Mag Mile eyes name mileage
The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association plans first unified marketing effort to brand the shopping district
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Special to the Tribune
Published February 14, 2006
It's not the Miracle Mile. That's in Coral Gables, Fla.
It's the Magnificent Mile. And almost 60 years after the stretch of North Michigan Avenue got its nickname, business leaders want the Mag Mile's stature solidified and its moniker mentioned in the same breath as Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, the Ginza in Tokyo, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, which secured trademark rights to the name in 2001, is embarking on its first-ever unified marketing effort to brand the district.
The campaign's slogan, "Feel Magnificent," aims to position the area as one of the great avenues of the world through a series of full-color ads and banners that promote its shopping, dining and hotels. A media plan in development would include ad placements on city buses, at the airport and in city and regional publications.
However, there are two potential hitches to the fledgling campaign. The association needs the financial support of its members, which range from Garrett Popcorn Shop to the Peninsula Chicago hotel, in order to raise the $500,000 sought for the campaign's first year.
The second hitch is connected to the first. No individual store, hotel or restaurant will be mentioned in the ads. Instead, the ads will direct consumers to a Web site where they can obtain information on specific retailers. Theoretically, a member who doesn't contribute could benefit as much from a potential increase in traffic to the district as one who did help fund the effort.
"This is an overarching branding campaign," said Linda Tuke, a vice president of DHI Advertising and Design, which designed the campaign, pro bono. "It's not about the store or the hotel. There are people in this world with vision, and there are ones without."
Members first learned of the campaign at the association's annual meeting Monday evening . So far, three of the vertical malls on the street, Water Tower Place, Westfield North Bridge and the 900 Shops, have contributed a combined $60,000.
Any kind of cash outlay for advertising, much less one without its name, would be a foray into the unknown for Garrett Popcorn Shops, which does no advertising but still sees a steady stream of tourists at its North Michigan Avenue storefront. Yet Scott Schroeder, executive vice president and chief financial officer, is willing to look over the materials the association will be sending members over the next few weeks as it seeks a multiyear funding commitment.
"I'm going to have to see what they're pitching," he said. "We may benefit in an unexpected way from a generic campaign because we are an impulse buy. Tiffany is not. People can come in and buy something for $2.25."
Bob Killian of Killian & Co., a Chicago branding and advertising agency that is not involved in the Magnificent Mile promotion, said he thinks the campaign can be effective in the short term and long term, so long as all members are on board, both in terms of the financial commitment and the message.
"If [the association] can get all the cooperation, and they get the money, it will work," Killian said. "They have to have everybody feeling like it's working for them. Magnificent is a huge promise. It also reminds the members they have to live the brand. The very first audience for any brand campaign is the people who live within the four walls. They have to treat customers magnificently and sell magnificent merchandise."
The name Magnificent Mile was coined by developer Arthur Rubloff in the late 1940s.
Currently, about 50 percent of visitors to the Mag Mile, which is bordered by North Avenue, Randolph Street, Lake Shore Drive and the North Branch of the Chicago River, live outside of the five-country metropolitan region.
Retail sales last year for the district's 3.3 million square feet of retail space were $1.9 billion, according to the association, which says an average of 50,000 pedestrians are on the boulevard each day. Executives along North Michigan Avenue have talked in broad strokes for the past five years about the need for such a branding campaign, and the more they traveled to other cities, the more they returned to Chicago convinced they had to do something dramatic.
If there is one city they point to as the textbook case of a successful branding initiative, it is Las Vegas, with its "What happens here, stays here" tagline.
"Others have done a really great job in packaging themselves," said Rick Roman, association chairman and chairman and chief executive of the Signature Room at the 95th in the John Hancock Center.
"We have not really entered into that arena. What we noticed is if we want to make sure we are competitive and getting that share of the visitor market and the local market, we've got to be proactive, or we're going to get left behind."
Added Camille Julmy, vice chairman of U.S. Equities Realty LLC and a past chairman of the association: "We definitely have a problem in branding. Michael Jordan did a fabulous job for Chicago, but that was a few years ago."
But the "feel magnificent" image is as much targeted to area residents as national and international visitors, since the city competes with reinvigorated suburban shopping districts for visitors. Woodfield Shopping Center and its surrounding area are heavily advertised. And a recent study by 4Insights Inc., a retail and market research consultancy, found that Naperville attracts shoppers from 144 zip codes.
"There are probably people that get stuck in their suburban lifestyle and forget that Michigan Avenue is down the street," said DHI's Tuke. "Think about the soccer moms driving around in their mini-vans. We are going to start putting a couple other notions in these people's heads."
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Mag Mile facts
$1.9 billion in sales*
18.2 million visitors*
460 retailers
22,000-plus hotel rooms
275 restaurants
* Annual numbers
Source: Greater North Michigan Avenue Association
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Milestones for Michigan Avenue
1909--The "Chicago Plan" was devised by local planners to transform Michigan Avenue from a trading post into a major commercial boulevard.
1912--The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, originally the North Central Business District Association, was founded to plan and promote the area's development and beautification.
1929--The Great Stock Market Crash ends the expansion of Michigan Avenue.
1947--As a leader of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, Chicago developer Arthur Rubloff launches an extensive promotional plan involving the construction of new buildings and renovation of old ones. The promotional campaign leads to the "The Magnificent Mile" name.
1975--The construction of Water Tower Place initiates a trend in modern Michigan Avenue architectural philosophies as the first multipurpose building where people reside, work and shop in the same structure.
1988-2001--This span marks the boulevard's second great building boom with the completion of the 900 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago Place, Crate & Barrel, 676 N. Michigan Ave. and the 600 N. Michigan Ave. buildings.
1997--A plan providing policies to guide Michigan Avenue's new development and evolution, called Vision 2012, is created.
2000--A nine-block mixed-use entertainment project named the North Bridge District, which included a four-level shopping center with Michigan Avenue's first Nordstrom store, is constructed.
2001--The Michigan Avenue association secures trademark rights for the "Chicago's Magnificent Mile" name, brand and trademarks.
Source: Greater North Michigan Avenue Association> |
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