BY EHDA M. DAGO-OC
 
         KNOWN to be the shopping and entertainment hub for middle to high-end markets in Cebu, the Ayala Center Cebu (ACC) has slowly gained attraction from the broad  "C" market due to its aggressive marketing campaigns and the opening of wider public transportation loading and unloading areas.

           ACC head for commercial center business group Maria Cristina G. Angan reported that the introduction of its public transportation terminal for PUJ and V-hire riding shoppers has allowed the mall to entice the lower middle-income earner market.

          Consequently, ACC has become the largest revenue contributor of the Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) last year.

          ACC's retail operations (building and lease combined) registered gross revenue of P293.3 million, eight percent higher than the previous year's level.

         This contributes 58 percent of the total real estate revenue mix of CHI last year.

         Angan said the mall is up on introducing innovative marketing ideas to further expand its target market base saying "we look forward to reaching to an even bigger market and forging stronger partnerships this year."

        She said the re-launching of some marketing programs, one of which is the "Tourist Advantage Program" capturing regional market and other foreign and domestic tourists visiting to the mall, is one of the factors that pulled up the revenue performance of ACC last year.

        "Different marketing programs were introduced last year to capture the different market segments of the mall," she said. The Discount Plus Card, which is a loyalty program, marked a significant contribution to the sales performance through its repeat visits and continuous high patronage to the mall by its members, she added.

       At the same time, Angan said the quarterly tri-mall events, as a distinguished brand event of ACC, continued to attract more shoppers.

       "The sales generated from the scheduled tri-mall events improved significantly compared to the sales contributed by the events in 2002," she emphasized.

          Worth mentioning, she said were the events that recorded the highest sales generation, such as "The Little Mermaid" in the month of May, "Mulan" in August and "Acromania" from Australia in December last year.

          She pointed out that with almost 350 retail, food and entertainment shops, ACC has become a virtual hub for shoppers who want to experience shopping, dining, and entertainment. And these markets are not only come from the middle to high end categories, but now the lower B and C markets have started to adopt this new shopping trend.

        "ACC's thrust to keep up with the emerging lifestyle of the Cebuano market are shown in the marketing efforts as it continues to innovate and introduce trail blazing events and promotions that increase sales and spending in the mall," Angan said.