Reader Profile: Paula Colvin
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: Paula Colvin
Title: Marketing Director
Property: Capilano Mall
Location: Edmonton, Canada
How long have you been at this property?
I have been here at Capilano as marketing director for seven years.
How many years of experience do you have in the shopping center industry?
I have 10 years experience.
What is your primary goal this year?
Our primary goal this year is to help our retailers through the changes in buying practices of consumers when the economy is difficult as well as to stay competitive in the big-box-store culture that we now live in. Shopping centers of the past did not have this phenomena affecting their success.
What is your biggest challenge this year?
As a community-based mall, our biggest challenge is to offer a niche to our customers that competes with the bigger, regional centers in our community.
Can you offer one tip to other mall marketing professionals?
My advice is to think outside the box. Whether you are marketing a small, community-based mall, like ours, or a regional center, it is important to offer something the other centers don’t have. It is easy to fall into cookie-cutter shopping center marketing. Be industrious with your budgets. Push those dollars as far as they can go and develop relationships with suppliers that are willing to think outside the box with you. Do lots of reading about what is going on in the industry. Stay plugged in to what is happening with other shopping centers, the retailers and consumers.
Thanks Paula!
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Stew P
