Simon mall branding homogenization

BreakingThrough
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Re: Simon mall branding homogenization

Post by BreakingThrough »

rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2019, 8:21 pm
BreakingThrough wrote: June 13th, 2019, 11:01 am...HOWEVER, one mall that I think they have gotten traction on getting people to use "Westfield" is Westfield Culver City. Only because they changed the name of the mall completely from "Fox Hills." So newcomers to the area really do call it "Westfield Culver City." But those of us who have been here for a while still refer to it as Fox Hills.
Funny story about Fox Hills/Culver City. I lived in San Diego and would always pass Fox Hills Mall on the 405 when I would visit. It was a landmark, of sorts, that I'd use to gauge how much farther I had to drive. The one day...it was GONE! A few visits later I realized it had been rebranded.
:lol: Hilarious. They did do a very good job of renovating the exterior. It's quite eye-catching now from the 405. But fear not, the name and facades may have changed, but it's still the same old Fox Hills Mall at heart. A few years ago there was a YouTube video making the rounds that captured a rowdy "brawl" among a group of young people inside the mall. Chairs were thrown, someone hit someone else with as selfie stick...and icing on the cake was that the brawl took place in the children's area where they have things for kids to climb on. :roll:
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Re: Simon mall branding homogenization

Post by rwsandiego »

BreakingThrough wrote: June 14th, 2019, 8:49 am
rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2019, 8:21 pm
BreakingThrough wrote: June 13th, 2019, 11:01 am...HOWEVER, one mall that I think they have gotten traction on getting people to use "Westfield" is Westfield Culver City. Only because they changed the name of the mall completely from "Fox Hills." So newcomers to the area really do call it "Westfield Culver City." But those of us who have been here for a while still refer to it as Fox Hills.
Funny story about Fox Hills/Culver City. I lived in San Diego and would always pass Fox Hills Mall on the 405 when I would visit. It was a landmark, of sorts, that I'd use to gauge how much farther I had to drive. The one day...it was GONE! A few visits later I realized it had been rebranded.
:lol: Hilarious. They did do a very good job of renovating the exterior. It's quite eye-catching now from the 405. But fear not, the name and facades may have changed, but it's still the same old Fox Hills Mall at heart. A few years ago there was a YouTube video making the rounds that captured a rowdy "brawl" among a group of young people inside the mall. Chairs were thrown, someone hit someone else with as selfie stick...and icing on the cake was that the brawl took place in the children's area where they have things for kids to climb on. :roll:
I stopped in after the renovation/re-branding. Would not be my shopping center of choice if I lived in LA.
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Re: Simon mall branding homogenization

Post by Super S »

BreakingThrough wrote: June 13th, 2019, 11:01 am Agree with the comments above about trying to force a parent brand on a chain of malls being an exercise in futility. Especially when they plaster the name on a higher-end property like UTC -- adding that Australian outback "Westfield" brings the UTC brand DOWN, not up. I guarantee you ZERO people think higher of any property because of "Westfield" or "Simon." If anything, it hurts the property's image by making it seem mass-produced and homogeneous. But I get that marketing folks have to justify their existence.

HOWEVER, one mall that I think they have gotten traction on getting people to use "Westfield" is Westfield Culver City. Only because they changed the name of the mall completely from "Fox Hills." So newcomers to the area really do call it "Westfield Culver City." But those of us who have been here for a while still refer to it as Fox Hills.
Vancouver, WA had a mall simply called "Vancouver Mall" for years. When Westfield took over it became "Westfield Shoppingtown Vancouver" which did not resonate well with locals. Eventually it simply became "Westfield Vancouver Mall". When Westfield sold the mall they moved quickly to cover up the Westfield name, even installing covers on all of the freeway road signs over the Westfield name.

A well-run mall shouldn't need to prominently display who is running the place. Certain names project images. Another is General Growth Properties, who I associate with only paying attention to their largest properties in the larger cities while neglecting others. Rouse (a GGP spin-off) I think of as an operator of failing malls.
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Re: Simon mall branding homogenization

Post by BatteryMill »

https://www.newsday.com/business/name-g ... y-1.295756

So I've found out a reason why Simon and Westfield are trying to unite their malls under one brand. There are both some benefits and negatives to this issue within the article.
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