Being in an advertising and media business, I recently talked to a very knowledgeable and respected person with decades of experience on DR media advertising. Basically we were talking about who the targets for advertisers (any advertisers) are in the DR, and it came out as partially B (less than half of B strata), and full C and D strata. No A strata (elite) and ...why? because as it could be expected, those people buy stuff over the Internet and buy stuff ABROAD. And the word "ABROAD" was the most resonating. Maybe that's also the reason why the most elitist malls catering to elite of the DR are EMPTY. Because most of the potential customers do their shopping in Miami, and New York, and Paris. And yes, I DO know people who go shopping to Paris (and it's not Plaza Paris; Paris like real Paris). And for non-clothing items, they buy stuff online. Same goes for most of B strata. It's the "C" and "D" strata (lower middle class and lower class) that are the bulk target for advertisers. And because virtually all A and most B don't buy locally, the most interesting segments are not available to advertisers and that's also one of the (many) reasons why advertisement prices in the DR are very depressed.
- Thread starter PICHARDO
- Start date
Bella Terra Mall. Santiago.
A friend of a friend says B.S. to 3-5 people only buying in the entire Mall...
A college student getting her shoes...
OR...she is an employee there. Which is why there is only her and the guy in the back in the whole place. She may go to college, I dont know, BUT I DO KNOW THIS SHOE STORE ISNT THERE ANYMORE.
At the intersection of Av. Estrella Sadhala y Avenida Juan Pablo Duarte, next to the car wash. You cant miss it, it is the prettiest thing there.
Entonces higuey.....? Quien son los clientes preferidos de Terra Mall? Because if it is not the wealthy and clearly not the poor, then who is it? I speculate it is the people who have remesas sent from abroad for sick grandmas and whatnot.
Any chick who is able to spend RD$3-5k on SHOES, would most certainly be able to afford getting her NAILS DONE!!!! This chick is a NAIL EATER, take a real close look at her hands, dresses nice though! I definitely go with EMPLOYEE!!!
What a scream. I go by there all the time and never knew it was a shopping mall. Only Tony Romas, which like TGIF I would never go to for its overpriced pretentiousness ? the rest I thought was office space or something, who cares? And who looks at all the jumble of signs to figure out what it is when it's built smack next to the International Mall, which I hardly ever go to.
I think the money laundering scheme is the best answer, and perhaps an artificial jungle for pedophilic hunters.
What a bleeding waste!
I think the money laundering scheme is the best answer, and perhaps an artificial jungle for pedophilic hunters.
What a bleeding waste!
Assuming the owners didn't finance most of the construction they are probably able to cover their operating costs.
However, the entrance to the parking garage is some of the poorest concrete work I've seen here in the DR and certainly not worthy of an upscale mall in a big city like Santiago.
However, the entrance to the parking garage is some of the poorest concrete work I've seen here in the DR and certainly not worthy of an upscale mall in a big city like Santiago.
I wrote some time ago that it leaks like a sieve when it rains, the floors are like ice and it is one fookin' bad place to walk in when it is raining. I mean really hip-smashing dangerous!!
As for the empty stores, okay, I can understand that, it is starting, and from what I have seen and heard the roof bar is hopping many nights a week. Do not know where the money is coming from.
HB
As for the empty stores, okay, I can understand that, it is starting, and from what I have seen and heard the roof bar is hopping many nights a week. Do not know where the money is coming from.
HB
Faulty design by the construction company and people in charge...
This is a recurring problem in constructions all around the country, until people start to take legal actions and the Law is of use, things will not change much.
The drainage problem down by the curb is based on a system that hasn't been updated since 1975 in Santiago.
Since most urban space is now developed, a lot more water is making its way to the street gutters and drains from all the concrete and asphalted areas. Not to mention the actual buildings going up and urban density of the area in regards to before.
Yes it is still open. I was there 2 weeks ago and while I enjoyed greatly the Tony Romas since there are none in my hometown anymore, I really thought the mall was alarmingly dead. There were a few stores and all seemed to be clothing or cell phone accessories and truly looked like the same thing. Admitedly I was there on a Wednesday so maybe it is different during the weekend but seemed a little ghost town to me. I consider a mall to be hopping if there are more stores than vacant spaces and Bella Terra just did not seem to fit that bill. I thought it was very pretty if not boring as there seemed to be no real variety in stores.
Yep. where the movie theatre is there is a long corridor. Halfway down to the end there are only 3 businesses, a hair salon, a barbershop and another hair salon WITH a nail salon in it. All located next to each other. At the intersection of the north and south wings in the middle there is ONE business, some cosmetic surgery place and nothing else. Of all the things I cannot understand is the preoccupation with vanity.
The mall is not dead by Dominican standards but not hopping as Pichardo would have us believe. i base this on having to go to the BP there.
With regard to the drainage issue, it has nothing to do with the street drainage system, even though they too are overloaded way beyond their intended capacity.
The drainage issue is an internal issue and is due mostly to specifying an interior grade tile when exterior should have been used. Not only that there are not enough floor drains. The issue could be resolved by tearing up the tile and added the correct one or using standard concrete but forming it in the form of tile and adding color for asthetics.
With regard to the drainage issue, it has nothing to do with the street drainage system, even though they too are overloaded way beyond their intended capacity.
The drainage issue is an internal issue and is due mostly to specifying an interior grade tile when exterior should have been used. Not only that there are not enough floor drains. The issue could be resolved by tearing up the tile and added the correct one or using standard concrete but forming it in the form of tile and adding color for asthetics.
Here lies the problem!
Perception! You're using foreign values on how a biz works to that of the DR...
Even the busiest Mall or shopping plaza would look dead or down in biz using that set of values held by most here from their homelands. Like I said, the foot traffic in the DR is not really the key to how biz do in sales. In the DR people go shopping to the stores when they need something, not based on window's impulse shopping like most other countries.
The shopper will come in, spot what he/she needs and grab it. Then they'll look around a bit before heading to the counter and leave the shop. Only after these steps those shoppers become foot traffic around the Mall/Plaza areas (with low %).
Unlike in the U.S./U.K./CAN Dominicans consider it to be rude and of lacking manners to loiter about a place of biz when they don't really need to buy anything from it. In most cases they'll look from outside the store and display windows.
I have a cousin in Ontario that owns a Hobbies shop and over 85% of the traffic is lookers not buyers on any given day of the week. In contrast his brother owns a sport's ware shop in SD and 70% of his traffic are buyers that came in for something in particular with less than 20% of that number buying on impulse after browsing around a bit more.
This you can see everywhere there's a Mall or Shopping Plaza in the DR! Only the ones with food courts and other type of services can be said to have regular foot traffic patterns. But then again, those are equally targeted clients aiming for that sole experience in the area with some minor exceptions.
About 90% of expats that invest into a biz in the DR fail, even when using a good amount of financial resources. That's because they all use their imported criteria of what biz is to the DR, which does not applies at all here.
First mistake they do is to target several segments of client bases that are not stable and falls victim to world economic patterns with ease: Tourists, expats, etc...
Another big failure is to think they can get about growing their biz without advertising much or at all. Dominican biz spend big bucks on targeted campaign advertising year round. They use the twitter, facebook, myspace and all other media to link to clients and create their own biz pattern. More than 90% of biz in the DR are operated by the owners themselves.
Most stores you see that fall under the Dominican owned pattern, are based on an already existent biz run from the home office and that now extended to the site as it grows out. Their clients are there to support their basic operating expenses and they now have an extended wing to grow their biz even more from.
Let's take Robert's biz as an example here (Cobraboy). He's operating a biz that targets mostly the tourist kind and nationals to some degree. If Robert wanted for example open a presence in the Bella Terra Mall with a kiosk represented with a rep, the fact that you only see one or two people per day getting biz done there is not meant to identify his biz as "dead". In reality he's doing more biz than usual he does from his base in Jarabacoa. This is VERY common for Dominican biz all around.
Robert could go to lengths of setting up kiosks or small stores in many Malls or plazas around the DR, which can target a wider potential client base based on commissions for the reps. Would that mean that because you can only see one or two people carrying out biz at the kiosk/stores the MotoCaribe biz is dead? Far from "dead" it's alive and well...
Take the recently opened Office Depot in the Galerias 360 Mall. This biz has been in operations from a small cubicle in SD for over two years already, serving biz all around the country. They moved into their new store and already many are calling it a dead duck...
One day I'll set up a DR1 Dominican Biz 101 seminar, for all of those interested in learning how to carry out biz here and survive the expat biz "dead" trend...
For a fee of course! I'll even offer free Coffee (from our DR1 new Cafeteros brand) and donuts (KKreme).
I just finished my divorce here and can now focus on getting rid of some stuff till then.
Some valid points.Here lies the problem!
Perception! You're using foreign values on how a biz works to that of the DR...
Even the busiest Mall or shopping plaza would look dead or down in biz using that set of values held by most here from their homelands. Like I said, the foot traffic in the DR is not really the key to how biz do in sales. In the DR people go shopping to the stores when they need something, not based on window's impulse shopping like most other countries.
The shopper will come in, spot what he/she needs and grab it. Then they'll look around a bit before heading to the counter and leave the shop. Only after these steps those shoppers become foot traffic around the Mall/Plaza areas (with low %).
Unlike in the U.S./U.K./CAN Dominicans consider it to be rude and of lacking manners to loiter about a place of biz when they don't really need to buy anything from it. In most cases they'll look from outside the store and display windows.
I have a cousin in Ontario that owns a Hobbies shop and over 85% of the traffic is lookers not buyers on any given day of the week. In contrast his brother owns a sport's ware shop in SD and 70% of his traffic are buyers that came in for something in particular with less than 20% of that number buying on impulse after browsing around a bit more.
This you can see everywhere there's a Mall or Shopping Plaza in the DR! Only the ones with food courts and other type of services can be said to have regular foot traffic patterns. But then again, those are equally targeted clients aiming for that sole experience in the area with some minor exceptions.
About 90% of expats that invest into a biz in the DR fail, even when using a good amount of financial resources. That's because they all use their imported criteria of what biz is to the DR, which does not applies at all here.
First mistake they do is to target several segments of client bases that are not stable and falls victim to world economic patterns with ease: Tourists, expats, etc...
Another big failure is to think they can get about growing their biz without advertising much or at all. Dominican biz spend big bucks on targeted campaign advertising year round. They use the twitter, facebook, myspace and all other media to link to clients and create their own biz pattern. More than 90% of biz in the DR are operated by the owners themselves.
Most stores you see that fall under the Dominican owned pattern, are based on an already existent biz run from the home office and that now extended to the site as it grows out. Their clients are there to support their basic operating expenses and they now have an extended wing to grow their biz even more from.
Let's take Robert's biz as an example here (Cobraboy). He's operating a biz that targets mostly the tourist kind and nationals to some degree. If Robert wanted for example open a presence in the Bella Terra Mall with a kiosk represented with a rep, the fact that you only see one or two people per day getting biz done there is not meant to identify his biz as "dead". In reality he's doing more biz than usual he does from his base in Jarabacoa. This is VERY common for Dominican biz all around.
Robert could go to lengths of setting up kiosks or small stores in many Malls or plazas around the DR, which can target a wider potential client base based on commissions for the reps. Would that mean that because you can only see one or two people carrying out biz at the kiosk/stores the MotoCaribe biz is dead? Far from "dead" it's alive and well...
Take the recently opened Office Depot in the Galerias 360 Mall. This biz has been in operations from a small cubicle in SD for over two years already, serving biz all around the country. They moved into their new store and already many are calling it a dead duck...
One day I'll set up a DR1 Dominican Biz 101 seminar, for all of those interested in learning how to carry out biz here and survive the expat biz "dead" trend...
For a fee of course! I'll even offer free Coffee (from our DR1 new Cafeteros brand) and donuts (KKreme).
I just finished my divorce here and can now focus on getting rid of some stuff till then.
I suggest the reason most expat business fail is because they tend to depend on expats or tourists to support them, and many have never been in business themselves before. The odds of a business succeeeding without local clientele has got to be lower that 10%.
One needs to import their revenues if they don't rely on the local market, and that can be tough. MC has not had one Dominican client.