Abstract
M.A.
Shopping centres in South Africa, regional ones in particular, find themselves existing in an
increasingly competitive marketplace, where despite a move towards creating better
marketing communications around centres, consumers are overwhelmed by such
communications messages and by the abundance of centres from which to choose. This
has created a problem of brand parity, where there is very little differentiation between
centres, yet development shows no signs of slowing down. This causes further confusion
by giving the consumer more choice, leading to brand switching. The problem is
exacerbated by consumers who have become much more knowledgeable and far more
demanding in terms of what they expect from products and services (Evers, 2005;
trendwatching.com, 2007), including shopping centres.
Additionally, shopping centre marketers have to deal with developers, owners,
management companies and leasing agents, as well as tenants, who neither understand
the process of branding nor believe in it, while also having to deal with their own lack of
skills in the area of branding regional shopping centres. In light of this, there is a need to
strategically conduct trend analysis, to see where the shopping centre industry is headed,
so as to help centres create a sustainable competitive advantage in terms of branding
(Gossen & Gresham, 2002) by being aware of trends, so that they can better meet the
needs of the potential markets that they serve. Specifically, this requires a look at future
mega trends that are affecting regional shopping centres based on what is termed the 3Es
of branding, which are experiential branding, emotional branding and electronic branding.
To this end, an ethnography was conducted, based on the trend analysis technique known
as Trend Unit (Evers, 2005: trendwatching.com), which comprised a 14-year immersion
study and encompassed the collection of data using participant observation, informal
unstructured personal interviews and the review of media artefacts. The trend analysis
revealed three new trends that are coined based on the 3Es of branding.