Siam Piwat is doubling its marketing budget for the current year to Bt200 million, to maintain high traffic at Siam Centre and boost cash flow to its tenants.

But in spite of the higher marketing budget, the company - operator of Siam Centre and Siam Discovery Centre and an investor in Siam Paragon - expects no growth, due to the current political uncertainty and economic slow-down.

The company spent nearly Bt100 million on marketing last year, managing director Chadatip Chutrakul said yesterday.

She said Siam Piwat planned to arrange weekly activities in Siam Centre to retain loyal current shoppers and also attract new ones, besides stimulating spending in tenants' shops.

One strategy the management is working on is to create strong loyalty to Siam Centre through its member-card and member-club programmes.

Three months ago, Siam Piwat launched the Citibank Discovery Visa Card, which was a joint member programme between Siam Centre and Citibank and targeted adult shoppers. The card already has 40,000 members and generated 20-per-cent sales growth in the past three months.

In keeping with the strategy, the company yesterday announced its second member card - S Club - targeting customers aged 18-29. Chadatip said the slogan of S Club was "Passionistas' Society".

It will offer tailor-made privileges, including 5-50 per cent off in all shops, fun activities, the right to use the centre's Privilege Lounge and point-collection programmes.

The application fee will be Bt200 for a two-year membership.

The company will promote S Club through activities road shows at universities, popular radio programmes and television channels and events marking the official launch next Wednesday.

The company will spend about Bt10 million on S Club marketing programmes and activities during the first three months.

Chadatip expects S Club to have 30,000 members by year-end. She said the main objective of S Club was not to generate higher sales, but rather to build strong long-term customer loyalty.

Chadatip said its first membership programme, Discovery Club, established in 1996, would end automatically and that all members from that club would be transferred to the two new programmes, depending on their age.

She said all of Siam Centre's tenants were satisfied with their performance so far this year, although they did not reveal exact sales figure.

As a retailer, she expects the government to follow its announced agenda, including holding a general election.

At the same time, Chadatip cautioned the government to be very careful about announcing new measures. "We understand that all measures launched by the government are for solving problems, but please check very carefully that those measures really help all relevant people," she said.

"As a retailer, we really need international tourists. Their spending is as high as Bt4,000 per head on an average," she said.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation