Branding a shopping center can be an important element of success. As the retail market continues to focus on experience, creating a brand and brand characteristics can create value for stakeholders and attract new consumers. It is a way to stand out in an increasingly competitive retail market.

"A brand is much more than just a logo. The branding process is intentional and can be broken down into a few phases; strategy and positioning, placemaking, design, and execution," Matt Dean, creative director at Beta, tells GlobeSt.com. "Each one of these components is a necessary element in creating a project that has a thoughtful and consistent brand."

Shopping center branding will follow a similar strategy as corporate and personal brands. The goal is always the same. "A brand is a person's emotional feeling toward a place, product, or service," says Dean. "For shopping center branding, this is the core principle that the attributes of a center all come together to create the projects brand. Attributes may include visual design and branding, verbal branding, on-site amenities and placemaking initiatives, the retailers at the center and a series of additional brand touchpoints."

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.