Multifamily Marketing
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?
Rentwiki – The Classy Approach to Sales
I really enjoy the Rentwiki approach to sales. Below is an email they sent out on the eve of AIM – just classy if you ask me. Looking forward to meeting up with them.
Because a party should be a party w/o shop talk I’ve included a few bullet points below for your review. You can expect me to not talk about work unless you truly want to.
RentWiki is a brand new Internet Listing Service that provides peer advice on where to live, social networking, and the latest and greatest in apartment advertising on the web.
- WE upload all of your content for free; YouTube videos, any virtual tour, and unlimited photos and floor-plans
- Facebook and Twitter integrated; bringing more content, connections, and social networks to your prospects allowing them to answer questions and give neighborhood advice so you don’t have to.
- Free Widgets including Walk Score and contributed content sharing for your own corporate or property website
And you only pay $10 for every LEGIT renter lead. That’s right… the least expensive cost per lead in the industry (you’ll pay $40+ per lead elsewhere)!!
- We review EVERY lead, eliminate the trash and duplicates, and only charge for the true legit renter lead
- Why do we do this? So you don’t have to!! Our goal is to deliver quality not to inundate you with a ton of leads to filter through in order to find the legit ones.
- Set your monthly lead limit, change it at any time you wish, and come and go as you please… WE HAVE NO CONTRACTS!
Anyway… looking forward to hanging out with you at The Lucky Strike on Thursday night from 7-10PM!!!!
Feel free to call w/ any questions!!! Seriously… I love to talk about work but I know you wont at a party!!!!
—
Steve Wiley
WikiDirectorDudeman, National Sales
www.RentWiki.com/blog
http://twitter.com/WikiWiley
c: 404-771-7302
f: 770-458-2522
support: 877-458-2520 support@rentwiki.com
wiley@rentwiki.com
Geolocation opportunities for the multifamily space
Where are Twitter and Facebook’s Geolocation Features?
Here’s how a solution like that would operate: imagine you’re a local pub – with an AdWords like platform for geo-based ads, you could buy ads – on your own via the Web – that run from 6-10pm, promoting a drink special, that broadcasts only to people within a 5 mile radius of your location. That’s powerful, and for companies on the scale of the top social networks, a huge potential revenue driver, even in a bad economy.
I could not help but to think there is a multifamily application here. To think we could position our communities such that we could target anyone shopping properties within a five mile radius of ours, is simply awesome. Creepy – but awesome. I wonder what the 30 lines of the world are thinking about this platform.
Your multifamily fellow manic,
M
[Update]: Techcrunch put out the follow on 11.28.9: Watch Out Foursquare, Facebook is Poised To Dominate Geo We have taken a wait and see approach to the Foursquare model as it relates to renting apartments. It seems to me that over time people will settle on one to three major apps where they will spend the lions share of their time. Renting apartments as it relates to Foursquare, Loopt Gowalla, Simple Geo, GeoAPI and others will be a function that aggregates to Facebook or other major players. My question is will the numbers be big enough to warrant creating a full out apartment marketing idea using the Foursquare like applications? It will be interesting to see.
Reinvent the business card
I got my new business cards this week that included my twitter and blog identities. After feeling like I accomplished something cool, I started thinking there is so much more I could add. In terms of design I think my business card has to tie to my on line identity. So, next time around I will include my Linkedin and Facebook identities and possibly my avatar.
My primary point here is that the business card is/has changed – do you agree?
