To attract the new generation consumers, brand managers and marketing masterminds often experiment with innovative ideas and concepts. The shifting and impulsive pattern of consumer behavior has made the companies to energetically “deliver” their unique product at places that consumers need them. The concept of Lifestyle center is the latest trend in the realm of consumer centric brand marketing.

Lifestyle centers popularly known as Boutique malls imply an open-air shopping center that has a main street design. The concept was introduced by Poag & McEwen in 1987 with the opening of The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown. The next two decades have seen the expansion of the concept. Unlike the conventional shopping center, a lifestyle center includes plenty of entertainment venues such as movie theaters, bars, restaurants and nightclubs, which make it a place for more than just shopping. These centers are of small, mostly high-end retail spaces in a pleasant, green village like environment. They have broad walkway, and ample parking space near store entrances. Instead of escalators and tube lights, we can experience trees, sunlight, breeze and fountains. The underlying idea behind lifestyle centers is to make the shopping experience more personal, intimate, comfortable, convenient, and emotional. Wayside Common at Burlington is a classic example of lifestyle center. Briargate in Colorado is another example.

Lifestyle centers are designed to give the shopper a feeling of security by focusing on proper lighting, maintenance, and other security measures. The overall performance of the retail sector is being fueled by these lifestyle centers. Majority of the lifestyle centers enjoy beautiful and green landscape carefully designed to satisfy the customer’s feelings. The reasons behind the rapid boom in lifestyle centers are its unique design architecture, ambience, convenience (from buyer’s perspective) and comparatively lower costs (from seller’s perspective).Life style centers are cost effective and environment friendly. The maintenance cost of lifestyle centers are cheap compared to big malls.

Most of the centers are located in sub urban residential areas where affluent elites live. The customers are happy because lifestyle centers provide world class brands near their neighborhood without having the crowded setting of the traditional malls. In city shopping malls, parking space is the most important problem they face. However in lifestyle centers they feel shopping as a stress relieving experience rather than a mechanical process of buying. Though the number of lifestyle centers are still less, experts perceives this as an emerging trend in retail marketing.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 8:51 am and is filed under Luxury lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.