How Healthy is Your Brand...

The Branding Strategy Insider, a well-written Branding Blog I read on occasion, has put together a "Top Ten" list for determining the relative state of your company's brand. While I'm not usually a huge fan of Top Ten lists, this one has some solid, basic advice for nurturing your brand's health. I especially liked the multi-part section on loyalty (number six on the list), which touches upon the importance of keeping clients or consumers coming back. The author writes:

"6. Loyalty – The lifetime value of loyal customers is often not fully appreciated. The rule of thumb is that it is 7 to 10 times more costly to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. The primary measures of this are:

a. Actual loyalty as measured by ‘share of requirements’ or ‘share of purchases’ and the following attitudinal measures:

b. Willingness to recommend the brand to a friend,

c. Repurchase intent (willingness to repurchase the brand considering all of the experiences the customer has had with the brand), and

d. Switching propensity given different competitive price discount scenarios or brand out-of-stock situations."

The entire article can be found here.

Online advertising is more than just Pay-Per-Clicks and SEO tricks...

As the world of internet marketing evolves, clients and their ad consultants are getting savvier in the strategies they develop to drive traffic to their web sites and increase brand awareness. As recently as two years ago, we were frequently called upon to design new sites for clients, without any real corresponding discussion about how the new site would fit into the client's online advertising strategy. The relationship would begin something like "We really like what you did for Client XYZ, can we get something similar?" Only later would the client begin to ponder precisely how they were actually going to get noticed on the web.

Shame on our clients for their shortsightedness and shame on us for not advising them better.

As things progressed, the stock-in-trade solutions for an online ad plan relied on organic search optimization and Google pay-per-click. As a firm which frequently builds websites for new construction real estate projects, the concept of organic optimization is a thorny one for us. Most larger scale developers desire -- and the market benchmarks these days demand -- the enhanced entertainment platform that only Flash websites can deliver. The problem with this is that, as web developers know, Flash websites are tough to make "search engine friendly."

After having worked with scores of real estate developers, though, we've become skeptical that optimization is really critical for the average new construction housing development. Buying a new condo or house is a very intentional act and the traditional portals people use to survey the market are still viable. If I'm shopping for a new hard drive for my computer, I might very well start my search and buy from a vendor that floats to the top of a Google search. However, if I'm searching for a new condominium in Philadelphia, it's highly unlikely that I am going to be swayed by the first listing that comes up through an organic search. There are many local
and national portals on the web people can use to begin surveying properties on the market and, frankly, most folks still rely on the "call a well-known realtor" approach to getting the lay of the local real estate landscape.

Beyond organic search optimization, Google Adwords or "pay-per-click" was the next ad strategy frequently mentioned by our clients as being attractive. Pay-per-click works well in partnership with Flash web sites, as it allows the client to compensate for their "optimization-challenged" natures, by allowing paid advertisements for their projects to show up when predefined search criteria are entered into Google. So, for instance, our clients can choose a search string in Google ("Philadelphia Skyscraper Living," for example) and an ad and link will float to the first page of the resulting search page.

As the internet matures, though, much more sophisticated marketing strategies are being developed. In the recently published, "Online Advertising Playbook," authors, Plummer, Rappaport, Hall and Barocci discuss some of these. Many borrow traditional strategies and apply them to the interactive realm. For instance, Google now places their "sponsored links" (which are essentially Adwords messages) on contextually relevant sites for a given demographic. So, for example, if I'm on an automobile site, there's a good chance that I'll see auto-related Google adwords somewhere within the site. Besides, Google Adwords, though, similar strategies are being employed to place all manners of ads on sites deemed contextually relevant. Other strategies, many borrowed from the world of broadcast advertising, are being employed successfully on the web. For instance, the authors cite Kentucky Fried Chicken's successful rollout of their "popcorn chicken" product, which was promoted through the use of "daypart advertising" on popular general interest web sites, such as msn.com. Daypart advertising
basically relies on the idea that you run an ad at a particular time of the day when either your target market is expected to be online and/or is in a buying mood for your product. In the case of KFC, the ad was run between the hours of 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, when a large percentage of the online audience is contemplating their lunch choices.

For those of you interested in learning more about the strategies shared in "The Online Advertising Playbook," I urge you to click here...

More Nifty Web Tools...

Now this story from Inman News... There is truly a dizzying array of online tools available to real estate marketers. From Zillow to Trulia, the internet is awash with companies trying to capitalize on "Web 2.0" technologies to create a more instantaneous and interactive real estate sales environment. In the following video, shot recently at the New York event, "Real Estate Connect: New York City," panelists share some (lengthy) thoughts about what Web 2.0 tools are and how they can be employed within the context of real estate marketing. The linke is here...

Tenets of Online Ad Design

Falling into the "from the vaults" category, I happened upon an interesting blog entry written by Alex Kirtland, an information architect who writes about web-related design issues.

One of the issues we find ourselves increasingly concerned with is moving beyond thinking of ourselves simply as website designers and broadening our scope of expertise to create "complete" online presences for our clients. For instance, our clients usually want to market or advertise on the web and, as a result, we've created online newsletters, email blasts, designed online ads and, generally, tried to develop the expertise necessary to counsel them about the best use of their marketing dollars.

In the following blog article, Alex addressed the issue of the design of online ads. Always a challenge for designers, we must constantly balance the level of intrusion which any online ad places on the content of the reader versus the advertisers need to "be heard." In the article, Alex offers several summary design suggestions for artists, including: wrapping ads in borders to distinguish them from their surrounding content, clustering the ads in one location, and using "leaderboards" (full width ads running at the top of the web space) to best effect. In the end, the win - win proposition for advertisers to both be heard but also to not intrude on the reader's experience of web content. At any rate, the article's worthy of a peek...

Some Belated Holiday Cheer

The holidays have come and gone but, in the spirit of holiday cheer and in an effort to begin the New Year on an optimistic note, I thought I'd share some "let's put some things in perspective" news I found in the December issue of The Real Deal.

True, housing starts are down nationally and, in fact, many regions of the country have experienced price declines over the last several months. However, Ken Harney, notes several reasons for optimism in his December Real Deal column. Consider, for example:

• Despite the recent fall in both prices and sales, (in some markets) the overall upside of five years' worth of boom has been a positive one for the American homeowner. Harney, notes that, overall, the total equity owned by American homeowners is still at near-record levels, topping out at almost $11 trillion. (Total equity holdings, he notes, refers to the difference between the market value of the entire residential market, which is $21 trillion and outstanding mortgage debt, which is approximately $10 trillion.) So, then, American homeowners have more money tied up in their homes than (almost) ever before.
• Even in hard hit areas such as South Florida, most homeowners and homebuyers through most of the boom are still way ahead of the game. In South Florida alone, for instance, home values increased a whopping 130 percent between 2001 and 2006. Thus, even accounting for the double digit drops in prices over the last year, the net out for most homeowners in the region remains robust.

The sub-prime lending crisis is, of course, throwing the emergency brake on a train that was already slowing down, but, with the exception of those that bought late in the cycle, Harney counsels American homeowners to look at the bust within the light of the overall (significant) gains which were made in the first part of the decade.

And if that news doesn't perk you up, there's always that leftover egg nog in the fridge...

NAHB/BIA Marketing Awards for Philadelphia Real Estate

The 2007 William Penn Awards are given annually to recognize outstanding Philadelphia-area development projects and the marketing efforts behind them. The BIA chapter held an event in September, at which this year's winners were announced. This year's winners, listed categorically, are:

2007 William Penn Awards of Excellence Winners

1. Rookie of The Year
   Gina Spaziano - The National, K. Hovnanian
2. Sales Manager of Year
   John Kriza - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
3. Best Sales Team
   Locust Point - J.A. Reinhold
4. Best Project Manager
   Joe Saturno - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
5. Best Community Logo
   The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
6. Most Creative B/W Print Ad
   Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
7. Most Creative Color Print Ad
   Combo Ad, Westrum Development
8. Most Creative Brochure Under $7
   Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
9. Most Creative Brochure Over $7
   Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
10. Most Creative Marketing Campaign
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
11. Best Website Under $10,000
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
12. Best Website Over $10,000
    Splat Productions for Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
13. Best Sales Center
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
14. Best Architectural Design Condo
    Waterfront Square, Isle Of Capri
    runner up - The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
15. Best Architectural Design Townhome
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge, Westrum
16. Best Conversion Under $500,000
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
17. Best Conversion Between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
18. Best Adaptive Re-Use
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
19. Best Interior Merchandising Under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
20. Townhome of the Year $500k-$799,999
    Hilltop at Falls Ridge Society Hill Model, Westrum Development
21. Best Condo Under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
22. Best Condo Between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
23. Best Condo Between $800k-$1.5m
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
24. Best Condo Over $1.5m
    Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC
25. Community of the Year under $500k
    Locust Point, J.A. Reinhold
26. Community of the Year between $500k-$799,999
    The Phoenix, Keating Development Co.
27. Community of the Year between $800k-$1.5m
    The Residences at Dockside, The DePaul Group
28. Community of the Year Over $1.5m
    The Residences at Two Liberty, The Falcone Group, LLC

I thought it was praiseworthy to recognize this year's winners. Even in down markets, builders and marketers use all the resources at their disposal to create and market innovative product which will appeal to urban homebuyers.

The Beaver Has Been Banished...

When I first began writing "Sitegeist" a couple of months ago, one of the first stories I ran dealt with the very risk-taking and risque branding completed in Manhattan for the new construction project "The William Beaver House." The Beaver House used a fictional mascot (a beaver, of course) who was emblematic of the quintessential Beaver House resident. He was a globe-trotting successful entrepreneur who liked to spend time with the ladies. The entire site was suffused with cheeky irreverance and, to read it, one got the sense that the project was built for a very well defined demographic.

A week and a half ago, I was meeting with a Manhattan sales prospect and we logged on to the Beaver's website and -- gasp -- the entire branding for the project had been reworked (see homepage above.) Gone is the fictional mascot (except for an iconographic representation in the lower left corner of the homepage) and gone is the messaging targeting the jetsetting, swinger demographic. The website now has this pristine "precious metal" look and is much more traditional in selling the value of the project.

All this begs the question: How seriously do developers really take this whole notion of "branded architecture?" If one buys into the current thinking, projects are being developed these days with the notion of creating distinct and definable brands. Thus, if a project was aimed towards a young successful set of globetrotters, one would include amenities that spoke to that demographic. How then, is it possible to just change the branding of a project without changing the design or the amenities? This seems to be what the Beaver House is doing. I guess the market will decide if any of this really matters...