ROBINSON TURNS FOCUS TO SUBURBAN AREAS

       Robinson Department Store will relocate its marketing activities to its suburban and upcountry branches and customise its strategy to cope with the new realities of consumers preferring to shop nearer to home.
       The movie is also because business was flagging at Bangkok stores due to the economic and political unrest.
       "We have gradually shifted our marketing strategy from mainstream campaigns to localised activities. The move is to cope better with different lifestyles and shopping habits of consumers at particular locations," Sirinij Chokchairittikul, vice president for marketing, said yesterday.
       "We have seen better living standards of consumers in many suburban areas due to the expansion of the city," she said.
       The company's Bangkok stores had faced tougher competition, so the company wants to focus more on its suburban and provincial properties, where the rivalry is less and potential is still tremendous.
       The company will hold its latest signature fair from Thursday to November 2 at Fashion Island Shopping Complex, a suburban mall on Ramindra Road. It will allocate over Bt10 million to the marketing of "Beauty World @ Robinson Fashion Island".
       The event, covering 1,200 square metres of exhibition space, will showcase about 50 cosmetic brands, of which over 20 are high-end, including Shiseido, Nars and David Jones Beauty.
       Prasert Sriuranpong, executive director of Siam Retail Development, which manages Fashion Island, said the shopping mall had weathered the recession quite well.
       "Despite economic and political difficulties, we have seen year-on-year growth in shopper traffic of 8.5 per cent so far this year," he said.
       Ramindra was a prime residential area with homes priced at Bt5 million-Bt30 million. People living there have high purchasing power, he said.
       Sirinij said half of Ramindra's households enjoy income of Bt50,000-Bt60,000 a month. Average spending per bill at the Ramindra Robinson has also increased dramatically from close to Bt1,000 five years ago to about Bt2,500 this year. Most best-selling products carry high price tags, such as luxury watches, IT equipment and fashion and lifestyle products.
       Cosmetics were among the products less buffeted by the downturn.
       "We have seen satisfactory growth of 5 per cent in our cosmetic sales in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year. We expect better sales this quarter, which is the peak selling season for cosmetics," she said.
       The company targets full-year growth in cosmetic sales at 7-8 per cent. Cosmetics are considered as strategic merchandise, contributing 15 per cent of Robinson's overall sales, which have risen by about 3 per cent so far this year compared to the same nine-month period last year.