What do Marketers Say ?
…. about the marketing of shopping places in 2012
Professionals charged with marketing the UK’s shopping places in 2012 are forthright about their objectives. They want to drive Footfall upwards; maintain or increase Spend in their centres; and build Brand Awareness.
This is one of the findings of a survey carried out by ROI Team at the seminar Driving Marketing Performance hosted by Shopping Centre Magazine at the Emirates Stadium last week.
Marketers were also asked to describe the challenges they anticipate in 2012. MM’s identified a squeeze on budgets as their biggest challenge, combined with the feeling that marketing is a cost that they are constantly forced to defend and justify. Many participants asked for increased respect and understanding of the value delivered by their strategies from their own management, as well as from owners and tenants. As one interviewee put it ‘We are judged guilty until proved innocent’.
Interviewees were consistent in their view of the hot new marketing techniques to be embraced in 2012, envisaging a combination of Social Media and Mobile Communications, including the use of mobile phone Apps. These are liked for their immediate and cost-effective communication value, and as an additional source of information for shoppers.
There was also consistency when marketers were asked about additional resources and tools that they want for 2012. The strongest cry is for data and intelligence they can depend on – seen as the route to proving value delivered to the business by marketing activity.
These headline findings are based on short interviews, asking delegates to give their views in response to 5 questions. 
ROI Team worked during the conference, interviewing 28 delegates between 10am and 3.30pm, and analysing comment between 3.30pm and 5pm, enabling MD Andrew McCall to give delegates a snapshot of findings before the close of the conference at 5.30pm. 
ROI Team’s analysis was based firstly on classic qualitative analysis, used typically to distil comment from Group work. To complement this, interviewer notes made during and immediately after interviews were collated and fed into the internet-based Wordle ‘Word Clouding’ engine, triggering an instant visual readout of the key words used by shopping centre marketers about their ambitions and anxieties for 2012.
The ‘Word Cloud’ for Key Objectives: 
The ‘Word Cloud for New Techniques for 2012: 
Andrew McCall, MD of ROI Team commented : ‘Although our interviewees were passionate and opinionated, there was a good consistency about what they told us.
We enjoyed the challenge of working at pace and delivering a readout within the same day. It’s good to know that new analysis techniques now mean that interview-based work can be turned around within a very short time frame’
Action Points:
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