sure that the sloganeering is elevated to a fresh level of absurdity, kicking off its marketing spiel for a new mall in the north-eastern city of Ban Chang, in Rayong Province, with the tenuous claim that the project upholds the notion of “Ban Chang, my home – let every day be a good day”.  But that’s just the beginning of the claptrap. The mall, which is the latest addition to Robinson’s “Eat, shop, play” portfolio, has a design consistent with the concept “Sense of island” and reflects the “traditional way of life of the Rayong people which is encapsulated perfectly as ‘City of Beautiful Marine Tourism’”. Last but not least, the mall aims to be “Central to life”. Please, give it a rest. Sometimes, you just wish that the marketing tripe, which actually obfuscates what is an excellent mall product, were left out and the real substance of the project brought to the forefront. There is plenty to crow about, and in an under-retailed pocket of Thailand, it should be starting to hit its stride now that it is six months old. Could the fact that it has been a bit slow off the mark be due partly to poor marketing?  A much-needed new mall While hypermarket-anchored centres are common throughout Southeast Asia and are one of the principal channels for serving second-tier cities, Robinson Lifestyle is more ambitious because it brings some genuine glam to markets like Ban Chang, with world-class design and an outstanding tenant mix that gathers an impressive breadth of merchandise, food and leisure activities. The selection of brands mixes local and national Thai retailers with brands from other countries in the region, including Korea, Japan and China. The project is the first real mall in the Ban Chang area. Unlike many new centres springing up around the region, this one is built neither in a centre of tourism, nor a dense urban office worker community. Ban Chang sits sandwiched between bigger centres of population and commercial activity. Most notably, the city of Rayong is about 30 kilometres to the east and Pattaya is just over 40 kilometres to the north-west.  While those two grab a lot of the glory and have their own commercial raison d’etre (Rayong is a major coastal commercial hub and Pattaya a tourist centre), Robinson Lifestyle Ban Chang will be leaning heavily on 50,000 residents of nearby Map Ta Phut, a cluster of five industrial estates that collectively make it the largest industrial park in Thailand.  Outstanding tenant mix The Ban Chang mall itself is just two levels but covers a large floor area of approximately 38,000sqm, with 15,000sqm of net leasable area. It is anchored on the ground floor by a glistening Tops supermarket and a swish Robinson Department Store. Opened with month-long promotions in March, it is Robinsons’ 25th lifestyle mall in Thailand. There are now 26 with the opening of a mall in Thalang.  Occupancy in the Ban Chang mall is 92 per cent, but it is hard to see where the 8 per cent vacancy is: there are no obvious dark spaces. Aside from the Robinson and Tops, the centre has a number of Asian apparel boutiques on the ground floor, along with cosmetics studios, banks and a Starbucks. The word from some of the apparel shop managers on the ground level is that business is just average so far, which seemed to be borne out by the light lunchtime foot traffic. Importantly for a contemporary mall and particularly one in its early innings, there is event space on the ground level near the main entrance. On the day of my visit, representatives from the local campus of a technical university were recruiting for students and giving lectures on renewable energy sources and waste elimination. Chairs were set out for about 100 people in neat rows in front of a stage. When the lecture started, there were only about five people in the audience, but this didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the first speaker, who went about his presentation as if he were facing a full house and getting a standing ovation with every utterance. Upstairs in the mall is a Supersports sporting goods store, conveniently adjacent to the fitness centre, which is small but well equipped (including a boxing ring) and buzzing with personal trainers. The second floor is also where the digital products are, a B2S stationery store and an Office Mate. A toy shop and musical instrument shop round out the merchandise mix. Last but not least is a large food court. A growing business The Robinson Lifestyle brand is owned and operated by Thailand’s giant Central Retail, which refers to the brand’s locations as ‘plazas’, and operates 39 more such plazas under the Go! brand in Vietnam. Collectively, these plazas enjoyed 17 per cent year-on-year growth in rental and services income in the first half of the year. In Thailand, the eat-shop-play concept is being expanded under a new banner called go!. One just opened in the south of the country and another three are planned for opening before the end of the year. Robinson Lifestyle Ban Chang is, overall, a lovely piece of work and proof of how comprehensively the concept caters to secondary markets. One of the oft-committed sins of shopping centre companies the world over is that they underinvest in secondary locations, preferring to pour capex into their branches in the mega cities. There is no evidence in Ban Chang that the operator is giving short shrift to its customers here. There is, in fact, something cool for everyone. And maybe that’s about the only slogan it needs.