The WOW Factor

How Critical Is It to the Success of a Mall?

Middle East Council of Shopping Centers

Dubai – December, 2005

Jack Rouse

Jack Rouse Associates

Among the many clichés that we could probably all live happily without is the title

of this presentation: “The Wow Factor.” Put the word “WOW” in the same category as “themed,” “story,” “edutainment,” “infotainment,” and “interactive.”

Words and concept that have made it seem easy to develop facilities that appeal to vast numbers of people. Call these words The Gang of Six.The Gang of Six once meant something, but they have become clichés. They are seen as instant solutions to a variety of problems. Museum attendance down? Put in interactives and make it edutaining. Retail sales off? Create a story based themed experience. (After all this is the experience economy.) Need to attract more attention to your theme park, museum, aquarium, science museum, kids museum, amusement park, sports facility, miniature golf course, water park or mall? And when all else fails, create a WOW experience!!!

Everyone embraced these guys and smothered them. In the beginning there were good words. They were sweet and descriptive. They were solid meaningful descriptions of an important part of the world of entertainment and cultural institutions where folks like myself work. But then we kidnapped them and made them ours. We used them, trampled them and wrote books and articles about them.

They have become the subjects of discussion among developers, serious academics,urban planners and well-intentioned folks in the entertainment industry. We make them the topic of countless seminars and conventions. And in the process of overuse they have become vacuous and void of meaning. And they don’t like being over used, and they are miserable being meaningless.

 

Perhaps the Gang of Six should be outlawed from the English language and from every other language into which they have crept. And be put out of their misery.

And it’s not the poor words fault that they should be banished, for it isn’t their fault --- it is ours. We thought they solved all of our problems. And we used them as if they were a magic solution. But there is no magic solution and there is no instant solution.

And when used as gimmicks the Gang of Six are often of very little value. For in isolation no single theme, story, interactive, edutaining experience or infotaining experience or WOW will solve any business problem. That’s not to say there isn’t a place for each of them. But what is missing is an understanding of the linkage between The Gang of Six, the business plan and the audience.

As retail and mall projects are developed, there is often a knee-jerk reaction to call The Gang of Six into service – to get into show business. And often The Gang of Six is evoked without a thorough understanding of how they interface with the other parts of the equation. There must be a high-energy creative dynamic between the retail business, the audience and the entertainment business. As I’ve said more than many people want to hear --- we may be in show business, but show is only the adjective. This afternoon I’d like to focus on the linkage between audience, retail and entertainment.

Decades before malls or retail centers as we now know them appeared on the scene;and long before we started talking seriously about the relationship between retail and entertainment the legendary retailer, Stanley Marcus, of Neiman-Marcus fame said:“Sooner or later we all sell the same thing. The only difference is the way we treat the customer.” I would submit that the intersection of retail and entertainment is one of the major inflection points that differentiate one venue from another in terms of the way we treat the customer.

As we visit together today I’d like to keep the “treat the customer” concept in the forefront of our remarks. For at the end of the day all the sounds, lights, music,square feet --- all the opportunities and possibilities brought to us by The Gang of Six are for naught if we haven’t clearly understood the other parts of the equation:the business model and the audience.

Let’s begin by seeing what’s going on out there and for how long it has been going on.Conferences like the MECSC and the ICSC and many held by the ULI and other groups have been discussing retail and entertainment for about twenty years. But the subject has been out there for a bit longer than that. In fact we can trace the beginning of the fusion between retail and entertainment back thousands of years.

Wandering troops of entertainers and jugglers in medieval times would set up their pageants and festival shows in the town square and accompany those shows with stalls selling grog and turkey legs and a variety of pewter mugs, beads and baskets.

In a paraphrase of Stanley Marcus, I would bet that the successful vendors treated their customers well --- for after a while a juggler is a juggler, grog is grog and a turkey leg is a turkey leg. And the only difference was the style, the panache and the hospitality they offered to their customers.

I would also go so far as to conjecture that the show folks and the vendors probably even got together to discuss which goods sold best with different types of entertainment --- and thus this industry and conferences like this were born. Our roots are indeed deep.

Fast forward to 19th Century America. Here, as elsewhere, the synergies between retail and entertainment were being exploited in a variety of ways a long time ago.

(1876) In the years immediately following the Civil War, in small towns all over

America, ice cream vendors entertained kids with magic tricks while selling them ice

cream

(late 19th C Street) In more urban settings, among tenements and ground level retail,

street vendors mingled with jugglers, mimes and clowns creating a festival market

place atmosphere before James Rouse gave new meaning to that term in the late 20th

Century.

(1907) At the turn of the century, outside attractions lured shoppers into stores

(1934) While inside, pie eating contests and other activities lured kids and families

into stores, giving birth to the importance of programmed events.

(1940) Choirs provided entertainment in the corner of a store, stressing the value of

community activities in creating a retail destination.

(1949) Then Macy’s capitalized on Santa and a classic American film Miracle on

34th Street to lure families into this legendary department store for Christmas

shopping

(1953) And once inside to visit Santa. Retailers had a captive audience when parents

brought their kids in to sit on Santa’s lap.

(1951) Puppet shows entertained kids in retailers’ windows,

(1952) Famous authors signed books in sporting goods stores,

(1957) Retailers held dance contests in front of the store,

(1957) And balloon rides created a vertical attraction, differentiating one store or

shopping district from another. The beginning of WOWs in retailing?

Then, in 1924, Macy’s started a parade that defined a retailer and became one of the

signature mass entertainment events in Manhattan and one of the biggest WOWs in

retailing and in American popular culture.

Today that parade is seen nationwide by tens of millions is broadcast overseas and is

seen on the street by hundreds of thousands of crazed New Yorkers. No one could

ever quantify the impact of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on retail sales. But no

one could deny that the impact is huge. It is likely, priceless!! The economic

impact on New York City alone is $30,000,000 - for a one-day event. Here an

entertainment event is being leveraged to enhance a brand - and not just in New York

City. With the consolidation of many department stores in America - Federated, the

owner of Macy’s, has bought and collapsed dozens of regional department stores and

their nameplates Then, they re-branded them Macy’s which was perceived to be a

stronger brand than Lord & Taylor, Marshall-Fields or May Company or many

others.

Think on this. It was this entertainment event, this WOW: Macy’s Thanksgiving

Day parade that was leveraged to re-brand all of the federated department stores as

Macy’s.

So when we ask the theoretical question: How integral and important can an

entertainment experience be to a retail offering? The answer is: Very important

indeed.

So, as you can see, the search for the perfect marriage between retail and

entertainment has been going on for a long long time. Maybe not since the cave man

--- but certainly not too far after him.

And because of this long history of attempting to find the right mix between retail

and entertainment, the bar is continually raised. Today, the “price of entry” is

dramatic architecture and lighting, great amenities, sculptures, art, water and

fountains. With great volumes of retail popping up all over the globe, today the

name of the game becomes differentiation.

There are many ways to differentiate and many ways to evaluate success. Here’s a

brief look at some of the types of things that are going on around the globe. I’m

sure you are familiar with many of these. Parts of the Gang of Six were employed

here to differentiate.

Perhaps one of the most famous and successful theme parks in a box is Camp

Snoopy – the anchor attraction at the Mall of America.

Kid City in Mexico has put forth a new model of anchor entertainment in retail malls

and various iterations of it are currently being tried in other locations as well.

Even pieces of the architecture and interior furnishings are becoming entertaining as

in this participatory sculpture.

Multiplex have always been a staple of mall entertainment, but now many are games

arcades as well.

Ice skating and skiing in warmer climates are increasingly seen as participatory

anchors.

Water parks find their way into malls….although few people go swimming and then

go shopping.

Elaborate interactive sculptures serve as identity and branding.

Over-the-top media shows create one of a kind experiences.

Seasonal decorations are often a reason to visit a mall.

The importance of providing entertainment for kids in order to attract parents has

been understood for centuries.

Celebrity appearances attract crowds. But live no-name street performers often do too.

Fountains are more than aesthetic, they are play spaces and interactive activities.

The examples we have just seen fall into mega capital investments categories like

Camp Snoopy, minimal capital investments like interactive fountains and on-going

operational expenses like live entertainment and seasonal festivals. And clearly the

Gang of Six is all over all of these examples. But sometimes they are successful and

sometimes they are not. A lot of this has to do with understanding what one means

by success.

As I said earlier you can’t expect The Gang of Six – and especially their Major

General: The Wow Factor, to create success for you. For I believe it is futile and

almost desperate to constantly look for the “newest thing” in entertainment without

understanding what role you expect that “thing” to play. Is it to create identity? Is it

to differentiate? Is it to be a profit center in itself? Is it part of a long-term brand

building strategy? Is it to become an integral part of the community? If the answer

to all of those is “YES,” then you probably haven’t thought about the question long

enough.

Key to answering this question is separating the big anchor WOW attractions into

two categories: (1) those that drive traffic and (2) those that must turn a profit.

Traditionally, Family Entertainment Centers – FEC’s -- and Cinemas were there to turn a profit --- although no one is immune to over-retailing, or over screening, or over-FECing.

Occasionally today we are seeing cultural institutions, museums and the like,

locating in mall-like environments where they compliment the retail offerings and

help drive traffic, but they do not generate the high revenues needed to justify their

expensive real estate within the complex. They are there as part of the community

fabric which is another dynamic (and another speech) altogether.

The economics of shopping and retail are considerably different than the economics

of leisure time. The former is valued in sales per square foot and the latter in value

per hour. These are totally different economic metrics and must be understood as

such.

It is no secret that the firm I work for is involved in the Restless Planet project here

in Dubai at the Mall of Arabia in the City of Arabia. While clearly I can’t say much

about this project, for that is for our clients to discuss, I would submit that this is a

unique combination of entertainment and culture. The project is also being used to

help provide identity, to brand, to differentiate and to become an integral part of the

community. Restless Planet uses The Gang of Six: WOWs, themed environments,

compelling story, edutainment, infotainment and interactives. We’ve embraced the

whole Gang of Six within the context of audience appeal and a business plan

outlined by our client. And we have done so with an eye to “treating” the customer

to what we believe they will enjoy and what they will pay to see.

But beyond big anchor attractions like Restless Planet, there is another huge role for

entertainment in malls and shopping environments and that is in the area of

programming and changing events.

From the very beginning parades, festivals, contests, jugglers, mimes, clowns,

strolling musicians and celebrities have provided those vitally important programming moments. These uses are, of course, aimed at generating repeat

visitation from the core market, rather than being focused on big WOW

entertainments which are often largely for the tourist market. Also in this category

are traditional “entertainment” retail such as bowling alleys, bars, restaurants and cinemas.

Entertainment programming like this is certainly not as “sexy” as big WOW

entertainments like Camp Snoopy and Kid City and Restless Planet. But remember,

traditional town squares, medieval traveling shows and even Macy’s built their

identity, their brand and their loyalty on entertainment programming.

Whether to use The Gang of Six. Whether to invest in a WOW or a series of wow,

wow, wow, wow, wows. should be driven by customer analysis. One size does not

fit all. Tourism and resident patterns differ all over the globe, as do shopping patterns.

I think the most important element when confronting this important consideration is

developing a high-energy creative dynamic between developers, designers,producers, financial analysts and consultants that combines lessons from the past with visions of the future and a maniacal focus on the audience.

In the USA, that dynamic is clearly apparent in two life style malls: one in California

and one in Ohio. These are not malls or shopping centers as we traditionally think of

them. But in them, and in the sociology underlying their development, we may get a

glimpse of the future – at least in the USA.

Both focused their energies on the need many Americans feel to reconnect with a sense of family and community.

Many years ago, Ray Oldenburg called this The Great Good Place. He postulated

that we all have two places in our lives: the place we live and the place where we

work.

But he also said that we all have a third place, what he called The Great Good Place.

Sixty years ago in America this place was the Town Square. The place where the ice

cream vendor also did magic tricks and the community parade was held every 4th of

July. It was a place for music festivals and pie eating contests. It was a place for

roller skating and just sitting in the park. It was a place where we felt good. Where

we were welcome. It was a place that treated us right. It was a great good place.

At The Grove and at Easton Town Center we may be seeing the emergence of a new

great good place. For that is what many Americans want. And we are seeing it not

only at places like The Grove and Easton Town Center.

We are also seeing it in dozens of downtowns across America that are reinventing

themselves. Certainly they are doing this for strong commercial reasons, but they are

also understanding that there is an intrinsic link between sociology and economics –

between people feeling good about where they are and people spending money

where they are.

This is a softer side of entertainment, but it is one that is very very real in the USA

where large and small traditional retail shopping centers have perhaps proliferated to

the point where supply has outstripped demand. This desire to return to a town

square or a great good place is not just a trend in America; it is as movement. And it

is driven by audience needs, fueled by an understanding of the role of entertainment

in its broadest sense and anchored on a solid business plan. There may be a Big

WOW as there is with the new Georgia World Aquarium in Atlanta. Certainly there

are a lot of little wows. And there is also edutainment and infotainment and stories

and themes. So maybe I was too quick to suggest that we put The Gang of Six to rest. When used and understood appropriately as development elements rather than

as development solutions they should remain alive and well.

And perhaps that is as it should be; for they all live to serve the wisdom imparted

decades ago by Stanley Marcus; that sooner or later we all DO sell the same thing

and the only difference is the way we treat the customer.

The job for all of us who work in this industry in any way, is to understand that

customer and to treat him right. For that may be the most important and sustainable

component in creating a healthy bottom line.