How to Build a Shopping Mall Brand

(MoneyWatch)  Who are a mall's real customers? A case study in The Hub magazine reports that developer Westfield USA found some surprising results when it sought to redefine its brand: Out of seven identified shopper types, just two were responsible for 52 percent of Westfield malls' total buying power.

The authors of the case study, brand-management firm Landor & Associates, dove deep, starting with online questionnaires and moving on to three-hour interviews. Researchers hung out with shoppers at home, drove around their neighborhoods, and took them shopping at both competing centers and Westfield properties, which include Century City in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Centre, and Garden State Plaza in New Jersey.

What they learned was that more than half of buying power rests with two types of shoppers: "Navigators" -- independent, creative types who shop for what they're passionate about -- and "Social Seekers" -- who also love shopping but look to others for validation. Both types find shopping continually engaging, Landor's Kendra Wehmeyer and Kara McCartney write. "They need an excuse to go to the mall -- but once there they wander with a sense of purpose."

Navigators quickly became the target for future branding. They make up only 8 percent of Westfield's customer population but 20 percent of their buying power. And because confident Navigators feel superior to insecure Social Seekers, messages that appealed to Navigators also worked on Social Seekers, but not the other way around. "If we chose the Navigator as our core, our tone would be that of an 'expert mall' speaking to the 'expert shopper.' It would be about inspiring their journey, not directing it," Wehmeyer and McCartney write. Messages with appeal for both shopper types include "a sense of security and consistency; respect for their shopping expertise; the feeling of being an insider (ahead of the curve); the presence of enabled discovery; reward for their Westfield loyalty; and the opportunity to shop alone or to feel unrestrained."

Westfield now sends different loyalty program pitches to Navigators and Social Seekers and tailors presentations to current and prospective tenants around their new core customer.