Apartment Marketing
Apartment comes with FREE Music or Movie Download
I feel compelled to preface this post by saying that the bulk of stuff I share here has never been implemented. A lot of it is knock off material from other industries that I think could be shaped or formed in some fashion to apply to what we do. Some would argue that good content should be based on the premise of real ideas that have been tested in the market place as to have merit – I am not one of those people. I think if you are immersed in an industry there is a certain level of license given regarding your thoughts and ideas. All that to say this – enjoy the posts for what they are.
Idea
T-shirt comes with free music downloads – Springwise
….but bundling with downloads adds an extra incentive for consumers to buy, and at a considerably higher price. Indeed, the OFF=ON connection is giving companies in industries far and wide new ways to connect with customers—not to mention new revenue streams. How about your brand…?
Free Downloads When you Tour and or Lease Today
Could you team up with iTunes to provide a discounted and or FREE download to your prospects and or residents? Could it be a way to encourage repeat visits to your on or off-line communities? Think Starbucks – they give away a FREE download of the week. Not sure it’s the number one compelling reason that most people go to Starbucks – it might be for some. If nothing else it provides a sub-conscious emotional connection.
Emotional Connection
Music and movies move our emotions. There is not one movie or song on the planet that avoids striking emotion in the hearts and souls of people. I am sitting in Starbucks right now and there is a jazz or blues piece playing – not a real fan of either – and it strikes me as smokey and tired. Makes me want sip a brandy and sleep. And, that horn is killing my head. The point is we associate music with time and place and at each one of our communities we have time and space. Would it not make sense to use FREE movies and music to cement an emotional attachment to our apartment experience?
apartment marketing, multifamily marketing, mike brewer
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Multifamily Brand: Energy Makes the Difference
What is the difference that makes a difference when it comes to your multifamily management brand? The standard textbook answer might include words like awareness, trust, regard or esteem. Settle there however and you miss the key ingredient. Energy.
It’s All About Energy
John Gerzema and Ed Lebar discuss energy and what it means to a brand in their book: The Brand Bubble. In chapter two they use a poignant quote from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall to set the stage for the difference that energy makes to a brand “A relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And what I think we got on our hands is a dead shark.”
Why is Energy Important
Any great brand must keep moving forward in order to remain relevant in the hearts of consumers and it takes energy to do that. The advent of the Internet coupled with the development of social mediums have made staples like; awareness, trust, regard and esteem simply the price of admission. Even then trust in brands has declined 50%, according to John who is the Chief Insights Officer at Young and Rubicam. Simply put, the reason energy is so important is that it boosts differentiation. People are tired and they are looking for stuff and things that pick them up and keep them vibrant. Brands that fill that void by staying fresh and relevant will win the lions share of loyalty in consumers – if there is such a thing anymore. Those who don’t will die like the shark that flips his fins for the last time.
What Can You do to Create Energy
You can dig deeper into the lives of your prospects and residents. Let’s step out of our industry and look at an example of this. Frito Lay dug in and found that the bulk of their consumers had more money on the first of the month than they did at the end of the month. Armed with that information, they decided to sell bigger packs during that time and scale back to smaller packs during the middle days of the month.
Could we maximize our brand building efforts on the same theory? Could we convince major ILS’s to allow us to scale ads up and down relative to the ebbs and flows of the prospect’s pocket book? How about the ebbs and flows of their search habits? Could we then provide relevancy and vibrancy on their terms and relevant to their emotions?
Energy is the difference that makes a difference for your multifamily management brand – what are you doing to create it?
Update: [6.22.9] Seth provides a great concept on creating energy…Circling the big domino
M
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Purchasing feedback: I will pay you vs. I will give you something free
Read the following tweet this morning [RT @[xyz] @[abc] Suggest that you give away a free Flip to every prospect/resident that creates a [management company] Experience Video, Beats free rent] – it really got me thinking.
I have read both sides of this issue and have taken the position that if you disclose that you are paying for and or giving something away in exchange for an endorsement then frankly it’s okay. It really comes down to what is in the eye of the beholder. And, I think, at the end of the day, if a person really wants a product/experience they will go and get it/have it despite the persons of influence in their lives. They may read and listen but if they want it – they want it, period.
My real point here is that the above tweet implies that it’s okay to give away a Flip in exchange for an endorsement. Moreover it specifically states that it’s better than giving away free rent. On that point I ask: What’s the difference? – give away free rent or buy 20 Flips to give away – either way you hit the bottom line. Sure buying the Flip is cheaper and brings along a novelty that escaped the free rent give away long ago but it’s still an expense. It’s just a different form of currency. Marry it with a “you get the Flip free “if” you give me an endorsement and you have really marred the picture but I will leave that for future conversation.
For now – I really wonder what the community thinks – Is the Flip, used in this sense, a form of currency that could be construed as purchasing feedback? If so, is that okay? Would it pass a Yelp sniff test? Do you think the masses really care? Would you give equal stage to people who would speak conversely about your brand experience? Is it better than free rent? If so, why?
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Bing
Microsoft debuted a new search engine on May 28, 2009 called Bing. Head on over and Bing yourself, your company and or your apartment community. You might be surprised by the results.
Dubbed the decision engine, Bing is suggested to help users search the web more intelligently. It does so by grouping or organizing search results according to users preferences. You can learn more about Bing by watching this informative video.
Bing is not Google and it will likely take some time to gain traction with users but it is cool. It makes me think the SEO game will/has changed. Will we now be competing for Bing Juice and if so what are the key drivers? I ran a few apartments in [insert city] searches where companies usually dominate the front page of Google and found some interesting results. Each time it yielded [among the usual ILS’], a company URL, usually down the list, not the social media stuff. Now when you type in a specific company name social media seemed to dominate the listings.
Now I know it is early and in the same respect if Bing does take off to the extent it changes the game for Google and others, what will that mean for all the work we are currently doing with Social Media? Not suggesting we quit but does it change our approach? Should be interesting watching the news and reviews unfold over the coming weeks and I would love to hear from some of our more tech oriented MFI users on the subject.
Have a great week. M
*Note this is an edited version of the initial post.
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Using Wave to Market Apartments
Can you imagine a service that combines email, instant-messaging and document sharing? Well now you don’t have to; Google Unveils a Conversation Service called Wave – WSJ.com.
This struck me as I am currently working on a piece that is relative to
the next generation of the Internet; Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web and in
my opinion this speaks directly to it.
This is a fascinating topic in that it really boils down to search
engine sites racing to organize web content around a set of standards –
standards that would ultimately give meaning to web pages. Meaning so
precise that any search term you typed in would yield the exact person,
place, thing or in our case apartment that you were looking for.
Imagine searching for a $612 second floor one bedroom apartment facing
Forest Park in Central West End of St. Louis and boom you get it. Add
the words; near someone I know and boom you find one right next to one
of your Facebook friends. Google’s Wave is for all intents and purposes
a way to organize conversations in such a way that they have a more
precise meaning to the end user. How might something like this be
useful in our space?
Using Wave we could generate a message on the topic of a recently
vacated apartment home and the need for a new resident. We could then
send it out to our permission based user set [read: resident
evangelists]. Maybe we tie an incentive to it or maybe we don’t. The
point is the evangelist would then go to work finding their next
neighbor all the while content is being organized. Each time that
happens Wave gets smarter and each time the end user gets a richer
experience in yielding exactly what they search for. And, over time the
scenario above becomes more realistic. It all makes my spin. You think
social media is fun? The Semantic web will bring a whole new meaning to
apartment marketing. And, just when you think you can’t take anymore
the Web in things will be in full force.
And, with that I must hit the publish
button as it is 2:33AM and I have a big day planned with my kids.
Have a famous weekend.
M
Related Story:
Will Google Wave Eliminate the Need for PR as Media Relations?
apartment marketing, semantic web
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