Seef Mall. Rebrand

Families have never before enjoyed such a convenient or friendly retail destination

Bahrain’s mall sector is surprising large given the island’s size, Seef Mall is one of the oldest and most popular. Recently, a new, bigger and highly popular mall opened taking mindshare and footfall in the ‘destination mall’ category, while smaller local malls have gained in the ‘casual shopper’ segment.

Seef Mall is fondly regarded as a place many Bahrainis enjoyed their first experiences of malling. While many competitors were built, Seef Mall still retained great loyalty yet shoppers were being attracted elsewhere.

Mallers in Bahrain visit malls for reasons beyond shopping. The weather and the love of people watching makes malls in the gulf more of a social space than a purely commercial one. During the week, malls in Bahrain are heavily populated with families and mums with kids is a large segment to capture.

Challenges

Seef Mall was well liked for a key reason – it was convenient. You could pop in and out where as the much larger, newer and highly attractive competitor was anything but convenient. However, Seef Mall could not win by competing on a ‘shopping ticket’, it had to attract mallers for a wider variety of reasons. It had to create a more entertaining experience of malling.

Seef Mall owners also own a second mall and are developing a third – which all featured unique names. The brand required a strategy to allow leverage to new malls, change perceptions, persuade shoppers to return and find a relevant position beyond ‘great shopping’, which the new larger mall now owned.

Strategy

We helped stakeholders understand what made the Seef Mall special in the first place – it was a place of excitement and wonder. It was fun. Our market research helped us understand key perception equity – Seef Mall was well liked for several key reasons – convenience being one of the most relevant. Our market research also told us that the family segment was one no mall even targeted. While in the west, the family unit is largely fragmented, in Arabia, the family is still tightly knit and family values are high in people’s minds. This was highly valuable territory to own.

Seef Malls strategy was developed through market research, brand auditing and facilitated brand workshops sessions with internal and external stakeholders. A new ‘family friendly convenience’ philosophy captured the essence of the brand while the brand’s new vision ‘to inspire enjoyment’ inspired Seef Mall to think ‘beyond shopping’ to new entertainment and casual dining avenues. The brand-endorsed architecture enabled leveraging of equity from the parent Seef Mall to secondary malls in the portfolio.

Visual Identity

A new graphic language featuring looping icons and a simple brand mark (representing family fun time) conveyed the brand essence. The messaging platform ‘its easier’ leveraged the ‘convenience factor’ its key competitor lacked which now empowers every promotion – ‘Cinema is easier’, ‘Lunch is easier’, etc.

Result

New brand gained unanimously board approved and was positively received by social media channels, mall visitors and the press. The initial launch weekend saw footfall rise by over 20% with press coverage alone giving a 20% ROI. The brand is being rolled out across two existing malls and work is underway to build the brand into the new mall’s interior design. The brand was positively reviewed in both social media and design blogs.