As waters subside, Siam Piwat pours Bt50mn into marketing
Hoping to secure overall business growth of 10 per cent this year as planned, Siam Piwat, operator of Siam Center and Siam Discovery in Bangkok, has poured Bt50 million into a series of marketing events throughout this month to encourage shoppers to spend
Although its shopping centres were not flooded, 15-20 per cent of the shops in the two malls were affected indirectly. For instance, the Hachi-ban Ramen restaurant chain was forced to shut down all of its branches as its processing plant is in Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate in Pathum Thani. The factories and warehouses of fashion brands such as Fly Now and Levi’s were also damaged. Meanwhile, more than 100 staff members faced difficulties commuting.
Siriphen Intuputi, Siam Piwat’s assistant managing director for advertising and public relations, said yesterday that from late October to last month, the centres saw a |15-20 per cent drop in foreign tourists and a 25-30 per cent fall in local shopper traffic |compared with the same period last year. Of the overall traffic, locals made up about 60 per cent while the rest were foreigners. Given the reduction in shoppers, marketing events planned for that period were cancelled, translating to about |5 per cent of this year’s 200 events.
However, the company believes that local and foreign visitors will come back this month as the normal peak |season gets on track to cele-brate the New Year. The com-pany has earmarked Bt50 million for a series of marketing events and promotions throughout this month. This budget is double that in December last year.
There are four key events under this campaign. “Siam Center and Siam Discovery Luxury of Giving 2012” |starts today and runs through January 2. Customers will find an array of selected products suitable for gifts in more than 300 shops and get a chance to win one of more than 11,000 prizes, worth a total of about Bt15 million.
The second event is “Siam Centre and Siam Discovery SOS Super Sales”. Running from December 9 to 18, it will offer 80-per-cent discounts. Third is “Fashion with Passion to Give II” in Siam Center, to be jointly held with the Bangkok Fashion Society from December 9-12. Last, the “Bid Farewell to 2011 with Cakes and Gifts Festival” will take place from December 20 to January 2.
With this series of campaigns, Siriphen said her company strongly believed that it would enjoy 10-per-cent sales growth this year.
Next year, Siam Piwat is prepared to invest Bt1 billion to renovate its shopping centres. Of that, Bt600 million will go to Siam Center while the rest will be used for Siam Discovery. It has also budgeted Bt30 million for overseas promotion in key markets such as Dubai, Russia, India and Britain.
