Technically, pop-ups are already getting old. Technically! What a shame, then, that most retailers, commercial enterprises and center managers either do not even have this form of short-term and temporary retail space on their marketing radar or have just consistently chosen to ignore it. Strange, because pop-ups, wherever they’re placed, evoke in customers the very emotions that the entire retail industry demands as essential and never tires of promoting: Pop-up shops surprise, are different, evoke curiosity, offer the unusual, break habits, reflect trends, and provide space for new forms of shop design and shop concepts. Pop-ups entertain. They offer an almost perfect playground for lively creativity.

In ideal cases, pop-up stores have yet another significant advantage: They present themselves in the much-frequented, freely accessible, vibrant spaces where trading takes place. On top of all that, these short-term stores, whether it’s through their ability to be vacant or their more favorable rental terms, offer a veritable win-win situation for retailers and landlords. And pop-ups are actually nothing more than the modern equivalent of traditional market stalls that appear in particular or undefined places and then disappear again.

How wonderful, then, that Parisians are now taking to pop-up stores in a special way in the architecturally demanding environment of the La Défense business district. “Paris Upstores” is an ambitious project. In the summer months, around 700 sq m of open-air shops are to enrapture potential buyers. According to the definition of the developers, “Paris Upstores” will be the first continental European pop-up mall and essentially a French “continuation” of London’s “BoxPark.” The French plan is extremely welcome, I think. What a pity that such ideas have so far penetrated only to selected retailers and mall operators. This is surely a missed opportunity from a marketing standpoint and in the context of a uniform retail landscape. Nevertheless: it’s essentially never to late to implement good ideas!

Over the last 60 years, the retail sector has developed into one of the most dynamic in our culture. Consumer needs have changed, new markets have been developed, and product cycles have been streamlined. There has been rapid technological and theoretical progress in the fields of communication and marketing in recent decades, and, to top it all off, the innovation cycles in the industry have also become radically shorter. The phrase “retail evolution” has hardly ever been more true than it is today. It is an undisputed fact that the evolutionary nature of retail is naturally manifested in and around its various sales channels. The shopping center industry is confronted almost daily with the resulting challenges. One of the biggest currently is the triumph of online commerce.

Mulitchanneling is gaining in importance – this applies to retailers and shopping center operators alike. Center managers are well aware that they will face – depending on the industry – a steady reduction in the demand for shop space. Retailers and operators will have to redouble their efforts to figure out how to attract customers into their stores. The “experience factor” in bricks-and mortar retail is thereby increasingly important. Branding, brand positioning, and brand management will decide over retailers’ successor failure in the future. The shopping center industry should thus serve as fertile ground for fruitful and steady growth. One of a shopping center’s main functions will be to unite credibly a colorful variety of brands under one roof – the center must become brand land.

It seems clear that this balancing act can ultimately only succeed if the shopping center itself is, in turn, perceived as a powerful brand and is successfully positioned in the group of sales channels. Well-positioned branded centers will continue to be more successful than less well positioned ones. One of the best opportunities to meet these new challenges lies in refurbishment projects. There are currently far more centers being revitalized in Europe than there are new center projects. My urgent appeal to all operators and investors: Use a refurbishment and reinvent yourselves!

A year has passed since what is probably the most important European trade fair for the shopping center industry: MAPIC. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you everything that has happened since then. I won’t talk about how the European debt crisis has already hit the real economy in many parts of Europe. And I won’t make you listen to me explain the role that European banks have played in the crisis and how the development of commercial real estate is much more difficult than it was just a short while ago. No, I’m gazing hopefully into the future to tell you: after MAPIC is before MAPIC.

Honor where it’s due

Precisely because the euro countries are currently spending all their energy on the survival of the common currency, while we sit in beautiful Cannes, it worth casting a glance towards Russia. The geographically largest country in the world is rightly acting as the “Country of Honor” at this year’s MAPIC. Whether because of its dimensions, its history, or its cultural uniqueness, Russia is undoubtedly one of the most exciting commercial destinations in Europe and, of course, Asia.

Accordingly, the experts at Jones Lang LaSalle stated in a recent study that the forecast for the development of the retail market in Russia as a whole was positive. According to their data, growth in retail trade volumes in 2012 will reach 5.5 % higher than in most European countries. Taking into account the low saturation of the market and the potential for growth in purchasing power, Jones Lang LaSalle continues to view Russia as crucial for developers.

The bear wakes

International retailers and developers internalized this fact long ago, of course. After years of restraint, they are slowly and carefully returning to the colossal market. In short: The Russian bear is awakening irreversibly from hibernation. He is still rubbing his eyes a bit sleepily, but those in the know have long recognized which way the wind is blowing. “Anything goes” seems to be the motto, at least where the shopping center industry is concerned.

Several types of retail formats in various stages of development already inhabit planet Russia. Nevertheless, the almost limitless country still has the potential, energy, confidence, courage, and capital to become an even greater talking point and make waves in terms of trans-European retail. This will still take a while, but in retail in particular, it is always advisable to keep your eyes and ears open.

It was to be the marketing event of the year. Before Apple presented its latest creation, the iPhone 5, in San Fransisco in mid-September, the international press had been waiting for the moment for days with increasing impatience. Speculation on what the new generation of the iPhone would actually look like, what it would weigh, and what it could do, was rife. When the time finally came, Apple president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller previously kicked off another brilliantly staged iPhone show, which had always been run by Steve Jobs (may marketing heaven bless his soul). From this point on it was clear: No matter what features and functions this smartphone actually has, almost everyone wanted to buy it. Marketing at its best.

Big feet, little shoes

What does all this have to do with shopping centers? Quite a lot, I think: The shopping center industry is about to outgrow its infancy, in many disciplines at least, thanks to progressive professionalization. Nevertheless, it is apparent that some segments of the industry have yet to outgrow their adolescent shoes. Nowhere is this more striking than in center management in general and in center marketing in particular.

Take for example this fantastically useless, indeed sometimes even damaging institution: the Advertising Advisory Board. The center management periodically meets with the majority of the tenants to discuss future events, activities, sales, or marketing campaigns. Area managers, store managers, and salespeople;- whoever is available at the moment, have thrown a lot of money in the center’s marketing pot, or is just the largest anchor tenant, in hurry in to discuss the center’s marketing strategy in dilettantish harmony. To be sure, I respect and even have a little understanding for the amateur joy that unfolds in such witty meetings. But in my opinion, such advertising advisory board meetings are pointless.

Abolish it!

The reason is clear to me. We live in a world of specialists who know more and more about smaller and smaller areas. So it is in the, that this can’t be said enough, knowledge discipline “marketing,” too. My plea: let’s leave the marketing to the experts, also and especially in the shopping center industry. Abolish the Advertising Advisory Board! Or do you really believe that Steve Jobs developed Apple’s marketing strategy with its shareholders?

The retail industry and its marketing channels have experienced significant change and undergone a high degree of professionalization in recent decades. Marketplaces are now managed by modern organizations that have long since begun to market themselves. This is clearly the result of the progressive structuralization and consolidation of the retail landscape. The times when a "family-run trading company" could expand continuously due to growing demand for products and retail space are over. The family companies of the past have been, with few exceptions, swallowed, or replaced by large multinational corporations. This change in ownership structure was accompanied by a radical shift in corporate culture. This has its advantages and disadvantages.

The benefits are to be found in progressive specialization—we know more and more about less and less—and in the professionalization of services. Serious drawbacks, however, include increasing uniformity, bloated corporate structures, and the consequent slowing down of decision making. In some cases, perhaps internal policies and fancy handbooks can obscure a lack of decisiveness. By the time one reaches the level of middle managers, however, the weaknesses of such "supertankers" become apparent. Course corrections, direction changes, and braking maneuvers are conducted only after significant delays and they take much longer to take effect. Heart-stopping moments become small eternities that make the phrase "big is beautiful" sound patently absurd.

In contrast, decision making in smaller businesses seems much more refreshing and satisfying for all parties. Thanks to flat hierarchies, decisions are communicated directly to other employees, who are more likely to personally take charge of them and put them into action quickly. This fact is worth gold in the fast-paced business of retail, with its spontaneous clientele. We know all too well of large retailers that fail to keep up because of their sheer vastness. The German electronics giant Media Markt is a case in point: It slept right through the beginning of online retail.

One scenario that we may observe in the shopping center industry in particular is that, after the (first) economic crisis, many big developers are now trying to break into the shopping center management business. I would rather not think of the rocky decision path that must have been trodden in tidy boardrooms for this change in strategy to come about. It's too late. The train has left the station. The shopping center management market is already saturated. Life punishes those who wait.

Just as fortune is said to favor the brave, so innovative companies capture business success and reach economic heights. This is not some flippant phrase: it is economic fact. In the shopping center industry in particular, new ideas, approaches, and solutions represent essential assets companies cannot do without. Retailers require versatility and adaptability above all; this must be taken into account.

Now matter how you look at it, innovation is becoming increasingly important to the industry. It is thus no wonder that the term is high on the list of firms' requirements, especially in project development. Innovative shopping and retail centers stand out from the crowd. They gain an unbeatable competitive advantage thanks to this unique selling proposition.

It is with this in mind that we created the ACROSS Award 2012 and at the end of last year asked: Does your shopping center deserve an award? You have one with a roof that automatically opens or closes depending on the weather? Your power is supplied with 100 percent renewable energy? You created a new quarter in your city while planning your project? Your shopping center launched an exceptional digital campaign? We were excited to see the submissions and began the search for the most innovative projects in Europe, in three categories according to Gross Leasable Area. The only requirement was that the shopping or specialty center had opened its doors in 2011.

The diverse feedback, for which I am very grateful, gave us confidence in our plans to give out the ACROSS Award regularly in the future. We want to establish this award as an annual fixture on the European shopping center landscape.

In 2012, 17 challenging projects in Portugal, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Poland, and Finland made it onto the ACROSS Award shortlist. You can view these great centers yourself on pages 36 to 45. A distinguished jury evaluated the projects. And who are the three trophy winners? The answer will be revealed at the awards ceremony on 26 April at 5 PM as part of the 14th Shopping Center Symposium in Vienna. You are cordially invited!

The European shopping center industry has entered a veritable transition. In the process, looming changes are clearly evident in every part of the industry and all links in the value chain. The 21st century consumer has come of age. He is no longer part of a homogenous group. He operates, refuses, consumes, and communicates through a wide variety of channels. He is part of several majorities, part of many minorities. He is mainstream, alternative, innovative, conservative, modern, young, and old. The consumer appears in a new light of "anything goes." Now we can safely abandon the rigid target group oriented thinking of the past.

The oft-cited point of sale is changing in a reflection of this. It is centralized, decentralized, real, virtual, urban, rural. It is simple, staged, opulent, functional, stationary, permanent and fleeting. Sounds confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Because the anchor, the common thread through all the difference is, in this case, the connotative occupying of sales floor. Filling the form with content.

Unfortunately, as I see it the shopping center industry has not yet sufficiently responded to this challenge. Only in the rarest cases does the marketing approach take center stage when planning new developments, expansions, or refurbishments. Marketing and brand strategies are much too seldom incorporated in the early stages of these processes. Markitecture, and in this case I am happy to endlessly repeat it, the interaction of marketing, architecture, and modern forms of communication, is essential for shopping centers. Consumers barely react anymore to blunt come-ons like newspaper advertisments, sales brochures, and indistinguishable, staged center events. It is the message and not the means of communication that is critical.

Shopping centers and retail space have to become emotionally charged spaces. Developing brands, providing orientation and safety. Brands justify buying decisions. They bond and support, underscore the lifestyle. I am entirely convinced that this will become even stronger in the coming years – it will have to. The large centers, whether in major cities or on greenfield sites, have been built. Now the medium-sized and small cities are moving into the limelight. Here the centers are also presented through facts like tenant mix, accessibility, and parking. But in the end, other factors create the image.