Case Study MKT 113

Kimberly Ketchersid

Southern New Hampshire University

 The Mall Of America, located in Minneapolis is the biggest mall located in the United States.

They have turned the concept of a mall into a destination that tourists and locals visit in the millions

annually. Since their opening in 1992 they have tried to keep up with the ever changing pace of the

marketing game, to include expansion of their already 4.2 million square foot facility, adding a theme

park and an aquarium. As the Mall of America keeps expanding its destination hot spot it, continues to

look for new ways to improve its customer experience and keep its successful reputation as the place to

see.

When the mall opened August 11, 1992 they had a dream to attract 40 million customers in one

year. By having such a vast variety of shops and restaurants they can offer a unique experience to

shoppers that can't be found anywhere else. Their goal as a business is to keep everything they offer

fresh and exciting. The Mall of America offers something for every type of shopper and even has a

places such as Lego-land that helps promote fun for kids and adults. With stores, entertainment,

specialty events and relaxation all in one place they have created the ultimate tourist attraction for

people in other states and even different country's. Their marketing success is directly due to their

ability to bring all of these things together in one place. However if they want to continue with their

current success rate there are different trends they need to keep up with to help motivate and attract

customers.

Many retail and consumer trends have developed since they opened twenty-two years ago and

should be considered when making future plans regarding their business. For retailers technology is a

big thing when it comes to attracting customers and generating sales. If the Mall of America adapted an

application similar to the Foursquare application they could create announcements inside the

application that will only be available to use within the mall. They could also have a loyalty program in

conjunction with the application. By putting a unique code at the bottom of a receipt that the customer

can punch into their app, they can make special offers after so many codes are entered. For example
enter 10 codes and get a free cinema ticket. Also by doing this they can keep track of how many times a

single person makes a transaction and can use the codes to find the receipts and better understand what

more people are interested in buying.

Consumers are very interested in convince and relaxation when it comes to shopping, and a

good way for the Mall of America to help improve this trend would be to offer a membership pass

program. They could offer day-passes for say ten dollars a day, monthly passes for fifty dollars a month

and year passes for two hundred dollars a year, all of which will include the members picture on their

card. The benefit of having this pass would be that pass holders would be able to utilize a 'butler'

service so to speak. For example as they are cashing out they can scan their card under a reader, that

will be available in every store, and it will call a person to handle their bags. This person will take the

bags to a secured area like a coat check closet and put a personalized bar code on their bags. When they

are leaving for the day they can go to this office, give the clerk their card to be scanned and it will

generate a list of how many bags they have and where in the storage area they are located. Upon

retrieval of their items a 'butler' will assist you with them to their vehicle. By having a program similar

to this it allows the shoppers to continue shopping burden free, thus relieving them of added exhaustion

and putting customers in a better mood. Nobody wants to shop when they are stressed or in a bad

mood, and likewise retailers do not want their customers in a bad mood because they are less likely to

buy items.

There are many different areas of criteria the Mall of America needs to consider before adding

new facilities to its complex. When it comes to any facility they add they always need to consider if it

will benefit the customer and if it adds to their image of fresh and exciting. For retailers they should

consider if the store they are adding is shopper friendly, and does it help promote a new type of

customer or add to an existing market. They also need to think if this store is not beneficial per se, is

there something we can add to this store that adds to it or will make it unique. For example another t-
shirt store would not be a great idea having so many already, however a t-shirt store that makes custom

shirts like graffiti names, graphic prints of your favorite pictures, and a make your own tie-die would

be a great addition. When it comes to entertainment the company needs to think if this new attraction is

convenient for customers and is it kid-friendly. If what they are considering promotes good clean fun

that makes the customers want to relax and have a good time then it is something worth trying.

However if the attraction adds stress to parents or other people due to chaos or not enough room to

move then maybe it is not a great idea. For example a local kids theme park in the upstate area had to

close down for construction due to the fact that it had no convenience for adults. Being a strictly

younger aged park there were not a lot of places for the parents or guardians of the children to enjoy

themselves or relax. With hotels there is a bigger criteria that needs to be met. When people go on

vacation or tourists visit a different country they stay in hotels. One of the biggest joys of staying in a

hotel is they can live luxuriously and relax with out the day to day that they are used to staying at

home. Women can feel like queens, men feel like kings, and kids see it as a fairy tail. The Mall of

America would need to look at the hotel they are considering and ask themselves if this hotel will

promote an ambiance of that which their customers are not used to. A good example of what they could

do is create a hotel that has themed rooms for all walks of life, the possibilities are endless.

When it comes to continuing its success in attracting visitors there are many different

approaches the Mall of America can take. There is the local visitors that they need to continue to bring

back, and there are visitors not from the Minneapolis area that they need to persuade to come take a

peek. As far as attracting local visitors to come back the Mall of America could bring in stores you

would not find in Minneapolis like a Bass Pro Shop. They could also add a new attraction that is only

found on four continents and in six places inside the U.S., a Madame Tussauds wax museum. The Mall

of America could also use special events and offers to bring in local's like at their wedding chapel they

could have package deals, buy your dress and your rings inside the Mall of America and get 50% off
your wedding in the Chapel. The Mall of America could also hold a kids event. They could have a

scavenger hunt in the Lego-land park. This event could be along the lines of giving the kids a map to

different areas in the park and the first child to complete the scavenger list and find the golden Lego

would win a Lego set of their choice. This organization also needs to attract visitors for outside the

Minneapolis area and across the globe. There are quite a few ways they can do this, one way would be

to offer special package deals for people who are not from the Minneapolis area. They could offer

discount hotel rooms and dinner deals for the duration of their stay. The Mall of America could also

work with the state tourism center by setting people up with tours of the Minneapolis area. They could

also offer a free delivery service for people who are not from the United States or flew into the

Minneapolis area, meaning that the items they buy will be shipped to their home address to help save

their customers extra fees at the airport. They could set up a travelers program where it would save

people who are not from the state of Minnesota a percentage on their total purchases. Although there is

no sales tax on clothing in the Mall of America they could offer more incentive. For example visitors

who are not from the state but live inside the United states can save 5% off their total purchase, and

visitors who are outside of the United states could save 10% off of their total purchase price. This

would act as almost a thank you or a courtesy for travailing so far to visit their establishment.

The Mall of America has made some great strides in the marketing industry. Not many places

would think to put a roller coaster or a theme park in side of a place meant for shopping. A lot of people

would not think of a mall as an attraction or a man made wonder of the world. Although as the market

keeps changing so must this business in order to stay as successful or even more so than it is now.

There are many different ways the Mall of America can go about raising its success and as long as it

continues to grow both physically and marketing wise there is no reason they cant make it to the

century mark like a lot of other business out there today.

References

Kerin, R., & Hartley, W. (2013). Marketing (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.