EVENT MARKETING IN SINGAPORE �S RETAIL MALLS

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of event marketing on tenants’ sales performance in Singapore retail malls. The aim of this paper is to fills up some literature gaps in understanding the impact of event marketing in retail malls and help mall managers better manage mall events in the current challenging retail scene. An attempt at conceptualising mall events in Singapore through three variables – location, duration and promotion of tenants, was conducted and eight categories of events were formed. Mall events and tenants’ sales data from two central malls were used as the sample of this research. The study found that the most commonly held type of mall events in Singapore is L-S-N events (large event space, short duration, non-tenants-promoting events). Higher frequency of mall events was observed to drive tenants’ sales performance as a whole. The study also found that large event space, short duration and tenants-promoting events are the drivers of tenants’ sales performance as a whole. The study also observed that anchor tenants perform better than in-line tenants with the presence of mall events to a certain extent but it depends on the type of mall events. However, when the scope was narrowed down to the tenants’ trades, holding a F&B- themed event does not drive sales of F&B tenants. A similar finding was also found for fashion-themed event on fashion tenants. Overall, this paper is the first in studying event marketing in Singapore’s retails malls.