When a coveted upscale retailer finally opened a store at the Eastview Mall in Rochester, N.Y., last January, the mall’s marketers wasted little time using the event to lure well-heeled patrons from across the entire state.

“This was a great opportunity for us to expand our market reach,” says mall marketing director Marie Karasinski. “We knew that certain shoppers outside our immediate market would want to know they could now shop at this store in person, instead of online or by traveling to New York City.”

While the local promotion for the store opening focused on publicity, Karasinski chose direct mail to reach out to shoppers in high-income ZIP Code™ locations in Buffalo, 90 miles to the west, and in Syracuse, 90 miles to the east. An 11-inch by 11-inch postcard announced the store opening and also trumpeted a popular outdoor apparel retailer slated to debut inside the mall six months later. Nearly 15,000 of the oversized postcards were mailed to a total of nine ZIP Code locations in the two distant markets.

The postcard’s size assured that it stood out in a homeowner’s mail — but the real features were in its messages: Each piece included driving directions from the recipient’s community to the mall. The nine sets of driving directions — one for each ZIP Code location — were generated on the design end; the printer handled reproduction and mailing. The direct mail piece also offered shoppers a complimentary cup of coffee from a popular mall kiosk near the new retailer’s location.

“Direct mail gave us a more targeted reach than other mediums,” says Karasinski. “We could use our market research to reach the person who might be willing to shop here, or one who already does and would want to know about the new store.”

While Karasinski declined to discuss the specific results of the campaign, she says both the mall and the upscale retailer have warmly embraced the effort. “They way exceeded their goals for the opening,” she says.