed for your center, or do you rely on generic decorations or even possibly refurbished décor?
We do a bit of both. Some are generic decorations, like our outdoor decorations as well as the mall decorations. However, when it comes to Santa’s Village or the Easter Farm, these are custom made for our center.

Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Holiday shopping is something that can have a negative connotation with people being so busy at this time of year and seeing gift hunting as more of a chore. We like to create an ambiance that enables us to become more than just a shopping center with stores. We want people to come to the center and feel good about being here. We want to create a memorable experience, a place of gathering that goes beyond the products customers have come to purchase.

Thanks Dani!

Name: Sally Bonner
Titles: Marketing Manager, Beenleigh Marketplace and Assistant Marketing Manager, Grand Plaza Shopping Centre
Location: Browns Plains and Beenleigh, Qld, Australia

How long have you been at this property?
I joined the Grand Plaza Team in 2006 and then began working at Beenleigh Marketplace in a dual role across both centers in 2008.

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping center industry?
I began my shopping center career at QueensPlaza, another Colonial First State Property Management center in 2005. While I was in university, I worked in the marketing department at Myer which provided a great introduction to retail marketing.

How many awards have your properties won during your tenure?
During my career at Grand Plaza Shopping Centre, the property has received the following awards and/or recognition:
•  CFSPM Marketing Awards 2007 Winner – Nine Dots Consumer Insights Award for Grand Plaza’s “BIG on Living!” branding campaign.
•  Shopping Centre News Australia & New Zealand Marketing Awards 2007 Finalist – Grand Plaza’s “BIG on Living!”
•  ICSC’s Maxi Awards 2007 — Finalist for Grand Plaza’s “BIG on Living!”
•  Property Council of Australia Queensland Shopping Centre of the Year Awards 2007 – Finalist.

What is your primary goal this year?
To implement innovative campaigns that strengthens the centers’ relationships with target customer segments, while cementing their positions in the marketplace. Finding new ways to communicate and interact with customers, such as Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and SMS. It is vital to communicate with customers how they want to be communicated with, especially in such a cluttered retail environment.

What is your biggest challenge this year?
Keeping retailers enthused in the current downturn and continuing to implement high-impact retailer support initiatives on a limited budget.

Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Surround yourself with people that challenge, inspire and respect you. Keep the passion alive by reading, researching, networking and sharing ideas with other marketing managers.

Thanks Sally!

Each week, we bring you a brief profile on one of our fantastic readers. Know someone we should be writing about? Let us know.

Name: Emmy Mills
Title: Marketing Director
Property: Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre
Location: Edmonton, Canada

How long have you been at this property?
An unusual 12 years. Where has the time gone?!

How many years of experience do you have in the shopping center industry?
After a number of years in radio as an award-winning copywriter, .I freelanced for four years with shopping centers off and on. Needing to regulate my family life a bit more, I took a job with a smaller center for four years to learn the ropes. I thoroughly enjoyed this arena as it gave me the personal satisfaction of still writing and creating on behalf of the tenants and the center. I then landed a position with a larger regional center and have now been here 12 years. Time does indeed fly when you’re having fun!

How many industry awards, if any, has your shopping centre won during your tenure?
I have won an ICSC Canadian Maple Leaf Merit Award (Marketing Leasing Support category). I also won a local Silver Leaf award for community minded programs for sponsoring “Generations Growing & Gardening Together”, an outreach initiative in which the City of Edmonton subsidizes low-income housing, as well as teaches and mentors low-income and new Canadian families in the growing of gardens.

What is your primary goal this year?
To stretch an ever-shrinking marketing budget to maintain successful programs now in place. I also want to work even more closely with tenants in their own marketing efforts.

What is your biggest challenge this year?
Working beyond the public perception of “bad times”.

Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Get involved and network in your community.

Thanks Emmy!