Walking to Local Shopping Centres

"Walkable" is key. I've trudged some pretty unfriendly terrain to cover short distances in suburban mall districts. I would make sure the routes are indeed traversable and are clean, well lit and generally are such that walking them is a cheerful experience. Aside from that, who do you want to walk? Kids doing errands for parents? Adults? Your pitch might vary with your audience. Would merchants be interested in what might be an opportunity to expand sales by attracting local customers who usually drivee past their stores to larger ones with more variety? Could the merchants put coupons in local flyers/weekly papers offering a small discount to customers who walked to make a purchase, or maybe a frequent walker card, punched whenever a customer walks in for a purchase, with some discount or freebie (of limited value) as the final reward. (yes hard to verify, and some customers might cheat by driving in to use their coupons, but it might be an incentive)

Hi

I like the concept of the frequent walker card...it provides a good human interest perspective for the local media. As Mel said, perhaps you could target different audiences. That allows you to profile different people...youngest walker, oldest walker, multiculturalwalkers, celebrity walkers etc. May be a walk-a-thon in their somewhere as well

Bob Crawshaw

Maine Street Marketing
0401 063 387
www.mainestreet.com.au
Member of: Australian Marketing Institute
International Association of Business Communicators
Public Relations Institute of Australia
Public Relations Society of America