Quest is built of an aspirational slide that caters to luxury and premium segment: Sanjeev Mehra

There are few successful malls in India and Quest Mall remarkably wins the luxury mall acclamation in the preferred category. reason being, the mall has housed most prominent brands in luxury retail segment including names like GUCCI, Burberry, Canali, Rolex and others. Sanjeev Mehra, Vice- President, QUEST Properties India Ltd talks to Retailer Media and says food is one of the most important ingredients to make a successful mall besides speaking on the mall strategy.

What kind of brands do you cater to? What are the parameters of placing a brand in your mall?
Our mall, Quest is built of an aspirational slide, which caters to luxury and premium segment. Parameters are: They should be a national or international chain following a multi - store format. In case of a local brand it should have a very strong local presence.

What benefits do you offer to those who open multi - unit outlets in your mall?
There is no one formula or set practice. There is always the factor of who needs it and how much and certainly the aspect of ensuring that you get right with zoning. So at times, you may make a consideration or not, depending on the situation of demand and supply for the location and space.

What is the tenure of your contract with brands and how frequently do you revise your contract?
We have now started drawing up all contracts for a period of six years. Previously it was nine years. However, the churn of brands and the entry of international brands, development of new brands, and to keep the mall fresh requires the mall to have the ability and flexibility to make adjustments for the changing desires and aspirations of the patrons.

Do you have local brands as well in your mall? How are they making the difference?
We have a very strong local presence. The ethnic-wear and children’s section certainly must incorporate the best of the local brands available. Food, which is one of the most important ingredients of a successful mall, must essentially cater to local food offerings.
These local brands make a huge difference with loyalty and confidence of people in the city. They help to continuously attract the customers, which allow us an opportunity to convert these consumers to our mall customers.

What kind of marketing and branding strategy you execute in a year for your mall?
We provide plenty of branding opportunities throughout the city in terms of print and outdoor media. We keep hosting PR events for the leading newspapers as well as magazines.
We decorate the mall on a large scale during festivals such as Christmas, Durga Puja, Valentine’s Day, etc.
We organise several large scale events throughout the year, such as our anniversary celebrations. Each time, we strive to come up with a unique concept, which the city has not yet seen. In 2015 we had 10 day ‘return gift plan’ for our patrons.
We came up with the concept of a midnight sale (Midnight Summers at Quest – MSQ), which took not just the city, but the nation by storm. The sale was from 9pm to 12 am and it attracted over 92,000 people in the mall premises. It turned out to be the largest offline sale that the country has seen, generating a whopping 3 and a half crore worth of sales in three hours.
We have a young and promising marketing team of four. We also manage our social media presence in - house, which I believe makes it more spontaneous and fun.
We organise plenty of social media contests and events and give out exciting prizes.

In this present eCommerce era, how your mall stands apart and has been able to drag footfall to the mall?
I do believe that in the short run, there has been an impact on retail nationwide. However, the discount game is a short term strategy and for a sustainable long-term strategy viable value propositions will have to be built in for online retail to make profits. Do remember that Amazon being the largest retailer has ever turned over one quarter of profit in the last two decades.
However, it is a disruptive era that we live in, and technology certainly disrupts the normal trade procedures that retail has followed. We at Quest have used Social Media and Marketing extremely successfully to counter the online retail, and ensure that we continue to garner the required footfalls at the mall.

What kind of amenities and facilities you have in place in your mall?
We aim to provide our patrons with an international experience. Therefore we continuously come up with new services and improvise on older ones to suit our customers.
Some of the Exclusive Services that we provide are:

- Valet Parking
- Nappy Changing Rooms
- Restaurant Reservations at the Mall
- Movie Ticket Reservations
- Concierge Desk
- Wheelchair Services for the Differently Abled
- Floor Executives for personal assistance
- Bouncers
- First Aid Services
- Water Coolers
- Handicap Washrooms
- VIP Parking
- ATMs

What kind of footfall you receive during weekends and during weekdays?
A million a month!

What kind of new initiatives you are going to launch in near future?
We are creating a multi-purpose venue and also working on creating a Sky Bar.