Agile as Marketing Communications in Digital Era

What is the current trend of malls like?

According to Made, malls are currently experiencing an expansion of functions from shopping malls to lifestyle malls, which are places for visitors to hangout, shop, eat, entertainment, and more.

If Mall in the past only functioned as a shopping place, now the mall has added functions as a one-stop shopping facility for family recreation, community, and individual. Mall is managed so that visitors can spend a lot of time in the mall.

“We have to make visitors feel comfortable in the mall so that they can become loyal visitors. If they become loyal visitors, of course this is good for the tenant business as well” Made said.

How does Made make planning for the Marketing Communication strategy?

In making the plan, Made said that accuracy and data relevancy is needed.

The data includes the current traffic development up to several years back, visitor growth, which tenants get growth, and what are the preferences of the mall visitors.

“From the data that we have collected, we can analyze from there. For example, we can know that our mall visitors prefer shopping for fashion needs, spending time at leisure tenants such as cinemas, and other preferences” Made explained.

In addition, Made also emphasized the importance of being sensitive to the stakeholders.

For tenants, Made said that the mall must help the tenant business grow in the mall, both in terms of visitors and revenue.

The way is by providing facilities for branding tenants so that they are more known by the public, and actively creating events in the mall area to increase the occupancy rate of visitors.

About Marketing Communication Strategy in the Digital PR Era

The digital era makes Made have to be more agile as a Marketing Communication in the mall industry.

One of the Digital PR strategies that Made does is creating content for the mall on social media based on FYP (For You Page) such as TikTok and Instagram Reels.

The content is made by Made with the aim of branding the mall with the targeted persona to increase attractiveness and positive image, help increase awareness of the tenants as well as communicate the ongoing campaigns.

Made also emphasized that the mall must be sensitive to the changing times.

For example, when there was a Barbie movie boom a while ago, many brands from the mall tenants competed to follow the Barbie trend to get traffic and sales.

This is where the mall helps them, by providing facilities to communicate the tenant campaigns through social media.

“We have to be active on social media as the online presence of the Mall. This is very necessary because social media can reach many people to support the business of the Mall and tenants” Made said.

In addition, the mall also needs to provide space for branding from the tenants, as well as photo spots for visitors to selfie.

This is quite helpful, because by creating a selfie spot, visitors will upload it on social media to get free promotion.

Besides with the tenants, the existence of social media also makes the communication distance between the mall and the visitors closer. It is not uncommon for visitors to express complaints through DM (direct message), or even make videos with the hope of going viral.

Although this can have a negative impact, the mall needs to respond to this wisely.

To minimise complaints, the Mall needs to conduct customer satisfaction surveys, suggestion boxes for the mall that now use QR Codes.

This is not only to accommodate what the visitors want to convey, but also as a means of improvement.

How does Made measure that the strategy has been successful?

Every campaign and strategy, especially on social media, requires a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) or target.

The campaign will be considered successful if it has reached the set target.

This is what requires the use of social media analysis tools used by Made to help collect data and analyse deeper.

“We have tools to measure how effective the campaign is on social media. From there we can see the metrics whether they have reached the target or not” Made explained.

Membership programs through applications are also carried out by the Marketing Communication team in an effort to keep up with the times.

The purpose of this program is not only to provide benefits and increase customer loyalty, but also to collect data such as surveys.

The data is then used to analyze whether the members are in accordance with the target set by the mall.

In addition, the data collected can also help the Mall to determine the strategy of cooperation with tenants and the basis for decision making of the Marketing Communication strategy.

Then to make the target, Made also said that it cannot be arbitrary.

In making the target, Made will compare the data analysis from the previous period for comparison.

From there, a trend will emerge that can be used as one of the references for making the target of Made’s strategy.

Working as a Marketing Communication, Made needs to be able to collaborate with various stakeholders. How does Made manage to work smoothly with them?

When talking about the overall mall program, the Marketing Communication team will create a thematic plan.

This plan is an annual plan that is made long before the year begins.

For example, like the 2024 plan, the Marketing Communication program was planned around July 2023.

In the thematic plan, the things that need to be considered are the theme of the event that will be held, the budget, and so on.

Even to make it clearer, the plan is also broken down further! From the initial plan of 1 year to 1 month, break down again per week, to per day.

From there, when there is already a plan of Marketing Communication activities, this will make it easier to map out which activities will involve KOL (Key Opinion Leader), require media partners, and which tenants will be invited to collaborate.

When making a plan long ago, this will make it easier for the technical and communication to work with the stakeholders.

“We have to have a detailed and clear plan. Because with that plan we can more easily manage cooperation with our stakeholders. We can continue to maintain a sustainable business between stakeholders” Made explained.

Mistakes Made ever made?

The mall schedule that is always dynamic and different even every day, makes Made have to be able to multitask.

This sometimes makes her make mistakes because there is a missed work. When there is an event that is running in the mall, Made also has to be able to think about managing the planning and technical aspects of other programs that will run in the next period.

Therefore, Made needs to make a list of work, starting from working on which one is urgent from the work so that the output of Made’s work can be completed on time.

Well, that’s the result of the interview with Made.

Apparently, being a Marketing Communication, especially in the Mall Industry, is challenging too!

So the important points that can be taken are:

• Mall is currently expanding its function to become a lifestyle mall, which is a place for visitors to hangout, shop, eat, entertainment, and more.
• In making the Marketing Communication plan, accurate and relevant data is needed, as well as being sensitive to the needs and interests of the stakeholders.
• The digital era makes Marketing Communication have to be more agile, up to date with the trends that are developing and in demand by the target visitors, and adaptive to the existing trends. Social media is one of the platforms used to brand the mall, increase awareness of the tenants, and communicate the ongoing campaigns.
• Every campaign and strategy requires a measurable KPI and target. Social media analysis tools are used to collect data and analyze deeper.
• Working as a Marketing Communication, you need to be able to collaborate with various stakeholders, such as KOL, media partners, and tenants. This requires a detailed and clear plan that is made long before the year begins.
• Multitasking skills are needed as a Marketing Communication because of the busy schedule. 

Finally, that’s all from the interview with Made this time.

Is there anything you want to ask about? You can contact Made on her Linkedin!

Notes:
The interview done in August 2023. This article were already published in ruangdm.com in September 14th, 2023.