Using educational initiatives and content creation to support retail partners

The business challenge

Supporting smaller retailers in an ever-changing business environment

In 2020 retailers were feeling overwhelmed, due to rapid technological changes in the retail industry as well as the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent lockdowns.

With consumers shifting online, Craigieburn Central and CS Square wanted to provide their retailers with the tools needed to pivot to a digital model, as well as additional support to help them market themselves across social media channels through high quality content creation.

The insight

Small retailers in a large centre can leverage shared resources and work together to compete with bigger players

Typically, small and individual retailers are focused on running their physical retail business, with little or poor understanding of how to best market their brand by leveraging digital opportunities.

Individual retailers aren’t able to access the same marketing resources as large retailers, making it difficult for them to create effective content that stands out on social media.

With the support of centre management, however, retailers can pool their resources to benefit both themselves and the common business goals of the centre.

The idea

Educate and empower retailers to improve their efforts collectively

Assemblo created an educational initiative to empower the trading partners within Craigieburn Central and CS Square shopping centres.

This initiative had a particular focus on digital marketing and strategy, as these were the areas where retailers lacked confidence.

We facilitated a series of seminars, introducing retailers to key forms of digital marketing, highlighting innovative ways to target customers during the COVID-19 lockdown, and educating retailers on the importance of the marketing mix in driving sales and brand awareness.

We also supported retailers in capturing high quality photography and developing bespoke visual content for social media promotions, which appeared on their own and the centres’ social channels.

The impact

Assemblo’s educational initiative was warmly received and highly regarded by Craigieburn Central and CS Square centre management and retailers, who were inspired to use the learnings from our seminars to elevate their marketing activity.

Ultimately, our initiative achieved the following:

• Provided retailers with valuable marketing insights and actionable strategies to grow their businesses
• Increased positive sentiment for Craigieburn Central and CS Square centre management among their retailers
• Improved brand identity for centre management
• Developed marketing techniques to educate and increase awareness among retailers, during a particularly challenging period for the retail industry
• Promoted individual retailers and the centre through professional, high-quality photography that could be used for marketing purposes moving forward