Apartment marketing
What is in Your Lifestyle?
I really like what LIFESTYLE Communities is up to. I received the following via email today:
Mike ,
Would you like tickets to one of these concerts at The LC Pavilion?
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for Zappa Plays Zappa (TONIGHT!) July 8th. Enter by 2:00pm EST on 7/8/09.
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for First Strike Combat / NAAFS Cage Vengeance 5 this Friday, July 10th. Enter by 2:00pm EST on 7/9/09.
Click here to enter the Last Minute Ticket Giveaway from Lifestyle Communities for Collective Soul and Gavin DeGraw on Saturday, July 11th. Enter by 11:00pm EST on 7/8/09.
One or more winners will be randomly selected for each event. Each winner will receive two (2) tickets to the event. For information about the Last Minute Ticket Giveaways from Lifestyle Communities, reply to this email. For more information about events at The LC Pavilion, visit the PromoWest Productions website.
Check out The Annex at River South condos and apartments in Downtown Columbus.
Thanks,
Chip Ashby
Lifestyle Communities
cashby@lifestylecommunities
Top five things I like about it:
1. It was permission based
2. The offer was relevant
3. The sense of urgency was not invasive but rather -“hey, by the way…” or “hey, just in case…”
4. Great call to action
5. Subtle product insertion at the bottom – not as the lead
Great stuff –
Do Signs Matter When Renting an Apartment?
Thought
I ran across a blog this morning that suggested that dollar signs or the lack thereof mattered when it came to significantly increasing a restaurant patrons spend. Just for sake of discussion I visited a couple of ILS’s; Apartment Finder, For Rent and Apartment Guide and found that all of them use $ when demonstrating price.
Restaurants use it successfully
The Food Section: Restaurant Menus, Dollar Signs, and Spending
A new study by the Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration reveals that the way in which prices are displayed on restaurant menus has an impact on the amount of spending by diners.It’s Not Normal – Does that make it remarkable?In the spirit of being remarkable or memorable – would it make a difference? Would it give cause for a prospect to inquire about the higher priced apartments and or would it allow us to push rates with no real consequence to our leasing efforts? Is it worth testing to see if it works in our space?
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
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?
Using Social Media to Market Apartments – J.C. Hart
J.C. Hart Live the Life Video Contest 2009
“Last November at the Indiana Apartment Association “Industry Outlook” presentation, the speaker said a dirty word when sharing his thoughts about 2009. It was much longer than four letters, beginning with a “C” and ending in “onsessions”. After that night we began brainstorming about overcoming this obstacle. What we came up with was “The Year of the Resident.”- Mark Juleen
“Turn the focus inward” became the mantra for Mark and his team. They re-imagined the way they would allocate their marketing resources spending money on such things as; resident functions, upgrades to social meeting spaces and special promotions. One of those special promotions made use of the social medium YouTube and the catchy tune, Live Your Life by T.I. [featuring Rihanna] It really caught our eye and we wanted to feature it here.
“Some may have already had a chance to see what’s been going on with our first “Special Promotion” called the “J.C. Hart Live the Life Video Contest.” This contest asks for J.C. Hart Apartment Community residents to create a two minute video or less on why they love living in their J.C. Hart Apartment Community and Apartment. The videos were posted to YouTube.com to enter, and since, were narrowed down to the top 5 finalists in our 6 winning categories. We posted these finalists to a custom blog (livethelife.homeisjchart.com), and have just recently selected our winners. You can read the winners announcement on the blog, and view all the 44 entries on the J.C. Hart YouTube page.” – Mark Juleen
We asked Mark to share the numbers with us and this is what he had to say –
All data and information as of March 31, 2009:
- YouTube.com/homeisjchart Channel Hits – 11,045
- YouTube Video Entry Views (44 total video entries) – 34,420
- Total views in-full (YouTube does not count partial views or facebook sharing views)
- Live the Life Finalist Blog Hits – 13,483
- Absolute Unique Visitors – 10,048
- Page views – 27,248
- Only 360 users on Dial-up
- Facebook referral hits – 819, 2nd highest next to direct URL
- Hits from 37 countries (astonishing # from Guam)
- 146 comments (88 alone on Overall)
- Votes Cast Using Poll Daddy Polls – 15,554 (6,964 for Best Overall Video)
We’d also like to share some of the comments we’ve had from the contest as well.
“Just wanted to let you know that this contest was a great idea.”
“I thought all the videos were great! Everybody did a really good job. It’s great to see so much participation!”
“Way to go J.C. Hart! Great to see your pro-active involvement in assisting those with disabilities.”
“This contest has been a lot of fun….we really had fun making the video.”
When asking a prospect how they heard about us: “I saw you on the J.C. Hart website. It sounded like a fun place to live. You are listed on my notes under the “funny video” apartments.”
“Thanks J.C. Hart for running such a great contest. It’s nice to see a company do something so unique and cool. I don’t work for J.C. Hart, I just live here. :)”
It has been fun and exciting to open up new communication lines with our residents. A huge proponent for our online social media efforts has been our local marketing partner Firebelly Marketing. With their expertise and our talented leasing teams we have been able to implement a number of new online tools and enhance our web presence. We feel by utilizing social media tools we are now reaching our residents more frequently than we ever could with resident events or more amenities. Most importantly, we’ve found a group of our residents that love to share their stories and love their apartment/community. Beyond the online data, these testimonials help confirm we are doing things right as well. It’s our goal to “Make your home an enjoyable living experience,” and many of our residents have helped demonstrate that for us.
I think this is a great testament to the use of social media to market apartments and in the same respect, I have to imagine that Mark and his team were mindful of the fact that someone could have used this platform/stage to speak adversely of the J.C. Hart brand. I applaud that this did not detour them in their efforts. Thank you for demonstrating some real courage on this one Mark.
The story gets better. Or, at least in my opinion it does. On two different occasions I emailed Mark, at the request of people I told about the J.C. Hart contest, to ask if he would field some questions – questions about how these individuals could create their own respective contests. Mark, being the class act that he is, said absolutely. To me – that is what is all about – sharing for the betterment of the industry as a whole. Hats off to you Mark and thank you for taking the time to share with us.
You can learn more about Mark and what he is up to at the following sites:
LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/mjuleen
Twitter Account: www.twitter.com/mbj
Other Profiles: www.theapartmentnerd.com
