Mike Brewer » Cool Marketing Ideas

Apartment Marketing: Friendslist

Mike Brewer — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:47:00 +0000

Friendslist might be something to keep an eye on. Especially in light of the shrewd move by Forrent.com in creating an exclusive, carve their client marketing partners right out of an avenue of advertising platform, relationship on FBs Marketplace. Could a platform like friendlist make the likely crazy expensive quasi-distribution point irrelevant? Likely not but I secretly hope so…

Friendslist offers a cleaner interface to start, but that’s nothing new. What it does is connect buyers and sellers, or people who are looking for jobs and people who are hiring, through the people they know. Yes, Oodle does this to some extent on Facebook Marketplace, but Friendslist takes a slightly different approach.

No offense FR. But, please know whether it was you, AF, AG or any other provider, I would feel the same. The move gave me every cause to expedite the reallocation of near $550,000 of FR specific marketing spend over the last 18 months. Not a complete departure but a semi-massive one. Stay tuned…

Give Customers What They Want

Mike Brewer — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:48:08 +0000

Seth posted a great story today title Everyone is Clueless – the video is especially compelling and is laced with a ton of powerful business lessons.

My biggest take away – we should be marketing reusable positions in lieu of recycling positions – it was a duh! moment for me. Now – how do we translate that to the apartment space.

I was also hit with the reinforcing message of: Give the customer what they want.

Check out the video

Today Show – Is it time to consider renting?

Mike Brewer — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:24:11 +0000

Take a look at this video clip from the today show.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Response from NAA:

Many of you may have seen the segment that aired Tuesday morning on The Today Show about residents negotiating rent with their apartment owners. Please click here to view the clip of the interview between Meredith Vieira and real estate agent Barbara Corcoran about the rental market in these tough times.

Scenario: If a current resident or a prospective resident comes to your community’s leasing office and demands free rent and any other unreasonable amenities/concessions, be prepared to speak to the value of apartment living. Do not simply give in to their requests.

First and foremost, apartment staff must consider Fair Housing. It’s the law. What you offer to one resident, you legally must offer to all. And, whatever “deals” that may be offered to residents should first be put in writing by the owner and shared with the leasing staff. Leasing professionals should not “wheel and deal” with current residents or prospective residents and should not offer “rogue” renewal agreements.

Following are some other key “selling points” to use in such cases:

1. For current residents who are seeking a renewal, owners should consider offering the same concessions as they would to prospective, first-time renters. Again, details of such “deals” should be communicated in writing to leasing agents from upper-level management.

2. If a resident specifically mentions “The Today Show” segment, remind them that the guest on the show is from New York City, which operates in a different “type” of rental and economic climate (i.e. condos). What is acceptable in NYC does not necessarily equate to conditions in Seattle, Denver, Orlando or (fill in market) from most of the rest of the country.

3. Tout the benefits of living in a professionally managed apartment community, compared to signing a lease with inexperienced owners of condos or single-family homes. Staff at professionally managed communities are experienced and capable of serving their residents’ needs in an effective way.

4. Mention that the ownership of some single-family homes and condos can be unstable in today’s economic climate and these properties run the risk of suffering foreclosures in the near term. Apartment communities owned and managed by established companies are more stable, as their owners invested in these homes for the long term. Operating apartment buildings is their core business. They are not in it as part of a get-rich-quick plan.

5. For communities owned or managed by large firms, remind prospective residents that they have set their rents based on yield management software, which determines rental rates on a daily basis, using sophisticated formulas and algorithms, and that the resident truly is getting the best price, based on the competition, in that specific submarket.

6. If your community offers flexible lease terms (such as a monthly or six-month plan), promote the benefits of signing a lease under those conditions to create more flexibility for these residents’ lifestyles. And with a set rent rate, these residents are living “inflation free,” especially if they lock in their leases for longer term leases, such as two years.

National Apartment Association: NAA Link | 4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400 | Arlington, VA 22203
phone: 703-518-6141 | fax: 703-248-9440 | Feedback

Today Show, Apartment Rental Market

So what is RentWiki?

Mike Brewer — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:50:06 +0000

That is the question Eric Wu posts on his blog. In Eric’s words RentWiki is “…peer recommendations on where to live.” See the entire post here.

I am excited to see this platform in action as I think Eric and his team really took the time to do this right. The look, feel and usability of the site is clean and simple.

I really believe this concept will ring true with consumers and with enough buzz RentWiki could become huge in the way of rental search. Just last week I was eating lunch with an industry vendor and brought up the subject of peer recommendations and how I thought RentWiki was a site to pay attention to. The response was fair and respectful with a kind of wait and see flair to it. I didn’t really push the subject at the time and in the same respect I think industry players will need to pay attention. I am not advocating that RentWiki will take over the world but I am suggesting there is room for them at what is quickly becoming and overcrowed table.

RentWiki, Apartment Search

Want More Rent?

Eric Brown — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:24:36 +0000

Color, Color, Color, add Color! Painting your units with color WILL start your trek to Break from the Pack. It is easy and you can afford it. What if you couldn’t afford not to? In today’s economy you can negotiate a deal with your local painter, and not just an accent wall, DIFFERENT colors in different rooms. It is as simple as choosing a few 6-8 different color pallets as options, and paint away. If you want to stand out from the folks across the street, start with color.

Want to really stand out, use COLOR and Low Emitting Paint, and start the path toward a “Greener Building” This stuff works, and is easy to implement, but……………., don’t ask, everyone will tell you no. Be the renegade, do it anyway and see the results in a unit that rented faster and for higher rents.

More to follow on Getting More Rent…………., and Thank you Mike for allowing me to articulate my thoughts and views on How to Break from the Pack herein on this venue.

The electronic guest card as a measure of media spend

Mike Brewer — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:58:10 +0000

Who cares about click through, impressions, page-views, video views, floor-plan views, etc… What really matters is did the prospect take action. Did they fill out a guest card requesting more information? Did they send the property an email?

That is what super marketers care about and advertisers that serve them should be ready. Measurement is becoming more and more granular.

What does Gen Y want in an apartment

Mike Brewer — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:50:48 +0000

I attended a conference in Denver this past week and one of the speakers did an interesting thing. She brought five people up on the stage that were part of generation Y and asked them a series of questions about apartments.

I thought I would spend the next four or five posts talking about the feedback she got as it was very interesting.

The first question (paraphrased), “How would you define the perfect apartment?” Now this question could have gone two ways, 1. A description of the interior space of an apartment home. or 2. Anything other than that.

The answers surprised me as they spoke mostly to things that did not have to do with an apartment interior. Here are the answers the panel gave:

Sense of Community

Classes: yoga, pilates, fitness coach

Fitness center
Community parties
Modern looking buildings
Gated parking
Modern look and feel on the inside (hardwood floors)
Business center
Covered parking
Close to mass transit

Technorati Tags: Gen Y apartments, marketing to Gen Y, apartment marketing, property management, mike brewer

Road rage meets apartment marketing

Mike Brewer — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:20:13 +0000

For Rent Magazine posted a piece on road rage this past week and I found it interesting that Portland, St. Louis and Seattle rank amongst the most courteous cities. I wonder; how does one research courteous drivers? Outside of that, I have lived in all three of those cities and driven on the roads of Los Angeles, which bagged the honor of most aggressive drivers, and I can’t say one there is a clear leader in the courteous department.

In my experience Portland was the worst but maybe thats because I commuted an hour and half one way. Seattle was a close second. There I commuted one hour each way. St. Louis is the best. My commute here is a brisk walk across the street to my office.

All that being said, I wonder if we can create a marketing campaign around rage. We could rent one of those moving billboards and have them roam the freeways during rush hour. We could use the tagline: Feeling the rage? If your commute is making you anger consider relocating. Call XYZ apartment company. I’m not sure that associating rage and anger with your product is the right thing to do but maybe there is a way to play with this.

Technorati Tags: Road rage, test of character

Apartment move in gift idaes

Mike Brewer — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:19:15 +0000

Swash is a really great idea for a new apartment move-in gift especially those of you who manage student properties. This line from their ad says it all:

“Swash helps keep the clothes you love to rewear feeling clean and fresh. So Mr. This shirt on the floor isn’t really that dirty and Lady These jeans fit me too perfect to put them anywhere near water, you finally have a way to deal with small stains, wrinkles and odors. Just Swash it out!”

How many times have you moved with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes packed in the Uhaul? I know I have. You new apartment residents will love it.

Technorati Tags: Swash, apartment marketing ideas, mike brewer

How is your “on-hold” marketing?

Mike Brewer — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:16:46 +0000

Have you ever been put on hold while on the phone with Southwest Airlines? Try it, call them today and ask them to put you on hold. You may want to change your message after you do.

Technorati Tags: apartment marketing, property management, mike brewer