Exploring Design Needs of Wifi-Marketing as Promotional Strategy for Mall Industry

Abstract

Jakarta is one of mall paradise in Indonesia. The emergent of middle class economy has shifted consumer behavior in visiting Mall. Nowadays, people visit mall for various reasons such as hangout with friends, meeting with client, window shopping and many more. Moreover, Wifi Marketing is new trend in marketing innovation. It is one of competitive advantage in attracting more visitors. However, More visitors don’t guarantee the increase sales of tenants in Mall. Promotions are needed to help tenants in reaching out mall visitors through wifi-marketing. The purpose of this research is to explore the design needs of Wifi-marketing as cutting edge technology to maximize promotional strategy for Mall business. This is qualitative research in which data is collected through observation and in-depth interview with 8 informants (3 tenants and 5 visitors of shopping mall). The findings showed positive technological readiness towards wifi-marketing which can be interpreted from their optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity. Optimism and innovativeness become the drivers of wifi-marketing since it showed users’ likelihood to adopt wifi for promotional purpose. However, discomfort and insecurity become the constraints for wifi-marketing in terms of privacy issue. Using design ethnography, the design of wifi-marketing welcome page should meet with visitors’s needs such as information about mall directory, promotions and special offerings, new tenants information, restaurant recommendation, and customer service support.