Brentford Square Community Shopping Centre Project (Part A): A marketing strategy for a small community shopping centre Prepared by Mike Shaw and Paula Tomsett,Lynx Research Pty Ltd., Melbourne. Background The Brentford Square Shopping area is a small community shopping centre located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, on Canterbury Road, Forest Hill, and comprises a large supermarket, branches of two major banks, chain liquor and food outlets and over thirty specialty shops. There has been trading at Brentford Square since the late 1950s and in 1963 the Brentford Square Traders Association was established. 4 The Community Shopping Centre Community shopping centres are typically a collection of shops owned by different traders or landlords. They include strip shopping precincts or more centralised groups of shops. The large shopping centres (regional shopping centres) are quite distinct and typically the centre owner manages the marketing activities for the entire centre. In addition, these regional shopping centres are completely under cover. They usually have large department stores, supermarkets, specialty traders and even cinemas. The popularity of regional shopping centres has been increasing over the years as consumers come to treat the shopping duties more as a shopping and browsing excursion. Consequently, traders in community shopping centres have been experiencing a slow decline in trade and number of customers. For Brentford Square, a primary reason for this is believed to be the expansion and promotion of nearby regional shopping centres, such as Forest Hill Chase, located closer to the CBD a few kilometres to the west. Throughout the metropolitan area, many 'strip' shopping areas have been adversely affected by activities of the large regional shopping centres. Apart from the appeal of physical benefits of centre layouts and location, these shopping centres have also been aggressive marketers. They provide a one-stop solution for shopping requirements. To provide some counter to this, many community shopping centres have developed and implemented their own marketing and urban development programs. Supported by the State government's Street Life program in the 1990s some centres have made a transition to a new type of community shopping area. This involved changing the streetscapes, developing consistent themes in building appearance and instituting some broad scale marketing activities. Some examples in the State of Victoria are Centre Rd (East Bentleigh), Maling Rd (Canterbury), Acland St (St Kilda) and the Melton Township. ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 Develop a clear research objective for the business problem described in this case study. (20 Marks) QUESTION 2 (20 Marks) There are two fundamental insights which market intelligence provides to an organization, namely Competitive Insight and Market Insight. From the case study what fundamental insights can one draw in order to understanding the market in the eastern suburb of Melboume?