It’s no secret that the past few years have seen a wave of new apartment communities open. To better compete with these ultra-modern properties—and because the cost of new development continues to climb—many owners and operators are redeveloping existing communities.
Panelists in the "Second Act Leasing Success: Attracting Residents to Redevelopment Projects" session at Apartmentalize 2024 said, the accompanying rebranding effort can prevent a renovated property from maximizing its financial performance if it’s not executed properly.
“Redevelopment is a hot topic,” said Diana Mosher, Principal Designer at Diana Mosher Associates. “Everyone is talking about it, but not everyone is getting it right, and not everyone is meeting their NOI goals.”
The panelists agreed that a rebranding must encompass every touchpoint prospective residents will encounter in their customer journey.
Justin Godwin, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Cushman & Wakefield, told the story of how one rebranding effort for a renovated property was undercut by the new monument sign.
“We delivered this fantastic brand, and the thread was pulled all the way through, from soup to nuts, except for the monument sign,” he said. “When the sign was delivered, it was completely disconnected from the overall brand. It was almost jarring.
“Here’s the psychology of it: Having a consistent brand from the digital to the physical hand-off is really worth it. If you have that consistent branding across all channels, it builds trust in your future resident, and it also informally tells them they can rely on you to be consistent with the customer service you’re delivering.”
The panelists also stressed the importance of bringing a wide range of stakeholders into the renovation and rebranding process as early as possible.
“I wholly believe that the more cooks you have in the kitchen when it comes to a branding project, the better,” Godwin said. “You need your vegetable peeler. You need your sous chef. The more people you have in the process, the better.”
Kim Ziereis, Co-Founder of Après Creative Group, echoed those sentiments.
“Hopefully, everyone on the team will see some part of their feedback in the final product and that really helps, when they see it reflected back to them,” she said.
Onsite teams can play a particularly valuable role during the planning for a renovation-related rebranding, Ziereis added. “They get so excited, and they really have great input to inform the project, too,” she said.
Too often, apartment communities neglect to spend money for professional photos of their renovated units and amenities for property websites and ILSs, the panelists said.
“If you’re going to invest money in updating these units, you need to invest in some photography,” Godwin said. “That is just a given. I don’t care how great you are on your [device]. You just can’t take a photo from your [phone] and think it’s going to be good enough to represent the thousands of dollars your ownership group has invested in these renovations.”
In the end, owners and operators need to be prepared for the expense of a rebranding effort, according to Ziereis. “Invest well,” she said. “It’s not a cheap undertaking, and you can’t cheap out on carrying the rebranding through to every single touchpoint you possibly can.”
Stephen Ursery is a Senior Account Manager at LinnellTaylor Marketing.