Simon Properties Group, currently the largest national shopping mall owner, has put in a bid to acquire General Growth Properties Inc., which is in Chapter 11 and struggling to emerge from bankruptcy. The proposed price is $9 a share, which, General Growth says, is not enough to get the company out of Chapter 11.

However, if the bid proves acceptable or Simon Properties improves its bid, the implications for national shopping malls will surely alter the status quo. The combined companies’ malls make up one third of the national market, and almost half of the best performing malls.

With a single landlord controlling this number of properties, retailers are concerned that the company will have far too much influence when it comes to dictating leases and rental prices. They’re also concerned about possible negotiations to open new locations in less-than-lucrative malls. It’s in Simon Properties’ best interest to improve the foot traffic to its low-performing malls, which they can achieve by opening a popular store like a Gap to encourage more people to visit.

Retail stores, however, naturally don’t want the expense of running a store in a low-traffic area, which means that Simon’s influence as landlord may prove detrimental to them.

The deal is still in the works, but we’ll be keeping an eye out for a changing mall landscape.

About the author:
Peter Koeppel – Founder and President of Koeppel Direct, a leader in DRTV (Direct Response Television),  radio, print and online media buying, marketing and campaign management.

Bad numbers may have meant that an already-flagging media format was going to have even more trouble getting advertisers to buy space on their shows, at a time when major companies are already pulling out in droves at the last minute if they fear their spots won’t reach a large enough number of viewers.

New shows that did well on ABC include Courteney Cox’s show Cougar Town and FlashForward; there may also be significant strength behind the critically acclaimed comedy Modern Family. On the CW, there’s a new show cashing in on the vampire obsession sweeping the United States called The Vampire Diaries which held onto a whopping 100% of its debut audience and grew from week to week.

Returning shows with good ratings include House, with a 6.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, The Big Bang Theory, and NCIS. Fox also did extremely well with its return for House, with a 6.5 rating for their 18-49 demographic.

In the less-cheerful news, several returning series that have previously shown good numbers may be on their way out, with Community and The Office loosing significant viewers and ratings points, as well as Law & Order: SVU, CSI, and CSI: Miami showing lower numbers than expected. Heroes looks to be a dead show walking, and Dancing with Stars was down a frightening 24% from last fall’s debut, with the least-watched premiere yet in its 9 seasons at only 17.5 million viewers.

A few other shows are simply holding steady, including The Mentalist, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Jay Leno Show, all of whom are competing for the same Thursday time slot. It’s not a great turnout for broadcast, but it’s not the last trump either.

Sales had fallen 5.1% among retailers, not including the industry giant Wal-Mart, which recently stopped releasing monthly figures. Consumers are cutting back on non-essentials, which means that traditional activities like buying new clothes for back-to-school might be put off for months or even another year, as parents try to get back their financial footing.

Teen retailers saw the hardest hit, especially clothing stores. One reason why goes like this: Because teens have often already “hit their growth spurt,” they don’t always want new clothes because they need them size-wise, but because they want something newer and “cooler.”

This may explain why the uber-fashionable and expensive stores took the hardest hits – Abercrombie & Fitch Co. dropped by 28% – while discounted name-brand merchandise available at TJ Maxx has actually seen an uptick of 2.3%.

Department stores are also having a rough time selling back-to-school clothes, supplies, dorm furniture, and the like. J.C. Penney reported a 12.3% decline and Macy’s dropped 10.7%, while Target, with cheaper alternatives to similar products, still saw a decline of 6.5%.

A correlated problem is that retailers are cutting back on their staff, which means back-to-school teens and college students are having trouble finding work. No work means no discretionary income for that new back-to-school outfit or the little extras like a better laundry basket.

For right now, buyers are making do with what they’ve got.

Why not cars indeed. Mostly, the haggling has been what limits car’s availability online. Buyers know they can often get a better price by speaking with the dealer and engaging in some serious negotiation, and they’re not willing to pay sticker price. The idea of buying a vehicle for its given price is laughable, yet that seemed to be the only way to buy a car online – offer a price, put it in your shopping cart, and check out.

With a new joint venture by GM and eBay, buyers can get the convenience of online shopping without losing the benefits of haggling with their dealer. The pilot program, which is currently only available in California, allows shoppers to browse through 20,000 vehicles from the state’s 250 GM dealers, does have the option to allow the consumer to buy the car for sticker price, but it also features a way to bargain with their car dealer – online.

Though used cars have been available for purchase on eBay for years, this is the first program sanctioned to sell new cars from certified dealers. Dealers are motivated to participate because it can give them access to a wider customer base than the ones who simply know the local dealership, and of course customers have a better chance of finding the deal they’re looking for with more competition.

It’s a great new way to buy a car, but the ones who might be getting the best deal are GM and eBay.

The two major companies joined forces with a 10-year agreement to work on their web search technology together in hopes of rivaling the far-ahead market leader Google. The advertising expertise of Yahoo and the search engine research of Microsoft should make a fairly potent – if not game-ending – combination, but others are skeptical.

Investor shares dropped 12%, showing the disappointment many felt that Yahoo was not to receive any up-front payments, in addition to lower revenue-sharing and cost-savings agreements than had previously been speculated. Microsoft investors seemed a little more enthusiastic about the deal, closing at 1.4% up. Google dropped slightly, but not enough to raise any eyebrows – a scant 0.8%.

Even now, the deal hasn’t been fully implemented. It could take up to two and a half years to get approval and pass antitrust and privacy regulations.

Yahoo had previously attempted a merger with Google, which was dropped for antitrust and privacy reasons after the U.S. Justice Department began to look into it. The Obama administration may look more kindly on this merger to create competition for Google, but that theory is yet to be tested.

That’s a lot of obstacles for the merger to get through, but they may yet rival Google in years to come if they can manage it. All there is left to do is wait and see – and search online for updates.

No one knows just how long search engine marketing will continue to be so effective, but so far there appears to be no signs that the current economic slump is threatening to slow its success.

Search marketing is still effective
“We believe that search is not immune to macroeconomic forces, but we also believe it will have the least relative decline of the various marketing tools,” explained Craig McDonald, vice president of marketing and product management with interactive marketing and product management company Covario, Inc.
 

When asked why search marketing remains unaffected, McDonald explained, “I can tell you precisely the answer to that. There’s less risk in spending money on search. It’s very measured and the cheapest form of lead acquisition out there.”

2009 search marketing predictions
The numbers say it all. A new Covario study reveals yearly growth in paid search in North America was 32 percent during the third quarter. That’s about the same as the previous year.

What’s more, Forrester Research predicts paid search marketing will increase 26 percent this year reaching 114 billion dollars in the U.S. It is expected that search budgets will remain stable throughout most of 2009.

Advertisers pay a predetermined price every time someone clicks on a keyword located somewhere on the Internet. When the user clicks the highlighted keyword, he or she is directed to the advertiser’s website. Additionally, the advertiser is charged for the click.

PPC advertising is beneficial to advertisers seeking a way to increase traffic to their website almost instantly. One of the challenges PPC users face, however, is how quickly the campaign cost can increase as the websites popularity grows.

Therefore, the PPC campaign should be monitored closely to prevent a budget blowout. [Natural or organic rankings, often achieved by good SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword use is the second means for gaining good search engine rankings.]

PPC and banner advertising both present separate yet relative marketing strategies. The strategy that will work best for any given company depends mainly upon the goals and needs of the organization.

Either way, an experienced online media buyer can assist with the purchase of an ad campaign, and go a long way in maximizing the company’s ROI.

For all intents and purposes, banner advertising is used to raise and maintain a business’ brand and image. Banner advertisements are found on pre-selected websites, generally at the top of the page. When an Internet browser clicks the advertisement, they are redirected to the advertiser’s website. 

Banner ads are popular because they link potential customers to the advertiser’s website with a simple click. A banner ad campaign, like a DRTV campaign, is also ideal because it is easy to track the results and overall effectiveness of the online advertising campaign.

Not only can the advertiser see how many times an advertisement has been viewed, but he or she can also note the amount of customers who opted to click through to the website.   

The Simultaneous Media Survey reports on the input of more than 15,000 people. The survey also concluded for consumers to keep up with the overflow of media options, they have no choice but to multitask with other media.

“Technology is creating new media options faster than most people can assimilate and is causing more multitasking,” Gary Drenik, President of BIGresearch, said. “Unfortunately for marketers faced with the challenges of an uncertain economy and the need to increase marketing ROI, new media options are impacting how consumers use traditional media. 

“Specifically, TV’s influence on consumers to purchase products declined, whereas new media options such as web radio, satellite radio, instant messaging and blogging all increased,” he added. “Consumers seem to be seeking information from digital platforms while TV has traditionally been viewed as a brand building medium, which isn’t providing the requisite information.”

Despite the results, Bigresearch maintains that television advertising (including DRTV), infomercials and other traditional forms of media have not lost their overall influence. It may go without saying, but it remains more critical than ever that the advertising, no matter what the medium, is both timely and of value to the consumer.