VIABILITY OF A THEMATIC MALL FOR THE BABY BOOMERS IN ORCHARD ROAD

Abstract

With the sizeable number and increasing income of the baby boomers, this makes them an economically viable market to target. However, it seemed that the marketing efforts to target baby boomers were somewhat casual. This phenomenon is not unique to Singapore but also in the US with their subtle marketing and positioning strategies. This paper seeks to understand the rationale behind the subtlety and explores the possibility of establishing a thematic mall in Orchard Road by investigating the choice and attributes of shopping centres, purchase decisions and frequencies, characteristics of products and price, shopping motivation and marketing to the baby boomers. The success of shopping centres in meeting their needs from the perception of the baby boomers was also investigated along establishing receptiveness to the idea of a thematic mall. A survey with 307 respondents aged between 40 – 59 years old was performed in fulfillment of the objectives. Findings were presented through the use of descriptive analysis. In addition, principal component and factor analysis were used for product, price and shopping centre characteristics while cluster analysis was used to group baby boomers according to their shopping motivations. Results showed that though baby boomers are likely to patronize malls that meet their requirements but a thematic mall is not recommended owing to the stigma of being ‘old’ attached to centres. The findings in the paper represent considerations in refurbishing malls or strategies to widen target market to include the baby boomers.