Retailers plan to market Cape Town worldwide
A Central Business District Retailers' Association is on the cards as part of a grand plan to aggressively brand and market Cape Town worldwide.
The Cape Town Partnership, which comprises eight local organisations, including the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Unicity and the South African Property Owners' Association, plans to put the city firmly on the international business and tourism map. It has already put together a forum to formulate an agreed brand.
Other roleplayers on the forum include Wesgro, Cape Metropolitan Tourism, Western Cape Tourism and the International Convention Centre.
A marketing plan for "Brand Cape Town" is being drawn up based on successful international models.
Research will be a first step but but the marketing plan might need significant funding to really take off. The partnership is confident it can get the funding.
As part of the brand positioning, the board of the City Improvement District has instructed specialists to put together a CBD Retailers' Association.
The association will also play an integral part in the brand and marketing plan.
As an early step towards the establishment of a retailers' association, the improvement district intends to compile a complete retail database for the city, probably through the use of a published form which will be filled in and faxed back to it.
Tamra Veley, a communications specialist asked to help put together the association, is confident it will be up and running in about three months.
The Cape Town Partnership is the managing agent of the City Improvement District and Michael Farr, the partnership's chief executive officer, says the association will benefit both bodies in terms of marketing and branding.
"What makes a successful shopping centre is what makes a successful city. There has to be the right tenant mixture. This has everything to do with a retail association," says Farr.
He says the CBD has a good mix of retailers but to compete on the global market with cities like Melbourne in Australia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and San Francisco in the United States, it needs a higher level of small business and general retail activity.
About 240 000 people - not counting tourists - enter the CBD every week day and the area provides 28 percent of the jobs in the Cape Metropolitan Area.
Farr feels this market is not being properly tapped by inner-city retailers already in the area, partly because there has been insufficient marketing.
He says the association will also provide statistics to market the city centre overseas.
"We plan to make the CBD a retail destination" he added.