The most luxurious shopping mall in Athens is probably the Golden Hall. Most of the tenants are shops on the higher end, which offer their premium merchandise in there. In general, for a brand to sell something on a premium (ie. to “decommoditize” it) the marketers usually tell a unique story about the product/brand, so to generate demand for the item and justify the price premium.

Golden Hall, likewise other shopping malls, is organizing activities to grow its brand and drive traffic. One of their initiatives is called Utopia, and can be described as following: a futuristic concept showroom that features several products available in the shopping mall, which does not operate solely as a product aggregator but as a place where a coherent brand story is narrated. Practically, every couple of months a curator in cooperation with fashion influencers, creative directors, stylists, videographers etc. tells a different story through art and personally selected items found in the mall. With the aid of state of the arts technology the creators of Utopia engage shoppers in a discussion around trends and fashion.

What I liked about it? Golden Hall has not laid back. Instead, they lead the shopping experience with the aid of a curator who creates a unique, unheard, “mosaic” story that drives sales for the mall tenants and grows the mall’s brand name. They made a bold move of assuming the responsibility to grow their business by telling a brand story on their own (and not solely rely on each brand alone to tell their individual brand stories).

Utopia is a state where shopping is told through a coherent story by Golden Hall.

What do you think about it?