Ads & Ends
By Nanette Franco-Diyco
I must congratulate the product development group of SM Malls for conceiving and quietly executing this excellent strategy.
MY FRIEND Ella Francisco was flying to the US in two days, and she still had the longest list of gifts to buy — her advanced Christmas gifts for friends and relatives awaiting her arrival. She had asked me to help her complete the gargantuan task. “Overwhelmed,” she described herself.
Common sense dictated we stay in a “big enough mall that would most likely hold enough gift options for us to choose from without too much fuss.”
Between our residences in Loyola Heights and Capitol Commons, we chose Megamall in Ortigas to do what we envisioned would be a full day shopping.
I deemed my own Christmas shopping for families and friends much too early to do but decided I might as well begin looking around for concrete ideas.
It was a Thursday and obviously not a weekend, but we were downright surprised by the crowd of shoppers that preceded us.
We lost no time and almost covered the entire new section of the mall before early afternoon. We had accumulated a whole lot of packages by then and felt hunger pangs descend on us. We took a leisurely lunch at a brand new Japanese restaurant that announced “Soft Opening” by its doors. The food was good, but we wanted good coffee at the very end of our meal — something we felt we couldn’t get at a Japanese restaurant.
This was when Ella remembered that she had a Prestige Lounge card, giving access to where we could have our “delicious hot brewed coffee.” The lounge, she assured me, was a good place to rest our tired feet for as long as we wanted, have coffee, and leave all our packages for safety.
I had never known of this SM Prestige Lounge but was open to trying it, if it was close to other “prestige” lounges that I was familiar with in a couple of international airports.
With all the hectic shopping of the morning behind us, and the crowds outside, I was impressed with the Prestige Lounge and the relative privacy it offered. Of course, we had the cup of coffee we thirsted for, served us by a young lady in exquisite business attire. We were seated in a very comfortable sofa, in great ambiance that lured us to chat quietly for a while. Most importantly, the lavatories were spacious and sparkling clean.
There were a number of SM Prestige Card holders in the spacious room with us, all happily relaxed from the generally expected chaos of shopping right outside. It was a good experience, a great pause indeed, part and parcel of celebrating any shopping event.
I took time, grabbing the opportunity to get the innards of my new experience, finding out that the priceless Prestige card will begin your exclusive welcome to the SM Prestige Lounge. Especially with the extensive holiday shopping ahead of us (or more accurately put, on top of us), I couldn’t help but wish I had merited the card long ago.
I must congratulate the product development group of SM Malls for conceiving and quietly executing this excellent public relations and sales promotions strategy for its biggest malls all over the country. Mind you, it isn’t easy to secure a card. One cannot buy it en punto. One has to earn it via categorized deposits over time with Banco de Oro or specified total purchases with SM within a given period of time.
If you equate public relations with the creation of goodwill among its target market, SM has beautifully hit the nail on the head. If you talk of a continuing sales promotion with a continuing loyalty rewards allurement at its very core, this, too, is a marvel that one can aspire for. I would venture to say that most of us are deep down shopaholics: so, someone in our family will always be part of this target market.
My friend Ella tells me: “The Prestige Lounge in SM Aura in Taguig City is even better than where we were.” “Okay, okay already,” I tell her with an undisguised tinge of envy.
NANETTE FRANCO-DIYCO ended her 15th year advertising career as Vice-President of JWT, segueing into the world of academe, currently teaching communications at the Ateneo de Manila University.
nanettediyco131@gmail.com
