Mall giant uses school links to gain favour

By SIMON HENDERY marketing writer

In the hustle and bustle of a Westfield mall, shoppers pause briefly to slide till receipts into drop boxes put out by a local primary school.

Few will pause long enough to consider that they are participating in a campaign by the shopping centre operator to win the hearts and minds of the community.

It is not a revolutionary campaign, but Westfield has declared itself pleasantly surprised with the traction it has gained from its "Shop for Your School" promotion.

In the past nine weeks the 326 schools signed up for the promotion have gathered more than $20 million in receipts from shoppers, a figure likely to grow substantially by the time the campaign closes on Monday.

When the figures are tallied, the schools in each of the nine Westfield mall catchment areas that have collected the most receipts on a per student basis will win a share of computer equipment worth $520,000.

Westfield's national marketing and communications manager, Linda Round, says the campaign is part of the company's push to enhance its image in the communities where it operates.

"We are actively moving towards initiatives that enable us to align ourselves with the community."

The campaign has worked because schools have a clear need for computer equipment, she says.

Arguably, working to present a more community-focused image is something Australia-based Westfield has needed to do, after building a bolshie reputation in this country over the past three years.

It raised hackles with plans (since scaled back) to build an 11-level mega mall in Newmarket.

Its branding of many of its centres under the generic "Westfield Shopping Town" label also drew criticism.

But in its bid to gain favour with the community, the company seems to have found a useful partner in its local schools.

Jonathan Dodd of Auckland market research company Research Solutions says the model of encouraging shoppers through a scheme that rewards a worthy cause like local education is not new.

"One nice aspect is computers excite children and they are a scarce resource in many schools," he says.

"If you were to give away the same value in books it probably wouldn't excite students to the same degree. Computers are a sexy, attractive item for schools, and for students and parents alike."

Dodd says the promotion may also deliver Westfield new shoppers who do not normally frequent its malls - many of which have been newly renovated.

But he says the extra patronage may be short-lived, as shopping habits are usually heavily entrenched with consumers.

Round says Westfield has designed the competition to be "fair and equitable" to all schools - hence the dollar-per-student focus.

But the alignment between schools and a major corporate still grates with some parents.

"I was surprised at the way my daughter's teacher promoted this [competition] so strongly," one parent says.

"She's mentioned it at least twice to me, including once in our parent-teacher interview.

"She's a great teacher, so I didn't mind, but I was struck by the way teachers have become de facto salespeople."

While Westfield have run a radio, television and newspaper-based advertising campaign around the promotion, the spending has not been "as significant as what you would think it would be," says Round, because the campaign has been driven largely by the schools.

"They've really embraced it over half a million dollars' worth of computers in prizes going back to schools is a huge amount so they've really embraced it."

Westfield has run the campaign in Australia for the past two years and Round says it is likely to become an annual event here as well.

Westfield