Reader Profile: Michelle Moffitt
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Name: Michelle Moffitt
Title: Marketing Manager
Property: The Chimes Shopping Centre
Location: Uxbridge West London, UK
How long have you been at this center?
I have been at The Chimes for just over 3 years.
How many years of experience do you have in the retail industry?
I am in my 10th year of working in the fashion and retail industry. Having started in FMCG, moving into wholesale fashion and then retail.
What have you found to be the most effective strategies to promote new retailers?
With few retailer changes we have had limited exposure to promoting new retailers. On the few occasions we have had new stores, we focused on the PR angle: linking with media partners on large value prizes backed by strong in-centre and digital exposure. Effectiveness can often depend on the retailers resources but we add value and promote as actively as we can.
Do you more actively promote new retailers in certain categories (e.g. apparel, footwear, food)? If so,which categories?
We try a more holistic approach for our marketing of the centre – we see ourself as a destination, hence we focus on our key strengths of fashion, food and entertainment – and this works well. We generally push the destination on all larger brand formats and then promote the three separately in our digital and DM communications.
Do you promote new specialty retail tenants (kiosks, RMUs) as well as in-line tenants?
Demand for our scheme has been consistently strong – so retailer changes have been very minimal. The majority of our budget is spent on our main tenants but to keep customer interest and show them we have new concepts we have begun to promote our kiosks, this allows us to keep fresh. We are always looking for reasons to invite our customers to revisit and reappraise our centre
What is your primary marketing goal for The Chimes this year?
To stand out from the crowd and be desirable.
What is your biggest challenge this year?
Our competitive landscape has changed drastically over the past 12 months so our challenge has been repositioning ourselves and finding our place in the market. We are now reaping the rewards from this hard work.
Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
Be bold and try new things. Take risks, calculated of course, and push the boundaries – then you will stand out.
Thanks Michelle!
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