COMMERCIALISATION

STATE OF THE ART

It is the aspiration of most artists to have their work viewed by the masses, and shopping centres provide a commercially based platform for thousands of viewers every single day.

COMMERCIALISATION FUNDAMENTALS FROM ANNABEL LING, ACCOUNTS MANAGER AT FORUM CENTRESPACE Co-operation “Before we take on board any scheme, we must analyse how the commercialisation activity will align with the core tenants, and ensure we are bringing something new to the table alongside the existing tenant mix.”

Experience “Commercialisation is not exclusively about maximising mall revenue, it is about enhancing the shopping experience, adding variety and promoting customer loyalty.”

A Leg Up “Commercialisation can provide a great platform for start-up businesses who are looking to test their innovative products or services on the mall." www.shopping-centre.co.uk

Art and consumer goods are juxtaposing ideas. The former generally needs to be original and non-replicable in order to be considered a success. The latter needs to be, to a degree, replaceable in order for the retail industry to continue. You can replace a t-shirt but you can’t replace a Monet. It is, however, the simple t-shirt on its rack that is likely to be viewed thousands upon thousands of times more every single day than the carefully constructed artworks that hang in galleries. Most of us possess stronger desires to visit our favourite clothes shops, deliberating over the same jeans or jackets, than we do wandering the halls of art galleries. Art falls into the luxury item category. Unlike jewellery and technology, its fundamentally static nature

makes it most functional in a gallery. And what is a shopping mall if not a gallery? The elaborate architecture, the rows of exhibition rooms, the experience, individual or shared, of looking at intelligently designed, carefully organised products. It feels akin to the gallery experience, and in the modern age of e-commerce, experience is the biggest advantage shopping malls can

JUNE 2017 SHOPPING CENTRE

27