The right communication solves all problems – How simple non-verbal communication solved the problem of under-age delinquents visiting a shopping centre.

Considering the structure of towns in North America and the fact that they do not have compact town centres, for the most part the social lives of citizens develop in large shopping centres that are conceived as pedestrian zones with a main square. Aside from shopping in these areas, people like to relax, walk about, spend time together and eat lunch in them. This is why shopping centres put a large emphasis on creating a feeling of security within such micro-locations. Relaxed people buy more and stay longer in spaces where they feel safe and comfortable, which again increases the possibility of spending.

One large shopping centre on the south coast found itself in big trouble when a group of under-age delinquents started to visit it. Due to their noisiness and their bad behaviour towards the other visitors, they created an uncomfortable and unsafe atmosphere. News about the problematic group in the shopping centre quickly spread about the town, and the number of visitors started to drop noticeably, resulting in a fall in sales in the shops. The management of the centre promptly reacted by adding extra security services. But the increase in the security guards had no effect whatsoever. The group of delinquents quickly ran away whenever the security guards appeared, and even more quickly returned making even more noise than before in attempt to pay them back. Since this involved a group of under-age people, the security guards had to be very cautious in their approach. In addition, they were not able to stop them legally, since they had not stolen or physically attacked anyone, but had only created a feeling of general insecurity around them. Nevertheless, the number of visitors and consumers continued to fall. The management of the centre added additional security service patrols in the walkways of the shopping centre, but they didn’t manage to solve the problem at all.

One day during a marketing meeting, they were complaining to their communications strategist about this problem. They thought they might combat the drop in visitors by embarking on an aggressive promotional campaign. The communications expert didn’t agree with this idea, and considered that it would be a totally cost-ineffective investment that would not remove the problem of the under-age delinquents. An aggressive and expensive promotional campaign would certainly attract new buyers to the shopping centre but then when they got there they would simply be confronted with the problem. He suggested that the communication should not be directed at potential visitors, but instead needed to be directed towards the problem with the aim of solving it.
He asked the management to reduce the number of security guards to the number that had been there before the trouble started, and also requested that centre’s music system played classical music such as Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven and Bach all day long. The management were very sceptical about this, but they listened to him. Two weeks later, the communications strategist came to visit the shopping centre. He was met by walkways full of customers and a satisfied management, and there was no sign whatsoever of the under-age delinquents. The director of the centre asked the expert to explain to them why the delinquents had decided of their own accord to stop coming to the centre without the intervention of the guards. It was not clear to anyone what had happened. The communications expert explained that the initial use of extra protection sent totally the wrong signal, because it was exactly what the delinquents wanted. This is what they were looking for. It made their visits to the centre more interesting and more fun. The game of cat and mouse made it even more attractive for them to return every day. The situation needed to be totally turned around, so that the centre became unattractive to this group of young people. By putting classical music on the sound system, they felt bored and uncomfortable, and by breaking up the game of cat and mouse, an atmosphere was created which they did not find either interesting or comfortable. It is difficult to be cool and a ‘big man’ whilst Verdi’s requiem is being played.

This simple non-verbal communication changed the atmosphere, and it was possible to make them feel uncomfortable. As a result, they themselves decided not to come to the centre anymore.