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Weekly UpdatesApartment Avaiable: Newly rehabbed loft in a great location! Amenities include a swimming pool, fitness center parry room, dog run and new stainless Steel appliances Close proximity to public transportation.
All of these phrases sound like a surefire way to attract potential residents. But is it enough? Furthermore, is there a way to tailor messages to generations and media to generate more interest in your properties?
Although it may be true that no two people are exactly alike, it is equally true that those who share a generation--Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, for example--have many preferences in common. Real estate managers who recognize these preferences and devise generational marketing strategies to address them are a big step ahead of the competition.
"The hardest rask to figure out is who the primary market will be," said Laurence Harmon, CPM[R], CRE. "Orten, property managers will tell us that they house residents of all ages. While that may be true, in the analysis of the property's demographics, there is always a primary age cobort."
Laurence Harmon is principal at McGough Companies, a property development and construction firm in St. Paul, Minn. Kathleen Harmon CPM, ARM, has been president and CEO of McKenna Management Associates, Inc. for 25 years and is CEO of Great Places, Inc., a Web-based resource for senior housing, which the couple launched in 2007.
The two wrote Marketing Residential Properties: The Science and the Magic (IREM, 2008), their fourth book, in part to stimulate property managers and on-site personnel to intensify their marketing efforts even during significant slowdowns in the housing industry.
"The book expands the focus of residentiai advertising to include for-sale marketing techniques," Laurence Harmon said. "it recognizes that residential marketing is essentially the same, whether the subject is apartments, townhouses, single-family homes, condos or even mobile home communities. The advertising challenges are similar and the on-site marketing skills are the same."
To make the best use of generational marketing, the Harmons said property managers need to look at their properties from two directions. First, they must determine what characteristics favorably differentiate a particular property from the competion. Second, they need to look at the residents already in place and determine their primary age group.
With that Information in hand, they can devise what the Harmons call a "rifle" approach to marketing, rather than the "nuclear weapon" methodology that attempts to include every potential feature of the property in marketing efforts.
"Ads in rental magazines often have a blizzard of fonts, headlines, graphics, photos, lists of amenities, prices and maps," Kathleen Harmon said. "That's the opposite of what we're trying to do."
Generational marketing may sound like a risky approach to some property managers who fear that in using it, they may violate the Fair Housing Act. Tide VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, probibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status ... and handicap (disability). Marketing to a specific slice of the population in no way implies that you will rent only to that slice.
"Fair housing is involved with protected classes," Laurence Harmon said. "The idea of crafting an ad campaign to appeal to a particular demographic has nothing to do with appealing on the basis of race, gender or whether or not a person is handicapped."
Property Specifics
Whether you are managing a new building or are taking on an existing property with many units already leased, determining the generational market is an important first step. "In a perfect world, a developer would say, 'Who is going to come live here?' not say, 'I've built it; they will come.' But that doesn't happen," Laurence Harmon said. "Marketers are not involved at the beginning, So [as an example], by default a marketer may say, 'I'm going to get seniors because they are the most reliable, They move less than anyone else.'" But Harmon stressed that it really is best to speak directly with the target audience--seniors in this case--and find out what would impel them to move there."
Careful consideration of a newly renovated property's potential market helped Steven Van Zile, CPM, a manager at Eugene Berger Management Corp., in Rohnert Park, Calif., take aim at a generational market. After the 1994 Northridge, Calif, earthquake, Van Zile's company quickly rehabbed a building that had been damaged. Recognizing its proximity to an area of upscale homes where property owners were in the midst of repairing earthquake damage, Van Zile tried a new marketing tactic.
"The building was near a college and the demographic before the earthquake and the rehab had been college kids," Van Zile said. "After the rehab we realized our marketing plan had to go toward the older condominium and homeowners who had been displaced."
Van Zile and his co-workers took an aggressive approach, marketing their property to successful 40-to-60-year-olds as a comfortable, if temporary, alternative to their homes. Property managers knocked on doors and appeared at homeowners association meetings. They told potential residents, "You'll find yourself living beside the same neighbors that you had next-door in your homes." Within 60 days, 90 out of 200 apartments were rented.
Similarly, Van Zile's company took advantage of location in choosing a generational market for Emerald Pointe Apartments. Marketing for the building--located on a hill near Diamond Bar, Calif., a community of million dollar mansions--was aimed at 45-to-60-year]-old executives who could afford the rent and wanted to live in a single-family home neighborhood. As a further attraction to this Boomer crowd, marketing materials mentioned the golf course across the street and Emerald Pointe's newly installed on-site putting green.
Who Lives Here?
A consideration of residents already in place has helped Peggy Taylor, district property manager at Landsman Real Estate Services in Rochester, N.Y., define how the features and amenities of particular communities can be used in ongoing marketing.
"We have become much more aware of the need for clean, cleat ads and have found more creative ways of reaching out beyond a traditional marketing plan," Taylor said.
Taylor's company designs ads to suit the residents already in place in order to attract more of the same. For instance, at a senior citizen community, residents feel they have earned the right to the best in service and planned activities, and they are not shy about communicating their needs as a group. So the advertising for this community are tailored to the group's traditional values, and appeal to the Silent Generation's sense of deserving respect.
Another of Taylor's communities includes a small student population of "millennials," members of Generation Y. To attract more of them, ads appeal to the value they receive for the rent they pay.
To find out just who the current residents are and what they want, Kathleen Harmon suggests having staff members perform a survey, calling 20 to 30 people in a single day.
"Ask them what they like best about living in the community, where they first learned about the building, what attracted them to it and when they moved in. This can help you target a future market," she said.
Generational marketing also helps with resident retention, said Julie Muir, CPM, at Elliot Associates, a full-service property management company in Portland, Ore. Muir offers residents a menu of reward options for renewing their leases.
"New carpeting serves as a good incentive for older folks," Muir said. "Younger people like us to refinish the hardwood floors."
Property managers need to attend to the personal preferences of each resident, which is time- and labor-intensive, the Harmons admit. But in tight markets, this sort of personal touch is a positive differentiating factor for any real estate, whether for rent or purchase.
"Leasing agents are taught to be loving and seductive to prospects off the street, and after they move in, they pay no attention to them," Kathleen Harmon said. "It costs little to keep residents. Just be nice to them and recognize that they are almost free to you.'
Know Your Audience
To reach their target market, property managers may need help determining the preferences of potential residents. Phil Goodman, president and CEO of Genergraphics, a marketing firm in San Marcos, Calif, suggests using market research like the Internet, telephone surveys and focus groups. But Goodman believes surveys that are handed to people who come to see a property, work best.
The surveys can begin by determining a visitor's age group. Rather than asking, "How old are you?" which may seem too personal, the survey can ask those who complete it to check a box choosing the range of years in which they were born. Entering their name in a drawing for a prize or providing another type of incentive will encourage the completion of the survey, Goodman said.
"Ask the same questions of everyone; the way the different generations answer will tell you what percentage of each is coming through the door," Goodman said. "Then apply their responses to your sales and marketing materials."
Assigning property managers and leasing agents whose ages are in accord with a property's targeted generation can help with generational marketing.
Taylor said a constant educational process aimed at the leasing, management and maintenance staffs helps employees recognize, listen to and understand the individual generational needs.
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