“When I started in the business, people were talking about getting your logo on everything and your ‘signature color,’?” says Brenda Hvambsal, director of marketing for Minneapolis-based Steven Scott Management, which manages more than 6,000 apartments in the Midwest. “It was all about tulips in your front lobby, or whatever you thought your signature was.” Such elements of a traditional branding strategy are still important. Companies like Steven Scott still pay branding consultants to research and construct a consistent look and message (in fact, nearly all the companies contacted for this story have updated their branding within the past four years, with new, carefully designed logos, tag lines, and service promises), but that effort, as Hvambsal implies, entails more than just pretty colors and icons.
Two years ago, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. spent “quite a bit of money” to freshen up its traditional branding, including a new signature color. “For 40-plus years, we were green. We’re now blue,” says Jennifer Staciokas, director of marketing for Lincoln, which manages 140,000 apartments in 31 states.
To put it another way: No one is throwing out their tulips. But even though traditional branding still has a measurable impact on prospects, an apartment firm’s reputation among its customers—including its online reputation—can matter much more, says Doug Miller, president of Lutherville, Md.–based research firm SatisFacts. In a recent online SatisFacts survey, renters rated the impact of a management company’s brand name on their decision to rent at only 2.8, on average, on a scale of 1 to 5. That means potential renters do care about branding—but not that much. A score of 3 represents “neutral” in the survey.
Reputation makes a greater difference than branding, especially with young renters, says Miller. Nearly three-quarters of renters read customer feedback or reviews online when deciding on a purchase or lease. “They’ll validate every decision they make through some kind of reputation website,” says David Seiler, EVP of San Diego–based Trinity Property Consultants, which manages 15,000 apartments in several states.
Modern Reputation Management
Because of the importance that today’s renters place on online critiques, apartment professionals now work overtime to protect their reputations. That means responding to comments online and fixing systemic problems that can lead to negative remarks.
