experience marketing
Don’t Bing it On
You have probably heard commercials for this or seen it on the internet…Bing It On. Essentially, Bing is conducting a blind test of your preference for Bing or Google search results.
It is the ‘Pepsi Challenge’ of the 21st century. The only problem is, even if the challenge favors Bing more often, like it did Pepsi in the 80’s, there is a major flaw in their logic. I think Bing is under the assumption that if proven in a blind test, web searchers will actually start to change their behavior and choose Bing. Coca-Cola made a similar assumption when people started preferring Pepsi and nearly killed their brand to try to save it. Because, even though people prefer the taste in a blind sip test, that does not necessarily predict behavior. In the real world we don’t actually search for things blindly. That is to suggest that the experience means a lot more than simply the words on the page. Mainly, the power of the Google brand is being severely underestimated as was Coca-Cola.
Current contest explanation:
In the test, participants were shown the main web search results pane of both Bing and Google for 10 search queries of their choice. Bing and Google search results were shown side-by-side on one page for easy comparison – with all branding removed from both search engines. The test did not include ads or content in other parts of the page such as Bing’s Snapshot and Social Search panes and Google’s Knowledge Graph.
In my opinion, sensation transference has a huge impact here. Real or not, people have a strong emotional attachment to Google and the aesthetics and experience associated within. So taking all of that away would obviously have an impact because it is no longer Google. Same thing with Bing. Frankly, I hate Bing for many reasons one of which is actually the relevancy of their results to my search query. Which even in this test I noticed was an issue. While I agree this marketing campaign probably brought some additional recognition to the brand, the actual conversion will be minimal at best.
Blind Apartment Test
With Bing’s logic, we could stick anyone at our apartment communities and they would sell. We all know it takes a lot more than a pretty property or even one that meets all our ‘search criteria’ to get the sale. The experience (sensation transference and all) will make the sale in my book, every day, all day long.
In the blind test I still chose Google. Try for yourself – share your results with us! My advice to Bing is to take the approach that Pepsi did. Instead of trying to take customers from Google, create your own niche. Pepsi went for the younger generation and it worked. Coca-Cola still has more market share but the gap between them is less significant.
Will you change your search behavior based on your results?
My results…
(side note, Bing you have terrible apartment search results – thank you Google for including Mills Apartments on page one)
Apartment Marketing: Cinema on the Lawn – Redux
We wrote about this idea back in the summer of 2007 when we experimented with it at Park Station Apartments in Saint Louis, MO. It was a big hit not only our residents but with the community at large. Park Station is set in the historic DeBaliviere Neighborhood near the popular Central West End. It is surrounded by condominiums and 100+ year old mansions. The one amenity the neighborhood lacks is a reason to get together. There is no cool factor.
Create the Experience And They Will Come
That was and still is the reason we host the outdoor movie series in the summer time. We team up with the neighborhood home owners association, DeBaliviere Place Association along with Frontyard Features to organize and execute the event. It’s set one of our parking lots near a large grassy knoll with provides for comfortable seating. Our team also provides chairs, drinks, popcorn, pizza and hot dogs to movie goers. The movies are new release features which we purchase license for via Swank [make sure you get the license as the fine is very hefty if you don’t].
Invite The Neighborhood
In the spirit of marketing apartments – Cinema on the Lawn was a project targeted at the neighborhood at large. The implied effect that we were after was to get the neighborhood together – stimulated by a cool experience that they would have reason to talk about. It worked as evidenced by the growing number of attendees. The last movie we presented was attended by over 100 people more than half of which did not live in our apartments. While I can not prove out a number as it relates to leases, I can say with confidence that we enhance the experience of living in the DeBaliviere Neighborhood and as such we were raved about.
Build Your Own
I caught this on my train ride back from Chicago on Sunday – it’s not all that hard to build your own outdoor theater.
What kind of things are you doing this summer to draw in the community at large?
Technorati Tags: @mbrewer, mbrewer, mikebrewer, mbrewergroup, experience marketing, outdoor apartment cinema, outdoor movies, frontyard features, debaliviere, park station, mills properties
Apartment Marketing: Share the Moment
Have you every kicked yourself for not writing something down because you wanted to remember it later? How many times have you been in the middle of something else and thought of the greatest thing since sliced bread and then failed to document the moment? Or, you keep 43 tabs open on your browser because your crazy cool Twitter friends keep sharing crazy cool blog post links and FREEZE – I hate this one with a purple passion.
Facebook as a way to capture apartment memories
One way I like to think about Facebook as it relates to Apartment Marketing is as a way to capture memories – be it your residents, yours or otherwise. Think of it as the time-capsule that never gets buried only to be of use later. The memories are there and always accessible by anybody and everybody.
Think of those memories as powerful little marketing messages that never rest. It’s that whole theory of your most influential evangelists selling your apartments on your behalf. Dare I say, it’s the most powerful form of an ILS out there today. And, you want to capture as many relevant, thoughtful and meaningful messages as you can.
Give your residents a crazy cool and awesome place to capture their apartment living memories and experiences – you will love them for it. It’s not just about creating memorable moments anymore – it’s also about capturing those memorable moments in a manner that is useful for all involved.
Where are you capturing memories?
