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Shopping Centers Today -> September 2002
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TOUGHER JOB DEMANDS MORE-QUALIFIED APPLICANTS
By Debra Hazel
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So what exactly do mall companies look for when they hire marketing directors these days?
The job requires balancing creativity and practicality to a level never required before.
“You have to be left-brain and right-brain,” said Christine A. Menna, SCMD, vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Johnstown, Pa.-based Crown American Realty Trust. “You have to be creative while you deal with a budget that’s a moving target.”
Crystal ball gazing doesn’t hurt, either.
“We need people to look at the mall 10 years down the road,” said James W. Brewster, CMD, senior vice president of marketing at General Growth Properties, Chicago. “They need to be futurists in a way — understanding their market and where it is going.”
Applicants need a diverse set of skills. Until recently, marketing attracted those who could create attractive ads and clever promotions, sometimes with no college degree at all. Now marketing directors must balance facility with numbers, salesmanship and communications skills to a greater degree than ever.
“For a marketing director for a good-sized property, I’d look for someone with a retail background, skills at public and community relations and with some project manager skills — and, obviously, some marketing and advertising savvy,” said Charlotte Ellis, SCMD, a former corporate marketing director who now heads Cary, N.C.-based consultancy Ellis & Others. “And I’m not sure one person can do it.”
It’s a tough job, agreed former shopping center marketing head Stanley L. Eichelbaum, SCMD now president of Cincinnati-based urban planning consulting firm Marketing Developments.
“The person has to have strength in all disciplines, be numbers-astute, retail-pragmatic and have a passion for retail,” he said. As a result, some companies began looking outside the industry for marketing staff, particularly as the projects themselves became more complex.
This is true of Trizec Retail and Entertainment, a unit of Trizec Properties (formerly TrizecHahn Development), which evolved from building malls to development of such entertainment/lifestyle centers as Hollywood & Highland and Desert Passage, where nontraditional hiring was a benefit.
“We were definitely looking for marketing directors who were very different, from the entertainment industry, sports, sponsorships,” said Alberta Davidson, SCMD, the former senior vice president of marketing for TrizecHahn.
But for more-standard projects, hiring outside the industry may be less advisable.
“There would be a curve,” said Susan Valentine, SCMD, senior vice president of marketing for The Macerich Co., Santa Monica, Calif. “It would take a time period for that person [to get up to speed]. But if they have a staff of people who are truly savvy, it would be a different story.”
Los Angeles-based Westfield America did reach outside the industry for its recently named vice president of corporate marketing. Todd Putman’s background is in brand-building at companies that include P&O Princess Cruises, The Procter & Gamble Co. and The Walt Disney Co. Westfield’s emphasis on the Shoppingtown brand is easing the transition, he said.
“The consumer has a huge role in [product marketing],” he said. “At Westfield, a very strong consumer voice guides what we’re doing.”
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