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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS <br /> • with the general merchandise retailer and the shopping centers by focusing on the three elements <br /> listed above, organization, image and people. <br /> Organization <br /> One of the key components of the success of shopping centers is organization. Downtown Elk <br /> River can never be and should not try to be a shopping center. Nevertheless, Downtown can <br /> learn a great deal about modern retailing methods and shopper behavior from this merchandising <br /> phenomenon. <br /> Essential among a shopping center's features is unified management and the resulting high level <br /> of organization and integration of its retailing operations. In the shopping center, each tenant's <br /> lease contains binding agreements requiring the merchants to follow explicit design standards in <br /> the finish of interior space and signage, to conform to the established hours of operation for the <br /> center(including extended weekday and weekend hours), to participate in the center's joint <br /> advertising campaigns and major promotions, to join and pay dues to the shopping center's <br /> merchants association and to pay for regular maintenance. <br /> Imposed regulations such as these go against the grain of the traditionally independent <br /> downtown merchant. But downtown merchants can improve their ability to compete with newer <br /> shopping alternatives by emulating the highly integrated organizational style of the shopping <br /> center. This is a formidable task for the downtown because it must be accomplished on a <br /> voluntary basis,but the incentives are substantial. Pooling resources for better and more widely <br /> distributed advertising is a necessary element in revitalizing the downtown economy. <br /> • <br /> Volume of parking is not necessarily a shopping center's greatest asset. Recent studies indicate <br /> that shopping centers have largely over-built for their parking needs and how well a shopping <br /> center operates internally is more a measure of its success. <br /> Image <br /> Image refers to the driving aim of modern product marketing: product recognition. Hundreds of <br /> millions of dollars annually are pumped in to the daily barrage of advertising that attempts to <br /> implant the identity of various products in the consumer's mind. <br /> The marketing of the a downtown can take the same approach in a lower key and capitalize on a <br /> host of built-in advantages. Every downtown is different, and each one's distinctive package is <br /> its older commercial structures and their environment. <br /> Individual business operations must also establish their own identities to draw the customers into <br /> their place of business once they have been drawn downtown. For Elk River, the challenge is to <br /> get them to go Downtown. <br /> People <br /> People and the way they react to the downtown as customers are one of the few constants in a <br /> • downtown. Business people in Downtown Elk River need to be constantly aware that all of their <br />