Ion Orchard - not many shoppers and industry insiders seem to like the name given to the mall in Orchard Turn. But location and shop mix rather than name are key to survival
PULLING POWER: Ion Orchard’s stars will be six duplex designer flagships that will project the front of the multi-million dollar complex. — PHOTOS: ION ORCHARDSAY it loud - Ion Orchard.
Is it a clever, catchy name for a very high-profile Orchard Road mall? Or is it a moniker that you don’t quite know how to pronounce - let alone know what it means - and which sits strange on a mall?
After all, ion - which means an electrically- charged particle - seems to reside in the world of science and not the glitzy world of retail.
On Monday, CapitaLand and Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Properties, the joint owners of the mall, announced that they had chosen to name their multi-million- dollar mall Ion Orchard.
The 663,000 sq ft mall, which will rejuvenate Singapore’s main shopping strip, will come up at the junction of Paterson and Orchard roads at the end of next year. It was previously referred to as the Orchard Turn project.
‘The name Ion Orchard resonates a high level of energy, dynamism and magnetism, characteristic of an ion,’ said Ms Soon Su Lin, chief executive of Orchard Turn Developments which manages the mall.
‘It is a catchy name with easy recall and will appeal to a wide audience.’
The ‘I’ in Ion also celebrates the individuality in every shopper and the personalised experience that the mall will offer, she added.
The name was thought up by Singapore-based consultants Enterprise IG, the branding subsidiary of British advertising agency WPP Group, in October last year.
It was then tested with audience groups and marketing material for it was developed before the name was unveiled.
But a straw poll of 50 shoppers, branding experts and retail industry players yesterday drew mostly thumbs-down responses - 26 per cent liked the name but 68 per cent hated it. The rest were indifferent.
‘Ion Orchard is just too much of a mouthful and it sounds like some computer-gadget mall and may be a little misleading,’ said undergraduate Maria Lim, 24.
She prefers names ‘like VivoCity which gives an idea of a city full of shops and would draw crowds’.
Others noted that the word Ion is not easy on the tongue.
‘People may mispronounce it and I can imagine some calling it ‘Eye-On’ and others ‘Yee-On’, so it’s going to confuse everyone, especially taxi drivers,’ said businessman Suresh Kumar, 52.
For the record, Ion is pronounced ‘eye-on’.
He noted that a name like Orchard Central - another Orchard Road mall next to Specialists’ Shopping Centre which will open next year - is so much easier to pronounce.
Indeed, when Life! asked readers in May for possible names for the mega project, they tagged Orchard to familiar words like City, Junction, Paradise, Central, Square, City, Oasis, Jewel, Cross and Peak.
No wonder then that flavour chemist Willi Grab, 63, has trouble associating Ion with shopping.
‘I’m a chemist so I know all about ions, but how about the man in the street? While it is clear and short, I don’t see how ions are really linked to the mall or the shopping experience,’ he said.
Retail experts also had lukewarm reactions.
‘An ion is an atom or group of atoms that has lost one or more electrons. To most shoppers, that would probably not be an immediate association with a mall,’ said practice associate professor of marketing Seshan Ramaswami from the Singapore Management University.
‘Instead, ion probably brings up associations of various health-care products that use some ion-related technology for supposed health benefits.’
Mr Danny Yeo, executive director of property consultancy Knight Frank, said: ‘My first reaction was that it isn’t a catchy name. With a shopping mall, you want a name that is catchy - easy to remember and pronounce.’
Luxury haven
STILL, a name’s just a name. Popular or not, it will only go so far in keeping tills ringing, as the shops in hard-to-pronounce Ngee Ann City will attest.
Added Prof Ramaswami: ‘The name is far less important than location, which is really key, and the assortment of stores and other retail services like hairdressers and restaurants. ‘
Ms Soon is aware of this too, which is why the mall will attract a collection of flagship concepts that will offer a wide range of merchandise and services.
The stars will be six duplex designer flagships that will project the front of the sleek complex to create the impression of a luxury haven like Tokyo’s Ginza district.
Sun Hung Kai, which owns Hong Kong’s luxe IFC Mall - home to posh department store Lane Crawford among other top shops - ‘will be instrumental in opening the right doors for us’, Ms Soon added. For now, she cannot reveal which big names have signed up.
Experts point to other advantages, including its prime location and link to Orchard MRT station.
Hence, they say it should surprise no one if shoppers come in droves, never mind if the name Ion sounds off-putting for now.
As Mr Grab predicted: ‘After a while, people will get used to the name and it’ll become Orchard Road’s icon.’
And at the very least, it’s got the public excited.
‘The name doesn’t bring to mind a shopping mall, but it works because it’s different,’ said Ms Claire Cher, senior marketing and communications manager of property-based UOL Group.
‘The fact that we’re talking about it, discussing it and debating whether it’s a good name or not means that they’ve done a good job getting themselves noticed.’
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