make or do a case critique/ analysis

this will be the format

I. Introduction (little background about the case, its norms and industry practice)

II. Case facts (what are relevant issues/problems, and information the case has cited)

III. Alternative course (your suggestions on to how the company may solve its problem/s, as many suggestion as you can)

IV. Personal idea, insights, opinion. (in practice, what should the company have done, base it from your own experience)

V. Relevant of the study, or your alternatives in future business development.

Note: please cite relevant studies using harvard style referencing, and convert your file in PDF form. and please see course portfolio for procedural format.

CityMall: Promoting Patronage AmongLocals

It was 8:30 in the morning of another busy day in September 2016. Events and different type ofpromotions were scheduled for the day, and this was Edzel Ned Nohay's typical day in the office. He was the marketing assistant of a relatively new mall in Zamboanga City. As he sat in his office, thinking andlooking into the scheduled tasks for the day, he could not stop thinking what else he could do to fend offthe very real challenge facing him and the mall itself: the decrease in customers coming to the mall.

The mall had had a very promising start, with many consumers drawn to it. Being a newly established mall, people were intrigued and somewhat curious about what it could provide. But, like any otherbusinesses, there were always ups and downs. Currently, and unlike the opening a few months ago, therewas a dwindling number of consumers going to the mall. Edzel attributed the decline to increasedcompetition from large malls that could cater to all consumers' needs in one visit. He was determined thathis mall gain enough of a foothold in the market without losing its identity as a community mall.¹

CityMall's Background

DoubleDragon

Initially known as Injap Land Corp., DoubleDragon properties was established in 2009 as a real estatecompany engaged in various projects like real estate, condominiums, and malls. CityMall was one ofDoubleDragon's subsidiaries.²

Published by WDI Publishing, a division of the William Davidson Institute at the

University of Michigan.

2017 Dexter Velez. This case was written by Dexter Velez at Ateneo de Zamboanga

University. This case was prepared as the basis for class discussion rather than to

illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a situation. This publication is made

possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States

Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Cooperative

Agreement #AID-492-A13-00011. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of

USAID or the United States Government.

CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

CityMall

CityMall ownership was 66% owned by DoubleDragon and 34% owned by SM investments, which wasthe owner and operator of the biggest mall chain in the Philippines. The owners envisioned CityMall to bethe largest branded independent community mall chain in the Philippines. True to their words, CityMallhad 20 operating branches and would soon be operating establishments covering the three main islands ofthe Philippines, from Luzon all the way to Visayas and Mindanao.³ (See Figure 1).

Figure 1

Map of the Three Main Islands of the Philippines

Source: "Philippine Map." Accessed on November 28, 2016 http://mycondoph.com/mabuhay/the-philippines/ CityMall Tetuan

The mall had been in operation for a year, and like any other CityMalls in the country, it had a foodcourt concept and fast food brands such as Jolllibee, Mang Inasal, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon andHighlands Coffee as staples of the mall.⁴ Competitors of these brands were prohibited from establishing atthe mall. The CityMall Tetuan branch had an estimated 40 tenants, many of which had been tenants sincethe mall's beginning. The current tenants, together with the staples, compromised food, appliances andretail. Edsel estimated that 3,000-4,000 individuals visited the mall during the weekdays and could reachor exceed 5000+ consumers on a weekend. The CityMall goers experienced the comfortable and familyatmosphere of the mall. The mall targeted consumers who were locals of the area and neighboringcommunities. Feedback from consumers stated that the mall lacked a sufficient mix of tenants, withconsumers preferring other brands that were not available in the mall. Edzel saw this as one of the reasonswhy consumers went to the competition rather than going to CityMall.

With the feedback on hand, Edzel was looking at two reasons why the mall could not accommodate any more new tenants: first, because CityMall was a community mall and second because the space was

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CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

very limited. In spite of these challenges, the Mall wanted to gain a foothold of the market, to have asmall percentage of consumers who would be loyal to the Mall.

Figure 2

Organizational Structure

Manila Head Office

Marketing Head

Marketing Officers

Marketing Assistant

(for Local)

Source: Interview with Edzel Ned Nohay, August 13, 2016

CityMall Tetuan

Operations Marketing

Edzel had been busy since the day he started working for the mall. As the local marketing assistant,he was in charge of the branding of the company, events, advertising, and promotions. There were twofunctional divisions of a local CityMall in each city: marketing and the operations. Operations was chargedwith the property management, security, engineering, utility and maintenance. For marketing, all of theinstructions for marketing efforts came from the head office, with local marketing assistants like Edzelbeing the ones to execute the plans at their assigned malls. Issues might arise about the differentmarketing strategies, with some of the strategies not really fitting local implementation. This challenged

Edzel to do his best on the different marketing strategies that were handed to him for implementation.Edzel could not just do away with the strategies and make his own. He had to inform the management onwhat he thought could be tweaked for local implementation. Management then evaluated if the proposednew strategy was applicable for local implementation. Edzel did not see this uniformity as a problem,

because although all strategies were for all Local CityMall branches, he could make little adjustments, suchas what approach to use when facing different consumer behavior, preference and culture in ZamboangaCity.

Edzel had also been doing timely communication with higher management in Manila. This strategy helped to improve the implementation of the different strategies; if any issues arose, he communicated.Edzel believed that he was the eyes and ears of the organization, knowing the trends and consumer behaviorlocally. But one weakness that the local CityMall had was limited manpower on the marketing side ofthings, namely for promotions, events and for advertising. Edsel felt that at some point someone withspecial skills would have to be hired to do it. Edzel was not fazed by this challenge or any other challenge; management had been positive, generous and one key strength was the marketing budget. Edzel has an estimated budget of Php 200,000 (USD 4,023)ⁱ depending on the type of activity and event.

ⁱ The Forex rate of 1 USD =49.65PHP as of November 28, 2016 has been used in this and all subsequent USD/PHP conversionshttp://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?From=USD&To=PHP

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CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

The Competition in Zamboanga City

The local Zamboanga City industry was made up mainly of retailers owning a building and selling avariety of items there, more like a department store. Most of these department stores attached "mall" totheir name, and all of them were a far cry from what a defined "mall" was, which was a usually largesuburban building or group of buildings containing various shops with associated passageways. CityMallwas now part of an industry that was catering only to a few market segments.⁵ Not all residents could

afford to buy those products and brands that were currently available.

The newest mall in Zamboanga City, KCC, seemed to have everything and anything that locals wouldwant. Edzel saw this breadth as one of the major reasons why consumers preferred to go to thisestablishment. Foot traffic in that mall was higher than CityMall's, with peak hours during lunch time andafter work hours from 5pm onward. KCC had trumped MindproCity Mall, which had in previous yearsdominated the mall landscape in the city due to its cinemas, small department store, food court andsupermarket. The marketing strategies of KCC mall were similar with CityMall Tetuan. Aside from havingoccasional sales on selected items, KCC also invited artists to perform a series of shows.

Figure 3

The Competitors of CityMall Tetuan

Competition Location

Shoppers' Mall

Shoppers' Plaza

Shoppers' Emporium

Shoppers' Square

Shoppers' Central

Mindpro Citimall

Yubenco Star Mall

Midtown Plaza Mall

Limtown Center Mall

Southway Square

Gateway Mall

Yubengco Tetuan

KCC Mall

Climaco Ave., Zamboanga City

Climaco Ave., Zamboanga City

Climaco Ave., Zamboanga City

Gov. Lim corner Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City

Evangelista St., Zamboanga City

La Purisima Street, Zamboanga City

Ma. Clara Lobregat Highway, Putik, Zamboanga City Nuez Street Zamboanga City

Gov. Lim Avenue, Zamboanga City

P. Lorenzo Street cor. Governor Lim Avenue, Zamboanga City Governor Lim Avenue, Zamboanga City

Don Alfaro St. Tetuan, Zamboanga City

Source: "Zamboanga Peninsula Philippine Shopping Malls." Accessed November 24, 2016

http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_malls/zamboanga.html

As of September 2016, KCC was the biggest mall in the city. It had approximately 140 establishmentswith an assortment of brands, items, food stalls and retail. Many of its establishments were found right inthe downtown area. There was also future competition that could arise in the city, with two of the biggestmall chain sin the country soon beginning operations there.

Figure 4

Department Store and Supermarket Competitors of CityMall Tetuan

Competition Location

Shop-O-Rama

OK Department Store Citimart

Lim Shi

Best Mart

Young Mart

Gov. Lim Avenue, Zamboanga City Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City Gov. Lim Ave, Zamboanga City

Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City

4

CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

Source: "Zamboanga Peninsula Philippine Shopping Malls." Accessed November 24, 2016

http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_malls/zamboanga.html

The local Zamboanga city industry was very competitive. Zamboangenos had many options on whereto shop and dine. Therefore, Edsel had to figure out which strategies to implement and recommend to topmanagement to gain a step on the competition.

Consumer Behavior of the City

Zamboanga City was one the biggest cities in the Philippines, with an estimated population of800,000 individuals, not including the people who came from the different islands for commerce andtourism in the city.⁶ Cited as a first class city in the Philippines, it attracted many visitors who wereintrigued and amazed by its beauty and culture. Residents of the city were laid back, friendly and veryhospitable. Yet as consumers, Zamboangenos were hard to predict, which could have been due to thediverse cultures and personality. Often, however, Zamboangenos were curious. For example, if there wassomething new in the city, like a store, people flocked to that place as if there were an urge to be there.In a few months, however, the urge tended to fade away. Zamboangenos also ached for something new,something different, and something that was not yet available in the city.

Barangay Tetuan

The local community of Barangay Tetuan was 3km away from the downtown area of the city. Thepopulation of Tetuan and its neighboring and adjacent community were one of the highest in the city.

Figure 5

Population of Nearby Communities

Barangay (Community) Total Population

Tetuan

20, 082

Tugbungan

23,001

Talon-Talon

30,535

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, "Total Population by Province, City, Municipality and Barangay: as of May 1, 2010." Accessed onNovember 28, 2016 http://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/attachments/hsd/pressrelease/Zamboanga%20Peninsula.pdf

The population of these communities was one of the target segments of CityMall Tetuan. Edzel, forhis part, knew that his mall did not have the capability to completely overtake the bigger malls, but couldhe make some inroads with target consumers, encouraging them to be loyal to his mall and make themrealize that "CityMall, is your Everyday Mall"?

The Current Strategy

The current strategies of the mall were determined by the top management from Manila. Edzel, as thelocal marketing assistant, executed and implemented the plans. Most of the current strategies of CityMallTetuan were aimed at strengthening the partnership between the community and the mall. Topmanagement and owners of the Mall saw CityMall as an instrument for others, with strategies geared towardpartnership, such as partnering with local government agencies, social and civic groups, schools and otherprivate institutions to have their programs and activities at CityMall Tetuan. This was a win-win strategywherein individuals from the said institutions would have a place that was comfortable, with equipment

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CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

provided by the mall at no charge. CityMall saw this as an opportunity to be a channel to make its activitiesand brand known to the public.

Other marketing strategies of the mall including having health and fitness activities like Zumba,academic contests, and inviting known television personalities and performers for shows on the mall. Thesestrategies would get potential consumers coming into the mall.

Figure 5

Current Marketing Strategies

Source: "News & Updates." Accessed on December 5, 2016 http://citymall.com.ph/news-updates/

The Challenge

Edzel was doing his best for the organization, executing the plans that were intended for thecommunities surrounding CityMall. But at the end of the day, he had see to it that there was a lot consumertraffic coming to the Mall. With no time to spare, as major competition continued to capture market sharein the city and future competitors looming to enter, Edzel wondered what else he could do to gain theloyalty of locals and to get the message across that CityMall Tetuan was really their everyday communityMall.

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CityMall: Promoting Patronage Among Locals

Endnotes

1 Interview Edzel Ned Nohay August 13, 2016 / and "About Us" http://citymall.com.ph/about-us/ AccessedDecember 5, 2016

2 "About Us" http://citymall.com.ph/about-us/ Accessed on December 5, 2016

3 "About Us" http://citymall.com.ph/about-us/ Accessed on December 5, 2016

4 "About Us" http://citymall.com.ph/about-us/ ph Accessed on December 5, 2016

5 "Mall Definition" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mall September 1, 2016 6 Philippine Statistics Authority, "Municipality/City: Zamboanga City

http://nap.psa.gov.ph/activestats/psgc/municipality.asp?muncode=097332000®code=09&provcode=73 Accessedon November 28, 2016