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1.Introduction
Northpoint City is a suburban mall located in Yishun that offers an extensive range of shopping, entertainment and dining facilities which caters to a wide target market. It has two retail wings, the 920-unit North Park Residences, community spaces, an air-conditioned bus interchange (ready by 2019), a Community Club (ready by end 2018), and an underground retail link with direct access to Yishun MRT station. It is the largest integrated mixed development in Northern Singapore that is managed by Frasers Property Singapore (owned by Frasers Centrepoint Trust’s sponsor, Frasers Centrepoint Limited). The mall is divided into the North Wing (formerly known as Northpoint Shopping Centre) and South Wing. The two retail wings form Northpoint City with a combined retail area of more than 500,000 square feet housing over 400 shopping and dining outlets.
2. Northpoint City’s Positioning Strategy
Northpoint City is positioned as a lifestyle, recreation and integrated transportation hub with strong bonds to the community, building on its strong base of loyal customers from the immediate catchment of Yishun as well as nearby districts such as Sembawang, Admiralty and Woodlands with over half a million residents in Singapore northern region. (Appendix A)
The primary target market of Northpoint City would be families with children. Anchor tenants such as Cold Storage, Fairprice a double-storey Harvey Norman and the Yishun Public Library will attract families to patronise the mall as these tenants shoppers are mainly families. In addition, the mall has an education cluster with tenants such as Stalford Learning Centre and EduFirst Learning Centre and children’s wear stores such as FOX Kids and Kiddy Palace that are catered for children so as to encourage families to visit. Family favourite eateries such as Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice and Tenderfresh are also available at the mall. The mall also includes a rooftop community garden and a town plaza which is the size of 10 basketball courts where families and friends are able to gather and bond over community activities (Appendix B).
Northpoint City is also the first mall in Singapore to integrate a Community Club within its premises. With this, Northpoint City is able to further differentiate itself from their neighbouring competitors such as Wisteria Mall and Junction 9.
To better cater to the needs of the community around Northpoint City, a new underground retail link will provide the public with seamless and comfortable access between Northpoint City, the Yishun bus interchange and Yishun MRT Station. The fully air-conditioned retail link will feature over 30 retail and quick serve concepts for added convenience to commuters. With the tenant mix as well as the facilities provided within Northpoint City, the mall is able to enhance its position as a lifestyle, recreation and integrated transportation hub.
3. Recent Integrated Marketing Communication Campaign
One of Northpoint City’s Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) campaign is the Under The Sea at Northpoint City campaign from 5 to 28 October 2018 (Appendix C). It was a marine-themed promotional campaign that encourage recycling and educates shoppers about the importance of saving the environment through exciting workshops and more (Appendix D,E). Northpoint City used various tools under the promotional mix to reach out to their potential shoppers as well as strengthening its positioning while differentiating itself from competitors.
3.1 Digital Marketing
Northpoint City uses digital marketing to inform potential shoppers about the Under The Sea Campaign. The event and promotional information of the campaign is easily accessible via the mall’s website (Appendix F) as well as social media platforms such as FaceBook (Appendix G) and Instagram (Appendix H). Digital Marketing on social media platforms allows creation and exchange of user-generated content. By using social media platforms, Northpoint City shoppers may share the post about the campaign with their peers through their own social medias. This increases the exposure of the campaign. On the other hand, competitors like Junction 9 does not use social media platform like Instagram to promote any events or promotions.
3.2 Direct Marketing
Northpoint City uses direct marketing to inform potential shoppers about the Under The Sea Campaign. Shoppers can retrieve informative brochures (Appendix I) regarding the campaign from the Customer Service Counter at Level 2 (North Wing). Electronic Direct Mailers (EDM) are also being send via email to their Fraser Members. Even though Wisteria Mall uses EDM and brochures to promote their campaigns, Northpoint City’s collaterals are more detailed as well as consistent with the theme of the event.
3.3 Sales Promotion
For sales promotions, Northpoint City has collaborated with various tenants to offer exclusive deals for their shoppers (Appendix I). For in mall promotions, shoppers are able to redeem a $10 retail/ dining voucher with a minimum spending of $150 as well as a $10 retail dining voucher and a $10 Digital Gift Card with a minimum spending of $180. Complimentary parking was also redeemable with a minimum spending of $50 (Appendix J). No doubt that Wisteria Mall also initiated sales promotion, due to Northpoint City’s extensive amount of exclusive promotions, it is deemed as more attractive as compared to the competitors.
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, Northpoint City’s IMC Campaign has helped to enhance the mall’s positioning as a lifestyle and recreation hub with activities and promotions provided. Hence, the mall attracts shoppers to patronise the mall and participate in the various activities provided as well as satisfying their needs with the sales promotions offered. The mall has demonstrated adequate effort in connecting with potential shoppers through platforms such as digital marketing, direct marketing and sales promotion. As such, shoppers are well informed of the campaigns running in the mall, as well as retrieve information about how the mall can help them to satisfy their needs via the availability of various tenants and facilities.
