Taubman will extend its successful e-bulletin campaign to teens

Taubman Centers Inc., which has undertaken a successful strategy of using opt-in e-mail alerts to market its 31 malls, is getting ready to offer a monthly e-bulletin about offers and events at malls to teens, Carol Gies, vice president of marketing and center planning, tells Internet Retailer.

The alerts will be HTML e-mails and will include a wireless e-bulletin option, in the belief that teens are more open to wireless applications than adults and less prone to using the web to find deals, Gies says. “We don’t expect teens will go to one of the web sites to get sale information at a mall,” she says. “Teens don’t shop that way.”

Taubman’s e-bulletin alerts have been successful, with 350,000 consumers registered to receive alerts. But Taubman’s consumer research shows that while 26% of consumers have wireless devices, only about a fifth are interested in receiving e-alerts via wireless, not enough to make Taubman want to promote wireless heavily, Gies says. “The cost is low enough that we will keep wireless alerts in the mix and see what happens,” Gies says.

Taubman’s research also reflects the growing acceptance of the web as an integral part of consumers’ shopping experiences. Two years ago, only about 3% of consumers said they had bought apparel on the web. Last year, that figure had grown to 16% and in one market--Norfolk, VA--21% said they had bought apparel on the web. Three years ago, only about 45% of consumers that Taubman surveyed had web access. Today, that figure is 73%, Gies says.

Taubman operates such well known shopping centers as the Beverly Center in Los Angeles, Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix and Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL.