Linear Retail Blog

A Case For Bricks & Mortar (Video)

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One of the largest hot topics right now in retail real estate is Bricks & Mortar vs. ecommerce. To highlight this topic, ICSC created a "Why I Love Bricks & Mortar" video contest in an effort to remind people why shopping in stores is more rewarding than online. Below is a summary on Bricks & Mortar along with our video about why we love it...with a play on the five senses.

Bricks and mortar retail face a significant threat from internet retailers, because currently, internet retailers are not required to collect sales taxes – taxes that are already due from consumers but are not collected on by Internet Sellers.  This means that bricks and mortar retailers face a 5 – 10% competitive disadvantage. 

The Marketplace Fairness Act will allow states to require Internet retailers to collect sales taxes thereby leveling the playing field for all retailers. 

Hope you enjoy our video on why Linear Retail Loves Bricks & Mortar.

Seaport District Update in Boston - In Depth Summary of a Bisnow Seminar

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LEASING AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY:

• WS Development is in discussions with a theater group for part of the 300,000 SF of retail in Blocks B&C of the Seaport Square project. Blocks B&C are located opposite the Fort Point Channel across Seaport Boulevard in front of Fan Pier.  Blocks B&C will also include Avalon Bay residential apartments.

• 300K SF of retail is the size of the Copley Place Mall without Neiman Marcus

• This is likely to be the location of many restaurants and destination retailers, including tenants not currently in the Boston Market.

THE INNOVATION DISTRICT:  

(Photo from Live FP3 website)

• After 4 years of due diligence on the “Innovation District” and what it means for the Seaport District, Boston Global Investors (BGI) buys into the idea and is seeing large biotech companies interested in the market

• Ben Heller, Managing Director at Jones Lang Lasalle, said that he continues to see tenants very interested in this market.

• Vertex is leading the charge, but others are following wanting to be proximate to the biotech giant

• The fundamentals of the Seaport for office tenants are:

  1. Value

  2. Lifestyle

  3. Recruitment and retention of young talent

  4. The difference in the tenants from ten years ago is that many are now larger and more established.

• Stephen Faber, Senior Vice President at Beal Companies states that the big problem for startups is the scarcity of small space

• The Seaport presents a unique opportunity for developers to build out small space appropriate for startups and labs from the ground without having to spend extraordinary costs to reconfigure and renovate existing spaces

• Beal is planning on converting its Seaport buildings to lab buildings

• Beal predicts the Seaport will be a VALUE play for tenants looking to escape the expense of the Cambridge market

• Young Park, President & Principal at Berkley Investments stated that even during the recession, demand for innovation space was high - His portfolio is 100% leased except for a couple of retail spaces

• Young sees many creative locating and prospering in the district, like design and advertising firms

• Kairos Shen, Director of Planning with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) says the Innovation District is not supposed to be like Kendall Square

  1. Kendall Square is very successful

  2. Innovation District will have better street and pedestrian circuits that will survive the developments in the area

  3. Learned from Kendall Square, which is a business success

  4. The Seaport Distric wants similar job numbers created in Kendall Square

  5. Currently Seaport has 22K jobs

  6. Hoping to double that number

VALUE:  

• James McCaffrey, Managing Director at Eastdil Secured says that there is strong capital interest in the Seaport District

  1. Senior lenders: CMBS and life insurance companies are all looking

  2. International capital: Canadian $, Latin American $, Asian $

CONCERNS:  

• Young Park worries about the linear nature of the development congregating on Summer St., Congress St. and Seaport Boulevard

  1. Need to infill the cross streets

  2. Need help revitalizing the cross streets

  LIQUOR LICENSES

  1. Right now, the City is not making these licenses available

  2. There are none available on the open market

  3. Cannot develop restaurants without liquor license

  4. Cannot have vibrant retail without restaurant

  5. Young lost 2 or 3 deals because he could not secure a liquor license from Boston

  MBTA

  1. A cut in services with the bus and weekend service is deadly to the Seaport, especially as the parking spaces start to go away

  2. Silver Line is the lifeline to the Seaport

• Boston Global Investors worries about the MBTA as well

• Also worries about knitting the district back together as Young Park mentions with infill

  1. BGI is creating 22 blocks in Seaport Square to fill the hole in the donut between Summer and Seaport Boulevard

  2. Connection to Summer and Seaport Boulevard is critical component of its master plan

  3. New parking is going to be expensive to build and expensive to park in - Projected to be $55K - $65K per space

  4. BGI is seeing less parking demand than it did a few years ago

  5. Zip Car is working

  6. Surprisingly, the bike program working as well

• The Hanover Company, which owns Park Lane, worries about construction cost inflation

  1. Seeing construction cost inflation right now at 5% - 6%

  2. Underwrote for inflation of 3% - On the plus side, right now, rents are absorbing the added costs

  3. Waterfront is an expensive pace to build

  4. Parking costs more like $65K - $70K per space – not numbers BGI gave

• Stephen Karp, Chairman and CEO of NE Development worries that the proposed housing numbers are just not high enough to support the retail

• Fred Kramer, Principal at ADD Inc worries that the housing will not be affordable enough for the intended young audience

• Worries that even if it is affordable, public schools are still an issue for young families

• Need to fix these long-term issues going forward

GROCERY:

More info.

INNOVATION HOUSING AND INCLUSIONARY ZONING: 

More info.

OVERYSUPPLY: 

More info.

PARKING:

More info.

PERMITTING: 

More info.

PREDICTIONS: 

More info.

Creating A Modern Website For A Retail Real Estate Company

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After 11 months of web design research, programming, coding, photo and video shoots and other items, our new social media enhanced retail real estate website is complete! Below is the process we went through to create our modern website and the changes in navigation from the old to the new.

Our main goals for the site included:

1. A new modern look and feel 2. A fully functional site that works seamlessly across major web browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox etc. 3. Integration of social media networks along with sharing capabilities of content including news and property pages 4. Search engine optimization and 5. Inclusion of a company blog. We didn't want to create another online brochure for our website, we wanted to create an engaging experience for our users to find retail space, learn, and interact with us.

Added features to the site:

1. Updated property pages with more images, site plans, aerials and videos. You can easily share pages with others and book site tours.

2. Acquisitions. Submit a retail real estate property for buying consideration.

3. Get Social! Connect with us on our social media sites, leave comments or simply see how we are using social media. Sites include twitter, facebook, YouTube, flickr and Linkedin.

4. New company blog. Read articles written by our CEO, Marketing manager and others on retail real estate tips and tricks.

5. Our tenants. See who we are working with by viewing tenant logos in three categories.

6. Portfolio map download. Easily download our maps to save or print.

7. Testimonial videos. Listen to some of our tenants talk about their experience with us.

8. In the News. Easily share any of our news items with the simple share button where you can pass along information via over 100 different social media systems.

Navigating the new site:

Main Navigation Tabs: About Us | Properties | Acquisitions | Get Social | In the News | Blog | Contact Us

Sub Tabs under "About Us": Our Company, Our People, Our Tenants, Portfolio Map, Careers, Testimonials

Sub Tabs under "Properties": All Properties, Massachusetts, Boston Only, New Hampshire, Rhode Island

New Website Screen Shot:

First Ever Company Website:

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Creating A Company Tagline For A Retail Real Estate Company

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Creating an effective tagline for your company can be a painful task. Below is a short story of our adventure in creating a tagline for our retail real estate company. We hope you can take away some of our trials and tribulations to create the right tagline for your business.

Our Tagline Adventure...

I think that when I started Linear Retail Properties, it was much easier, in that we didn’t own any properties yet, so we didn’t have the conflict of having just a few words to explain what we owned or who we were.  Then again, the initial tagline Convenience-Oriented Retail Real Estate^SM may have been accurate in defining our primary acquisition strategy, but it hardly rolls off the tongue and doesn’t score very high on the creativity/fun scale.

Our previous website used the tagline: Good Things Come in Small Properties.  It’s a fun twist on the expression “Good things come in small packages” given that most of our properties are “smaller” than conventional community shopping centers.  However, the emphasis on “small” made us feel, um, kind of small, when in fact we’ve grown to become a decent sized company over the past eight years.

We started with the objective of having a new tagline of no more than 7 words (and other guidelines from the marketing pros) that describes our current business and the character of our company.  We added our desire that it should be at least somewhat creative and should sound pleasing when spoken.  And of course it shouldn’t offend anyone.

Well, this last caveat probably killed one of my favorites:

• In Your Face Retail Space

I really liked how this describes one of the primary drivers of our business, i.e., mostly smaller retail spaces that have great street identity and visibility.  But the disrespectful tone certainly doesn’t speak to our company culture, so it died quickly.

Thinking about “in your face” got us to thinking about “front and center”, which led to:

• Retail Storefront and Center Restorers

It doesn’t roll of the tongue but I kind of liked how it addresses both retail storefronts and shopping centers which comprise the majority of our portfolio.  I also liked “restorers” given that most of what we do involves the renovation or restoration of existing retail properties.

One of the earliest entries that stayed in contention:

• Retail Space Where You Want It

It’s not particularly creative but it does promote the ubiquitous nature of our assets – near our customers and where retailers want to locate.  It’s hung around on our short list but it doesn't say as much as we'd like about what we do.  We’ve kept searching.

Next:

• Cornering New England’s Retail Market

I liked the play on “corner” given that most of our properties are located on prominent corners at main intersections.  It just might be a stretch for us, given that there are several other larger players in our market.  We were seeking to not look too small, but not necessarily appear as the largest.

Another top choice:

• ‘Main and Main’ is our Domain

This speaks to the prominent corners, i.e., Main Street and Main Street, and the primary retail thoroughfares where our properties are located.  Not bad.  Might New Englanders think of “Maine and Maine” and be confused? Not bad, or so I thought, until we ran it through our internal focus group.

A different thought:

• Moms, Pops and Brand Name Shops

With our focus mostly on convenience retail, this tagline spoke to the local nature of such properties.  Many of our centers include prominent national retailers such as CVS or Walgreens along with quality local operators such as hair salons, liquor stores and restaurants.  The description seems fitting, but again, does it make us appear too small time?

We considered several other taglines that met one or more of the key attributes, ranging from overly serious to downright silly. 

Throughout the process, we’ve continued to struggle with the word “convenience” which doesn’t fully convey everything that we do but does speak to the majority of our business (and it’s also very hard to find good words that rhyme with convenience).   I like to think that we’ve also become viewed somewhat as a pioneer in our aggregation and recapitalization of smaller convenience-oriented retail properties within a concentrated geographic region. 

On our About Us page, we refer to a term I coined, “inertia defiance” which refers to our everyday efforts to improve and restore the vitality of our properties, often by bringing new stores to the markets we serve. 

To that end, the leading contender at this point (and what we're going with at least until we receive more feedback) is kind of simple with a little play on words, but I think it fits us pretty well:

• Convenience Retail, Restored. 

We’d love to hear your opinion of our new tagline, or others you may prefer.  Also, please feel free to click on the View Renovations button on our homepage to view some of the properties we’ve restored.

Some sources on taglines that we used that may help you in your research:

Mashable Business Marketing

ClickZ Marketing News & Expert Advice

TaglineGuru

New England Retail Real Estate Border Wars - ICSC Next Gen Recap

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The Boston/New Hampshire ICSC Next Generation program featured the topic , "Border Wars". The subject touched on how retailers and developers are approaching the complex landscape of issues when evaluating opportunities near the Massachusetts and New Hampshire state border. The speakers included Angela Franklin, Regional Director of Real Estate for CVS, Brad Toothman, Real Estate Director for Chipotle Mexican Grill and our own Joel Kadis, Partner and head of leasing at Linear Retail. Below is a summary of what the panelists had to say...

There seems to be a myth that in New Hampshire everything is easier, but in reality, according to CVS and Linear Retail, it's not. Chipotle - Brad Toothman on the other hand shakes things up with his witty yet blunt remarks.

MASSACHUSETTS VS. NEW HAMPSHIRE, WHICH IS BEST?

When asked to talk in general about the retail real estate "border wars" between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Chipotle mentions, "There is more daytime population within a 2 mile ring in Boston of course but we like New Hampshire because there are not many food options up North."

CVS: "There is an impact in New Hampshire, many people will cross the border to purchase larger items but otherwise, people will go where it's convenient". Franklin also noted, "Southern New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts are more of suburbs of Boston." CVS is opening new stores all the time and said they are currently "looking at Dover, New Hampshire".  

Linear Retail's Joel Kadis agrees, "We like to be where the people are. Southern New Hampshire is still dense and is posed for more growth, especially west of Manchester and south of Nashua." Joel points out that having representation in Nashua "is a must".

Although Brad Toothman agrees that New Hampshire does have opportunity, he picks on some of the shopping centers including Fox Run Mall in Portsmouth as "needing a facelift" and calling Salem, New Hampshire "a dump". Although this statement got some laughs, including the chuckles of Joel Kadis, whose company owns a property in Salem, one woman in the crowd who manages several properties in the area rebuttals with, "I'll have you know that our Salem, New Hampshire shopping center is grossing the most sales out of any others in the portfolio." Kadis chimed in, "Yes, the area may need a make-over but there is a dense population here with many convenience-oriented retail needs."  

Joel said, "New Hampshire can do certain things better. We look for rooftops, average daily traffic and where the wallets are." Brad then agreed mentioning, that in New Hampshire they have had "no issue with liquor licenses." In fact half of Chipotle's Massachusetts restaurants don't have liquor licenses due to the difficulty of acquiring the license. "Yes," Brad said, "We sell Margaritas". Angela also chimed, "Traffic is big for us where we can pull prescriptions from other businesses, it makes a big difference." She also wanted to set the record straight by mentioning, "No, we don't just see a Walgreens and decide to go across the street".

PERMITTING

For some reason people seem to think New Hampshire permitting is easier but Joel confirms with the 100 people in the room, "New Hampshire is certainly not easier, permitting is difficult across the board." He did note that the unions are more involved in the Boston, Dedham and Qunicy area, which can be additionally challenging. Brad said that in his experience, "the ease of permitting really depends on the building department." CVS has had some issues with permitting in general because their minimum requirement of land is 2 acres.

Live Free or Die? Joel comments on this state's slogan when talking about real estate taxes. "The real estate taxes are more in New Hampshire, close to 50-75% higher than Massachusetts." He notes that the "consumer perspective is obviously better." Angela also comments on the New Hampshire myth that workers are paid less. She said that CVS actually has to "pay higher salaries to New Hampshire pharmacists" based on the higher real estate taxes in New Hampshire.

Overall it seems that comparing Massachusetts and New Hampshire border wars is not as simple as apples to apples. Massachusetts seems to continue to be the primary ideal trade area but New Hampshire, particularly southern New Hampshire is a close second, and almost thought of as a Boston suburb. What are your thoughts and challenges? Post your comments below.

Summary of HubSpot HUGS 2011

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HubSpot's HUGS2011 (User Group Summit) wasn't just about the warm and fuzzy feeling HubSpot gives you but was about the power of inbound marketing, networking with other marketeers, and about the importance of producing valuable content. And...we learned about all the cool new technologies the company is working on for the future. Below is a summary of take-aways. 

(Photo: Kipp Bodnar at HubSpot HUGS 2011)

New (fabulous) Items Recently Added to HubSpot

• Social media intelligence - When you click on the "Convert" tab, then "Leads", you'll notice that HubSpot has automatically pulled any social media accounts that are linked with your lead.

• The email blast list platform now allows for emails to be sent to 50,000 people.

• They are offering free email blast template designs on a custom landing page.

• You can submit your own ideas to HubSpot's Idea Forum and they will update the community on the progress they make.
  

Looking into the Crystal Ball - HubSpot in the Future

• The HubSpot founders, Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan talked alot about the future of website development. They hope to model popular prospect-converting smarties like Amazon, Netflix and Pandora. I also believe that the future of website development will be geared toward making custom user experiences - by this I mean having a website recommend favorite items based on your browsing and purchasing history. Kind of creepy? - Yes, but...makes life easier, more engaging, and increases sales.

• Blogs will be customized to each user so when someone keeps coming back to read blogs, the site will recommend certain articles to them based on their interests. Who says the most recent blog will always be what people are looking for?

• Twitter followers will get automatically added to the contact database. One less step!

• Contacts coming in via the phone will be automatically added to the database with contact info.

• A larger app store (30 now).

Intermediate and Advanced Seminars: The Good Stuff

Taking Content Creation to the Next Level with Rick Burnes @rickburnes

• I did tweet this at the seminar because I thought it was a really good one, "How To articles are the core to any good blog" said, Rick Burnes.
  

• Try to be an expert in your industry.

• Every now and then, write a post that doesn't make everyone take you too seriously. I do this on our facebook page a lot like using our new office as a putting green, haha. Rick mentioned that sometimes HubSpot will post cartoons and people seem to love them. It's a nice change I think and it's good to see that companies have a sense of humor.
  

• "Make a bold statement, sometimes post something that will piss some people off." With this statement, I always think of the recent marketing and advertising campaign for Legal Sea Foods. They tried to reach a younger audience and mocked up some talking fish saying some not nice things - South Park anyone?! For more info on this refer to my last blog Summary of ICSC New England Idea Exchange 2011. 
  

• Refresh your old blogs and use them again! Rick mentioned that one of HubSpots' most popular blogs was from Dharmesh back in 2007 on 12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert. I think our best blog so far was How To Lease The Right Retail Space by our CEO, Bill Beckeman. I think people forget how much valuable information there is on blogs; things sure have changed the last couple of years. It's great to see so many CEO's put themselves and their companies out there and it's so fascinating to be able to have a looking glass in.
  

Best Practices for Social Media Lead Generation with Kipp Bodnar @kbodnar32

• Kipp was very enthusiastic about this topic and had a 5 Step Plan. One thing he mentioned that really stuck with me was "fail fast". By this he was talking about doing lots of testing with various items (webpages, landing pages, email blast layout etc.) and making drastic changes. He noted that if you are just changing a small thing like positioning the CTA (call to action) button in a different spot you aren't going to see a big difference. Instead, try changing your entire layout to see which is succeeding and which is not. In this case, the Fail Whale actually helps!

• Think Milk! Think of your social media posts, twitter especially, having a shelf life of about 3 hours. Kipp notes that it's ok to send items out a few times a day. Did you really think someone was sitting at their computer all day waiting for your one tweet update to come out? I definitely agree with Kipp on this point but to another point, I feel that tweets and other social media updates have potential to last longer...maybe a shelf life of diet coke?! This is the beauty of search! By setting up saved searches in HubSpot or simply twitter alone helps you to find messages containing the information you're most interested in. Ex. For us it's "Retail Real Estate Boston" or our company name, "Linear Retail" or even special event hashtags like #HUGS2011.

• Go to the "Community" Tab, click the drop down "App Marketplace" and search for "Facebook Welcome". Here you can customize your own facebook welcome page. Wallah! You suddenly look extra professional and can greet facebook users with an engaging page vs. going directly to your wall.

• Build thank you pages. It's polite.

• Put CTA buttons everyyyywhereeeee! 
  

Nurturing: Turn More Leads Into Your Best Customers by Ellie Mirman @ellieeille & Christopher O'Donnel @markitecht

• Identify sources converting the best.
  

• Think about your own purchasing cycle - How long does it take for someone to "purchase". With retail real estate it could take up to 13 impressions so don't start with a bottom funnel CTA.
  

• Send out emails that include links to other valuable sources.

• Create a lead nurturing campaign.

• Follow-up personally.
  

Combining Offline and Online Marketing For Amplified results by Marta Kagan @mzkagan

• Marta gave the example of HubSpot using iPads at tradeshows showing people how their website ranked compared to their competitors. The idea here is to offer people something of value.
  

• Be creative! Where HubSpot created fantasy land and stuffed unicorn give-aways, dare to be different. Hilarious HubSpot unicorn video here.

• Use QR codes on printed material.

• Try something different than a dinner or cocktail. Party bus anyone?

• Don't be a giant spammer, nobody likes that. 
  

If you were at HUGS 2011, please leave comments below and add your notes!

Summary of ICSC New England Idea Exchange 2011

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"You're a Dying Demographic" - Roger Berkowitz, President and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. Opening Remarks and Keynote Presentation

The seminars on Wednesday, July 13th really started around 12:30 at the opening remarks featuring short speeches by ICSC chairs, Mayor Menino, David Henry with Kimco Realty and the favorable Roger Berkowitz, President and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. Berkowitz certainly kept everyone in the room awake with his story about how Legal Sea Foods came to be but mostly with his video clips of his advertising campaign. He spoke about how important it is for restaurants and all businesses today to always change and conform to what the customer wants and to always think about the next generation. At one point he remarked about how he had wanted to have giant cocktails on the menu served in over-sized glasses but then realized that his customer would much rather have a couple different smaller cocktails instead, as they prefer to sit and socialize longer. He learned this through a focus group by electing non-managerial staff members from each restaurant where he questioned them on what they would want and what they thought a customer their age would want (primarily 25-35 years of age). Soon, Berkowitz got it into his head that he will need to advertise to the South Park-watching generation and created smart @ss talking fish that were plastered on trains and other items as well as short commercials with offensive fishermen. When his mom called to say she didn't like it he said, "Sorry mom, but you're a dying demographic". The commercials and ads may have skewed a bit too young for the ICSC audience but everyone found him and his advertising campaign very entertaining and clever. 

"For the Love of the Brand" - Retailer Runway

A room with Boloco's John Pepper, Pinkberry's Trippe Lonian and Mini Luxe's Laura Bronner is a not-to-miss event. The Retailer Runway included eleven retailers that are currently in New England or want to be. Each opened with a video about their company (although the sound at The Hynes was in and out, we missed some) and a short ten minute speech. It was fun to have our 292 Newbury Street tenant, Mini Luxe speak and see shots of our building, Laura did a great job. One unique thing that I noticed was the love that customers have now for a particular brand. Charming Charlie's had many customer quotes and video testimonials but one company that stood out to me was Boloco. CEO, John Pepper of Boloco mentioned that his opening video was created by students that had such a love for the brand that they wrote lyrics, sung and played their own video/commercial for the company simply because they love it so much and eat there all the time. All they asked for from Pepper was a couple free burritos; a pretty inexpensive production yet very effective.

Picture: Trippe Lonian, CEO NE Frog Pond, Franchisee for Pinkberry throughout New England states (except Rhode Island) at ICSC 2011 New England Idea Exchange

Getting Linked-in to Social Media - Seminar and Retailer Case Studies

It's nice to see ICSC embracing social media marketing. This seminar had three perspectives, social media marketing in general, the retailer perspective, and the developer/owner perspective. This seminar was the last of the day so the attendance did dwindle a bit compared to other seminars this day but ears were perked and hands ready to tweet away. AJ Gerritson, Founding Parter of 451 Marketing out of Boston went over some of the basics about social media, the mediums and some methodology behind them. Next up was Mike Proulx, Senior Vice President-Digital Strategy for Hill Holliday in Boston. Mike had actually been sitting on stage texting the entire time as AJ spoke and I was wondering, what the heck is he doing up there? When he walked to the mic he noted "Sorry, I wasn't being rude, I was simply tweeting to you to ask if you had any questions for me". After I heard this I quickly went to twitter on my phone where you could follow the entire show by searching for the designated hashtag #NEIDEX. Proulx went over a few case studies showing how retailers are using social media. Three of my favorites are included below. Lastly was David Fleming, WS Development's Corporate Marketing Director. Fleming spoke about shopping center marketing and touched on QR codes on leasing signage and the importance of developing mobile apps for your shopping centers.

• Mattel - Barbie and Ken (all forms of social media) Mattel creates a story around Barbie and Ken becoming a couple again and makes up stories about them to engage people to vote on whether or not they should get back together. They leverage all forms of social media.

• Ann Taylor LOFT - Cargo pants on "real" models (facebook) Ann Taylor LOFT posts photos of their new cargo pants and soon get a comment from a facebook fan saying that they look great on the models but what about real people. LOFT quickly responds that day with photos of their store staff all over the country wearing them.

• Wheat Thins - "Uber-fake" or "Uber-real" (twitter) Wheat Thins follows tweets about their product and finds the people that tweet about them, good or bad, and record the footage to use for their commercials.

More Social Media Marketing Takeaways From the Show, Download the White Paper for All the Details

• How to use Haul Videos -  What is a Haul Video and How do I use it as a retailer?
  

• Industry professionals using twitter effectively - A list of twitter names to follow
  

• What Move That Block can do for you - List your properties for free, get the link here
  

• Custom live twitter feed website - "I love to display our twitter feed at our ICSC events using this site. People walk by and see what people are saying as well as look for their tweets." - Sarah Malcolm, Manager of New Media for ICSC 

RECon ICSC 2011 Summary, from a Boston Marketing Professional

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Did you feel the buzz this year at ICSC RECon? Although I didn't make it to the show last year, I was at the last three before that and 2011 had it's own unique feel.

We all know the industry has taken a hit, but this year at ICSC you didn't feel it as much,  mostly due to everyone's positive energy. The central and south hall were bustling with traffic, booths were clicking with iPads, the pretzel line was massive and you could keep track of everything going on via twitter. There were definitely some leading trends this year, largest of which I experienced was...

Social Media!

One of the hot topics this year was Social Media, even Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks was at the show speaking about it. Schultz mentioned to the large lunch audience on Tuesday, that no matter the business size, everyone needs to educate themselves and embrace social media. He also spoke largely about mobile technology and some new ways Starbucks was utilizing it. New this year, ICSC setup various networking pavilions, one of which was specifically designated to Social Media. The booth was mostly orchestrated by Cohn Marketing, a marketing company out of Denver, and they really did a great job with it. Other companies that spoke were Walmart, Madison Marquette, Digitas, Loopnet, Blend Marketing and Developers Diversified Realty. There were 22 sessions in "the theatre" as ICSC explained it, based around various social media techniques that were practical for the Shopping Center Industry.  These sessions included everything from the basics: Social Media 101 to blogging, crisis management-cleverly titled "Oh Sh#t", YouTube, Mobile Marketing and Social Media ROI.  

I had the pleasure of attending several social media seminars at the theatre and below are some key take-aways.

Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks

• Crisis Management:

Put a crisis management plan in place, follow-up with social media policies on your various websites, don't be mechanical, be REAL, address the situation publicly then take it off-line, stay on top of reviews, push negative comments off the page by posting positive ones.

• Mobile Marketing:

Snap tag is old and outdated, the big technology on the forefront is NFC- Near Field Communication (yes, I am referencing Wikipedia) where you tap your phone to a unit to get information and to pay, Google Goggles - an app where you take a picture of anything and get information back on that item, Google Places -claim your business!

• B2B /Retail Real Estate Marketing:

Ask your facebook fans which stores they think would be great at one of your centers (once you grow a good following), post a picture of a retail space on facebook with a stripe across it saying "Leased" or "Rented", check out Center Social - Market Research for Shopping Center Social Media Programs, add vacant space on the ROFO application on Linkedin, add easy share buttons to pages on your website, follow @MallManager on twitter - he's supposed to be hilarious, upload shopping center videos to Shopping Center Tube, find new tenants by using Yelp.

iPads!

iPads were a big hit this year. Our CEO and Partner-head of Leasing thoroughly enjoyed having their iPads as well as many others that attended the show. (Cool iPad video of someone using it at RECon.) This was the first year I've been to the show where people either had a rolling briefcase and/or iPad. I really didn't see many hand-held 10lb 3-ring binders this year filled with uneven-sized demographic reports and fact sheets. ICSC even stepped up to create their own RECon app. I really liked the design but had problems searching for companies, for some reason it was always stuck on "Mexico" in the region search bar. Also new to the show were giant touch screens showing off the app - I didn't see too many people using them but it was a great effort. What percentage of the 35,000+ people do you think will have an iPad at ICSC RECon next year?

Linear Retail's CEO using the RECon app at the show

From Others

• "Deal Making Robust", ICSC RECon attendee list "up 10%" this year. - ICSC Smartbrief email blast
• Shopping Centers Today launches iPhone app (6/3 - issue of SCT)
• If you want to be in the industry you "need to be at RECon". - Interview with Debra Hazel on CRE Radio hosted by Howard Kline.
• More headlines and videos from the show are posted on Retail Traffic's website and the ICSC facebook page 

How To Lease the Right Retail Space For Your Retail or Service Business

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So maybe you missed out on tying up a domain name like shoes.com. And anyhow, you’re not a web master seeking to create an Internet business that you can run from your bedroom.  You actually enjoy interacting personally with customers and you’ve already got a pretty solid business plan or are possibly seeking to expand an established business. You’ve lined up sufficient capital, done some research and begun looking at vacant storefronts, but aren’t sure how to decide where to land. So how do you select the right location to lease for your retail store or consumer service business?

Below are 10 steps to follow that will help you land the right retail space for your business:

1. Pick a town or towns that you already know pretty well

If you already know the character of a town, its people, their travel patterns and shopping habits, you’ll be much better off.   Having a network of pre-existing relationships and local contacts will help you start on the right foot, hopefully with lots of referrals from friends and positive local and social media feedback. 

2. Evaluate your potential customer base

Run demographic analyses for locations with similar successful businesses that you are familiar with and compare them to locations you are considering. A broker who specializes in representing retailers can do this for you (see #4). Consider the shape and reach of your trade area – how far will customers travel to visit your store? Is the local population growing or changing significantly? How is it changing? Do the changes create more opportunity or greater risk? Look at the daytime population. How much will your business benefit from daytime customers vs. resident population? Does the income profile of the market align with the expected pricing of your product or service offerings?

3. Evaluate your potential competition

For each location or market you are considering, map out your competitors and honestly evaluate how much of their business you will be able to steal and/or how much potential there may be to expand the pie to meet unsatisfied local demand or looming market growth. Don’t forget to consider the potential for future competition. Where might a new competitor locate that would hurt your business significantly?

4. Consider hiring a retail leasing broker to represent you

A good broker, who specializes in retail real estate, particularly representing national retailers, will have insight regarding the selection criteria used by successful national retailers. You should take advantage of the experience they have evaluating the factors that matter most to the pros. It’s also likely that they have already compared and contrasted the shopping centers in your target market for other retailers. They will also have relationships with the owners of the best shopping centers. These relationships can be vital given that there is always strong competition for the best spaces.

5. Start evaluating specific availabilities

You are now ready to start assessing individual spaces that meet your size criteria within your chosen market. First, consider how the space will ideally lay out. How much storage area will you need? If the space is narrow and deep, can you create an effective layout? How much window-line do you need? Will you need special loading/delivery capability, etc.

6.  Evaluate specific property and space attributes (more)

7.  Develop initial sales projections for the spaces that meet your criteria (more)

8.  Solicit lease proposals for targeted spaces (more)

9.  Compare proposals, compare landlords and compare management (more)

10.  Select a space, negotiate your best deal (more)

For the complete list of 10 Steps on Leasing the Right Retail Space with details, written by our CEO, simply click below:

Why the Independent Retailer Should Try Group Buying

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A few months ago, Google offered $6 billion for a Chicago-based start-up called Groupon - and they turned it down! Group buying became one of the biggest trends in 2010 and is carrying over to 2011. Independent retailers, this could be a great marketing option for you. Here's the low-down... 

(Picture: Screen shot from Groupon email blast)

HOW IT WORKS

Group buying is the idea of consumers banding together to purchase localized deals and discounts in a targeted city - So, the deal only becomes valid if enough people sign up. The deals offered have an expiration date (depending on what the offer is) ranging from categories of retail, restaurant, service and tickets to events. Most deals range from 35% - 65% off. The deal sites tend to take half of the sale BUT the response can be phenomenal. Some deals have been known to garner thousands of buys with current customers looking for a discount but there are many new faces through the door as well. There is some controversy over whether or not group buying is right for every business but YOU get to suggest the deal and restrictions so come up with something that you're comfortable with. 

WHY THE INDEPENDENT RETAILER SHOULD TRY GROUP BUYING

• Build a new customer base
• Gets your existing customers to buy and help get the word out
• Give you huge exposure to people you wouldn't normally have access to 
• No need to buy lists
• It's most likely thousands of dollars cheaper than your industry magazine and you get to see the ROI unlike placing a print ad
• There are easy sharing buttons which sends your deal to more places than just your deal buying site's contacts
• Build your brand awareness
• Increase website traffic
• Cater to the tech-savvy/ early adopter customer

WHAT THE INDEPENDENT RETAILER NEEDS TO KNOW 

• Make sure you have good product reviews on sites like Yelp etc. because when your deal goes live people WILL be checking rating sites
• Set an expiration date - anything 4 months and shorter would be best
• Set a max quantity to cap your deal off
• Set a max of how many unique people can buy - you don't want a repeat customer to buy 5, you want to encourage new customers
• After you come to an agreement of what your deal will be prepare your staff
• Prepare a conversion system to convert deal buyers into higher paying customers
• Note who's contact information is on the main site, you will get plenty of calls!
• If applicable - note that a reservation must be made
• Group buying sites will be around for awhile so if you aren't ready now, keep watching and jump in when you feel you can handle heavy traffic...and if that's the worst of your problems, things aren't so bad :)

The two largest Group Buying sites are Groupon and LivingSocial, reaching up to 300 U.S. markets and 35 countries. For a list of 12 Group Buying sites with links, 4 General Deal sites with links and 24 examples of deals, click the button below to download our white paper.