Sansom Common now '36th and Walnut'

"Sansom Common" is no longer a name that appears in advertisements referring to the retail vendors between 36th and 37th streets and Walnut and Chestnut streets, as the University redoes aspects of its marketing campaigns.

Penn is now looking at advertising the section of campus as '36th and Walnut,' in reference to the busy intersection at one corner of the area.

University real estate officials are making an effort to further unite the retail and entertainment ventures surrounding Penn with a new marketing plan inspired by other successful shopping hubs around the country.

Marketing managers for the University have been reexamining and redeveloping their advertising strategies to help draw more shoppers to Penn and plan to keep reevaluating those strategies over the next few months.

One of the major components of the strategy has been to eliminate the "Sansom Common" title from advertising campaigns.

According to University officials, the strategy in the new advertising campaigns will be to unify the different retail hubs around campus.

"All the names -- Sansom Common, Sansom Row, Shops at Penn, and 40th Street -- got to be very confusing," Penn Marketing Manager Lisa Prasad said.

Prasad added that the University "wanted to put all of that under one umbrella of '36th and Walnut.'"

Prasad said Penn has been and will be looking at other successful retail destinations at other colleges and universities nationwide for their inspiration.

"Most universities have a non-academic image attached to it," Prasad said. "We don't want to become another King of Prussia Mall, but instead we want to portray it as a unique and energetic place."

According to many Penn students, though, the image of the intersection that is being used in the marketing campaign does not represent Penn retail nearly as well as some of the individual stores themselves, most notably the Penn Bookstore.

"I usually tell people to meet in front of the bookstore," Wharton junior Neha Jain said. "It's the landmark of any university."

College freshman Prem Tumkosit added, "Everyone knows where the bookstore is. It's easy to see from the road too."

Though it is not the final official name of the campaign, Prasad hopes that marketing the area as '36th and Walnut' will entice people to think of it as one of Philadelphia's attractions.

Prasad and her team likened the '36th and Walnut' name to other famous intersections and streets associated with shopping and culture in other big cities -- 42nd and Broadway and 5th Avenue in New York City or Haight-Asbury Street in San Francisco, for example.

Prasad added that, "With [the] Annenberg Center, Franklin Field, the Museum [of Archaeology and Anthropology], the Institute of Contemporary Art and the only Smith Bros. in Philadelphia, we have unique destinations."

And Tumkosit said that "Penn's a great cultural center... Enhancing the area around Penn will help bring people to it."

Others, however, disagree.

When asked if 36th and Walnut should be considered a tourist attraction, Jain said, "The [Philadelphia Museum of Art] area is where people go. At Penn, I'd tell people to go to Locust Walk, if anything."

With their marketing campaign and growing cultural attractions, Prasad and the University hope to change these perceptions.

"Last summer we hired a jazz band to play outside Cosi's which drew large crowds," Prasad said, adding that she and her staff have already planned to resume the concert series in the spring.

"We really want to make this area an amenity to students, faculty, staff and ultimately, Philadelphia," Prasad said.

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