Creating a Community led Service & Retail Experience to rejuvenate a stagnating brand.
The Challenge
Despite having been a family favourite a decade or more ago, Century Square was increasingly being seen as old, irrelevant, all too common and boring. It had dated retail mix, old and tired spaces, unexciting tenant brands, poor digital presence and stagnating branding which led to a drop in footfalls and popularity. With many more interesting and modern retail malls and shops coming up around the Tampines area, Century Square was looking to refresh all aspects of its business or face extinction.
The Insight
DIA undertook consumer studies, visited the retail spaces and malls around the Tampines area to understand the right consumer journey, experiences, retail mix and most desired experiences that are a must have to make Century Square a success. With ethnographic studies, consumer journey mapping driven by qualitative research and discussions and workshops with internal management, the team realised that while the brand needed to modernise imminently, it should also sustain its key equity – building and supporting its local community. The brand experience would stand for inspiring a sense of belonging and to support that the retail strategy and digital innovation, consumer journeys would all need to serve that central idea.
DIA worked closely with the ID team appointed by Century Square to ensure impactful customer touch points, identifying spaces not just for shopping, but also building and connecting communities –such as open spaces for relaxation and gardening on rooftop and various community building activities.
The Impact
Despite the stiff competition from the surrounding popular Tampines mall brands, Century Square has created a niche for itself. It is known for offering a great retail mix with modern experiences yet offering a warm and welcoming community feeling that many other malls lack. It has since managed to attract good brands such as Mahota Commune, GV, and many good F&B brands.
It has consistently been getting great reviews and been going from strength to strength.
