It is fascinating to chat with multi-family executives across the nation about their Brand. Every business has a brand recognition, even if a bad one. Every property has a brand recognition. Your Brand is not what you think it is, it is what your resident thinks it is, it is what your employees think it is and it is what your vender’s think it is. Lots of companies clamor that their employees are their number one asset, are you ready to hand over what you tout in your marketing material randomly to your employees. Are you ready to hand your brand over to your vendor? But the group with the most influence is your resident. If they were designing your brochure, would it have the same or similar message as the one in your clubhouse?
You are creating an experience for your residents at every touch point throughout the resident life cycle. That experience, which is not owned by you, is what your brand is. In the not so distant future, all you will have to do is log onto Yelp, or any one of the other commanding rating sites and you will be able to read just what your brand is, and if you are not participating in the conversation you may be left out in the cold. It will certainly be much more efficient, and perhaps then, we may all choose to actually listen long enough to be aware of what we are portraying everyday by our actions and behavior.
Create a Remarkable Resident Experience; What are the key ingredients of a Remarkable Resident Experience?
Remarkable, as defined by the legend Seth Godin;
• Remarkable doesn’t mean remarkable to you. It means remarkable to me. Am I going to make a remark about it?
• Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable. Running down the street naked will get you noticed, but it won’t accomplish much. It’s easy to pull off a stunt, but not useful.
Is the experience you are creating for your resident remarkable and does your resident find value in the experience created? Are you matching your Brand to a Targeted Experience. “Service excellence, just as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”! Take some time to evaluate what will Engage and Delight your resident based on your Brand. We were at the local Mini Cooper dealership a while back and they openly invite customers to bring in their beloved pets to the dealership, which some folks get excited about. It works for Mini Cooper, but you likely would not find that at the Jaguar showroom. Mini Cooper is matching a Customer Experience to their Brand and this example has no correlation to Luxury and does not get better by adding more money. Southwest Airlines, you either love them or hate them with the cattle call lines, no assigned seats, no frills. Yet true blue Southwest Customers like, enjoy, laugh with, and have a favorable experience with, Southwest. Herb Kelleher somehow figured out how to deliver a consistent, value driven experience, and permitted his employees to fix it when it was not.
What experience you are creating for your residents? Let us know your thoughts and stories here,
Eric Brown
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience. He also established Urbane Media, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine. You can connect with Urbane_Media on Twitter. Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications; Multi Housing News Social Media Examiner Search Engine Guide
Follow Me:
Related Posts -
LOOK WITHIN Urbane Lab Project #112408 It seems as though we are all being asked to do more and more each day with less and less. Pushing back and yammering for more help to the boss isn’t likely a good idea, and it comes across bad. An option is to Look Within. Yep, there is some...... -
Take Control of Your Web Site Traffic We ran an article last week about web site conversion titled How Are You Measuring Your Web Site Conversations, which outlined what the various ways that Google Analytics categorizes your web traffic. One of the things that can confuse things is New Traffic verses Reoccurring Traffic. At Urbane Apartments, we separate our marketing traffic from our resident traffic,...... - Need Some Marketing Advice? I had the wonderful opportunity to do a couple of Guest Blogs last week, one for Becky Carroll at Customers Rock on Focus on the Residents Experience. Becky is a long-time customer advocate and someone who is passionate about the customer experience. Becky has worked with companies such as HP,......
-
Build You Own Branded Media House, and Own It Our friends over at Duct Tape Marketing penned a great post this week titled, Facebook Is Not The House; Let me be very clear on my thinking on this: Facebook is not the house, Twitter is not the house, your social profiles spread far and wide are not the house....... - How Do You Make Your Residents Feel The mainstay backbone of our marketing strategy at Urbane Apartments is to Enhance the Residents Experience. There are lots of challenges, curves and obstacles that can get in the way at each Resident Touch Point to derail you.What's Your Part In ItEver wonder what experience YOU just helped create with......
Related Websites - Mini Sites Vs. Authority Sites - Which Is Better? Mini sites and authority sites represent two alternative online marketing models, and not everyone understands the real differences. Inexperienced internet marketers often don't know the difference or have trouble choosing between these alternatives. Among the many considerations that are involved, you can't ignore Google's algorithms when it comes to ranking......
-
The Right Stamp Collecting Accessories One of the first things that you need to think about as a new collector is what stamp collecting accessories are right for you. One of the first decisions to make when it comes to stamp collecting accessories is to find the right stamp album for your needs, because there...... - Infopreneur Niches - Wherever Do I Begin The Process Of? Total Product BlueprintIt happens to be apparent that this short article is directed at the novice, not the expert. So foremost, a area of interest is a certain area of specialization by which you will have selected (or will prefer) inside of infopreneur (material entrepreneur) advertising. It's got been claimed......
- Network Marketing Advertising Understanding Network Marketing Advertising Naturally advertising your network marketing business will cost cash, but how else could you potentially promote your product without it? Many network marketing consultants fail to even budget for advertising and hence they miss out on the chance to make money. Advertising truly is an investment,......
-
5 Backpacking "Tricks" to Use [/caption]Backpacking and hiking can be difficult - not only on your body and your feet, but also on your mind when you're sick and tired of moving. Thankfully, being in the outdoors doesn't have to always be so uncomfortable - or so tricky. Here are five backpacking "tricks" you can......
