FROM its launch about 20 years ago to around 2020, Ayala Mall’s TriNoma was an atypical transactional hub where people mainly passed through to buy products. Only a couple of weeks ago, the Quezon City hub rebranded itself as a premier retail environment where people, especially families, will not just shop but congregate and stay for hours while building relationships.
During the press conference on May 16, Ayala Malls CEO Paul Birkett said that TriNoma’s “reinvention” has been “designed with the community in mind. To make every journey simpler and more seamless. It’s about improving the experience in every moment to shape how each and every one of you lives and spends time here.”
He expressed his hope that, as a result, for the customer, “the time spent in TriNoma becomes time well spent.”
One of the mall’s advantages, despite being surrounded by many competing shopping centers, is that it is “deeply embedded in the life of everybody who lives” in Quezon City, said Birkett.
One reason for the transformation is that after 20 years, TriNoma’s market has changed — and with them, their buying patterns and spending habits. After 20 years, its usual customers had aged, gotten married, changed employment, and built their own families.
According to the research of Birkett and his marketing team, TriNoma’s rising market segment is “an emerging middle class, we’ve got younger people who have good jobs and good salaries who might be able to spend that money.”
They also discovered that today’s Filipino mallgoer or shopper is well-traveled and well-informed, recognizing the popular excellent brands while looking for the new trendy ones.
“People want those options and value for money as well,” Birkett said. Aside from the well-loved staples in retail, TriNoma will be bringing in new brands from places like the Middle East, Australia and Thailand.F&B range
The TriNoma team paid special attention to food and beverage (F&B), recognizing that “dining is at the heart of Filipino culture. One of the first things we did was to increase the amount of food offerings,” said Birkett.
In his 30 years running shopping malls in regions as diverse as the United Kingdom, Europe, South America and the Middle East, he found that in the Philippines, the “percentage of F&B versus the percentage of traditional retail” was “beyond anything” he had experienced, to date. This finding prompted them to “bring in a whole range of F&B that really ticks the box for every type of customer.”
Some of the brands that can be found in the Mindanao Lobby include Burnt Bean, H Proper Coffee Roasters, Little Flour, and Pizza Sisters, with more to open in the future, like Chili’s, Cibo, and Key Coffee.
Of these rows of restaurants that are being developed to become a social hub, Birkett said, “We’re appealing to the emotional context. Yes, I can order a meal to be delivered by a food delivery service, but does that really compare to sitting down in a restaurant here and having a meal with friends?”
To further encourage more meetups and family visits, the mall’s outdoor areas, like the gardens and al fresco dining spaces, were surrounded with more greenery and additional seating. A children’s play space was also added.“We’ve strengthened our rest areas so people can step back, even briefly, from urban life,” said Birkett, “and within this space, we’ve introduced play areas. Even kids have their own places to play.”
The huge space where TriNoma used to show products from Asian markets has been transformed into a refurbished Activity Center with modern interiors and a large, wider LED screen. It can host concerts, community events, and other public gatherings.
The new design is intended to give the mall “more heart, more soul, more emotion,” said Birkett, “It should give people a reason to come. We should be encouraging them to sit and play here. A lot of them who do stay here know that they’re in this place because they’re at home.”
The article was originally published in The Manila Times and written by Cora Llamas.
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