Stop Selling Luxury, Even If You Are Luxurious

According to Newsweek, in the circles of America’s upper strata, a new emotion is being felt. Coined as “luxury shame”, and described as “embarrassment of riches, particularly the flaunting of riches”, the trend is cutting into high-end retailer sales.

It seems the wealthy, perhaps ashamed of the spending sprees and bling consumption encouraged and flaunted during the last decade, now are feeling sorry for their friends who have lost everything. It just doesn’t seem right to purchase and brag about the new Ferrari that was on back order at the dealer.

Not to mention, the public doesn’t seem to be any too tolerant of a company’s $440,000 spa retreats at the St Regis when their tax money is being used for that same company’s bailout.

If you run a luxury high-end community, now is not the time to be utilizing a “You deserve it!” strategy. The wealthy, while they may secretly believe they deserve it, don’t want to believe that is why they are buying. It’s making them feel guilty.

Focus on the concrete - location, value, convenience and a low profile lifestyle. For example, if you used to sell “abundant”, or “over the top” closets, change your strategy to “adequate and functional” closet space. Don’t use words like, “indulge” and “luxury” to sell your product, rather, try “quality” and “smart”. Think about it this way – if you’re a high-end renter at a cocktail party celebrating the 2009 New Year, and somebody asks you why you chose your current residence, which would be more apropos of the times – “It was important to us to have only the best money could buy” or, “ We love our apartment because it’s location is perfect and it’s an extremely well maintained, quality building.” ?

People still want what they want. They are just feeling obligated to justify the need.

Why I'll Miss Kinko's

I never really “got’ the FedEx/Kinko’s merger, and an article in this week’s Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_52/b4114078612060.htm helped me to understand why.

As a small business entrepreneur, I loved Kinko’s. They could do anything. If I needed bound handouts, they could deliver. In prewireless days, I could go to Kinko’s in whatever city I was in and get online. Through the years, I utilized the company for over-sized visuals, business cards and photo reprints. Particularly memorable was my 5 am visit in Dallas when I was supposed to be in San Antonio, but was stuck due to weather. That wonderful woman took my mammoth presentation and made sure it got to San Antonio before me, and for that I will be forever grateful. Now, FedEx is dropping the Kinko’s brand all together to become FedEx Office. Huh? The company’s CEO, Brian Philips states in the article that the FedEx Office name will create more opportunity for growth. “Kinko’s is known as copies”, he says. “Nine cent, black and white copies you got in college. FedEx is a very elastic brand. We do packaging, shipping, digital document storage, direct mail. We’re the back office for small businesses, the branch office for mobile professionals. Copies are a small part of our business.”

When I walk into a FedEx/Kinko’s, or Office or whatever it is, and I don’t really see a back office for small business. I see a place to ship stuff. Some of the stores are really small, and only have one or two employees. I miss Kinko’s. I wonder if they did a focus group about the whole, “Kinko’s is only copies” assumption. To me, Kinko’s wasn’t about copies; it was about solutions. Any time, day or night, I always had Kinko’s to help me deliver. Kinko’s is one of those brands that had an almost ethereal quality to it – that is, just the word said so much to the consumer about the product and the benefits it offered.

Life goes on. Brands come and go. Businesses evolve. The Kinko’s signs are coming down, but the brand will be remembered, not only for its clever name, but for the solutions it delivered, always in the nick of time.

What does your brand say to the consumer? Does it convey solutions? Is it confusing? Is it clear when someone walks into your office what you stand for? Do people feel good when they think of you?

What brand messages do you convey?

Don't Get Stuck

According to a 2008 corporate relocation survey by Atlas Van Lines, and reported in USA Today, employees and new hires are increasingly turning down relocation opportunities because of the housing market. 62% of workers declining relocations cited “family ties” as their top reason for staying put, down from 84% in 2007. By contrast, 50% of companies said employees cited “housing and mortgage concerns” as the reason for turning down relocation offers, vs. 30% in 2007.

It appears that while they may not want to, many employees are willing to relocate, but can't, because they are stuck with a house they can’t move.

In building value with your presentations, don’t forget to sell the benefits of flexibility, and more importantly, the freedom that renting can offer.

Industry on the Inside

I've just finished exploring the industry's newest online resource and must say, finally, we have a comprehensive network specifically for multifamily professionals. Need an employee? Post the job here. Looking for information on Social Networks? Pop into the discussion forum - your questions and comments will encourage lively, informative discussion. Want your voice heard? Blog it - right at the site. Visit now at http://www.multifamilyinsiders.com. There really is, (and will be - keep in mind the site is still pretty new), something for everyone. I will be there often.

The Tap is Back

It is estimated that 8 out of every 10 water bottles ends up in landfills.
If that is not bad enough, think about all the oil needed to make those bottles. According to the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, even if every bottle were recycled, the amount of oil needed to make those bottles equals about 15 million barrels a year, or enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.

Get glasses. Have them inscribed with “The Tap is Back”, or “We drink our H2O right out of the tap”. Serve them to your potential clients and residents. Be proud to drink tap water.

And next time you pass by a garden hose, do what you did as a kid. Take a good long swig.
Tap water is chic. Tap water is vogue. The tap is back.

Color My World

There was a great article in USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-12-07-holiday-gifts-color_N.htm about the use of color to stimulate retail and how new colors will keep people coming back for more of the same thing, even if technically, they don’t need it. Ipod and Dell offer their products in a myriad of colors and you can even buy a pumpkin colored Viking range. According to the experts quoted in the article, people, particularly in troubled times, will indulge in colors that appeal to them. Symbolically and psychologically, vibrant colors speak to the change people are craving.

So, it may be time to take a look at your models and clubhouse. Is the color palette fresh? Is there anything vibrant going on? Purple is really big right now, and as I know from reading my Feng shui book, is a symbol of prosperity. Is there a way to incorporate touches of purple into your décor’? I once did an entire model in fuscia, lime green and purple. Very “I Dream of Jeannie”. To this day, I can’t believe they let me do it, but it worked. The target, middle class women, 24 – 40, ate it up and we leased the product in record time.

Color can be an amazing persuader.

Click Those Coupons

I read today that coupon use, after a 15-year decline is on the rise again. I might be time to start offering coupons for a waived application fee, or discounted rent as a buying incentive on your websites, Internet listing providers and in print publications.

LOL

This morning, after perusing my usual news sources including, but not limited to, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, and ingesting row after row of horrifying headlines, a sampling of which include, “New Home Sales Fall to Slowest Pace Since 1991”, “Fed Warns of NYC Subway Terror Plot” “, and “Melamine Traces Found in US Infant Formula”, I found myself with two options: I could run out my back door, sink to my knees and begin wailing and gnashing my teeth, or I could add a little humor to my daily news repertoire. I chose the latter, and chose to spend a few moments reading The Onion. www.theonion.com There’s nothing like a little satire and tongue in cheek humor to put things back into perspective. Recently headlines include “New Pain Inducing Advil Created For People Who Just Want to Feel Something, Anything”, and “Denny’s introduces ‘Just a Humongous Bucket of Eggs and Meat’”. I have added The Onion to my daily list of required reading and find my mood improving and my outlook sunny. Sometimes humor is the best medicine. Make sure you get your daily chuckle.

Just Call Me a “Recessionista”

According to Business Week, the term “recessionista” is everywhere these days. The Irish Times recently used the word to describe a “modern sort of girl who is trying to survive the credit crunch the best she can.” Today’s recessionistas haunt thrift shops, fueling year-to-date sales growth of 6% to 15% at Salvation Army and Goodwill outlets. Goodwill’s San Francisco-area outlets will launch a blog for recessionistas in November.

Might be time to organize a rummage sale at your community.

As for me, I am adding the title to my business cards.

Pay Attention

This post is for all of you that are compelled to check your email via your Blackberry or IPhone devices while dining, socializing, during family gatherings, before going to bed, before getting up, during your child’s football/soccer/lacrosse/dance event and any number of places where you feel compelled to check your device for something far more interesting than my conversation with you. First, it is extremely rude. Second, you are an addict – you need help. Third, if you are trying to make yourself look important and extremely needed by your employer, the people with you are not impressed. They feel sorry for you and think that you are rude. When you are in a meeting where you feel compelled to hide your device under the table and secretly check it, understand that everyone knows what you are doing. They know that it is the oldest trick in the book and that you are paying absolutely no attention to what is being said at the moment. My son tried to check his text messages the other night at the dinner table. When I asked him a question and did not receive eye contact, only a view of the top of his head, I demanded he turn over the phone and I threw it out the back door. It is a shame the dogs didn’t chew it up.

Put the devices down. If the building is on fire, or there is an emergency, I promise, they will find you. It may be via an old-fashioned phone call, or in the case of a fire, smoke signals, but they will find you. Focus on the people in front of you and show them the same respect they show you as they pretend not to notice your compulsion. Life is short. Pay attention.

Hug a Soldier

I spent an hour this morning helping the members of the Grandview High School football team assemble goodie packages for our servicemen and women overseas. It was touching to see the young men spend time signing cards and footballs and carefully selecting items to go into boxes for their soldier. Many younger siblings were involved as well, judging from the pile of hand made letters; each carefully colored and thoughtfully created.

Now is the time to have your residents come together to create care packages for the troops to receive by the holidays. Not only will it make a service man or woman feel good, your residents will feel good as well. The United States Postal service website, http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/ will help you get started.

Keepin' on the Sunny Side

With all the glooming and dooming going on today, I think some optimism is in order. John Zogby, in "The Way We’ll Be – The Zogby Report on The Transformation of the American Dream" writes that Starbucks recently asked him to provide a quote for its “The Way I See It” series. He sent Starbucks the following quote:

"In three decades of polling, I‘ve found that while individuals make mistakes in judgment, America as a whole rarely does. A collective wisdom emerges from a poll or vote that is far greater than the sum of its parts."

Collectively, we will always do the right thing. I find that refreshing.

Library, Library, More Than a Book...

"Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card."
Rumor has it that going to the library is back in vogue. Makes sense since everything is free, (unless of course, like me, you tend to misplace your library books and do not find them until 3 weeks after the due date). You can check out movies, music, reading materials and have access to every magazine and newspaper in the world and surf the web all in on easy stop. But wait – there’s more!

On a recent visit to my neighborhood library, I stopped by the coffee shop and purchased a Latte’, which in itself is quite remarkable, considering that as a teen I got busted in the West Bend Community Memorial Library for trying to smuggle in a thermos of Tab cola. I also ventured beyond the usual, and discovered a myriad of resources available to me. Two meeting rooms, each with a capacity of 100, are available for $30 dollars per hour. What a great place to hold a leasing or staff meeting!

Monthly programs and events, (the majority of which are free), include “Living Green” sessions, an opportunity to give blood, 30 minute lawyer consults, English conversation circles and a variety of kids programs.

Think about how you might incorporate neighborhood library offerings into your resident retention programs to add value and a sense of community to the village your residents call home.

The next time you find yourself out and about, make sure you check your library out.

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

The economy is bad. Time to trim the fat. The first thing to go - promotional expense. Second thing to go - training. In a struggling economy, those are the worst decisions that can be made. If you slash the promotional and training budget today, the pain is not immediate. You won’t notice any impact for 6 weeks, and no huge changes for 3 months. Sooner or later, however, you will lose - to the competitor that kept his cool and kept on promoting. You see, while your community no longer exists to the consumer, theirs does. Your competitor is taking steps to maintain and increase market share and ensure a strong capture rate. In the process, you’ll be smoked.

When times get tough, your job is to promote more, not less, and make sure your team is the best the industry offers. Keep bringing people through the door and then ensure the deal is closed. In a faltering economy, there are always businesses that seem to defy the odds. Those companies get creative and stay visible.

Now is the time to:
• Evaluate your promotional sources to determine what is working and what isn’t. Take the money from what isn’t and put it into what is.
• Evaluate your team. Make some tough decisions. You want the best, the brightest and consistent performers. Once you have your “A” team, Invest money to train them. Spend time with them. Make sure that your promotional efforts result in either new or renewed residents.
• Hold weekly marketing meetings with your team. Where can you be better? Where can you have greater impact on the client experience?
• Stay the course and don’t panic. Even if you have no money, make sure you are visible. Take your brightest talent and teach them how to conduct effective outreach. Make sure they feel comfortable and will deliver a positive, professional representation of your company and the community.

Keep your momentum going. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow with a “Chicken Little” reaction today.
Lori Snider

I Used To Hate Best Buy

I used to hate Best Buy. My boys, on the other hand, never seemed to have a problem with the glaring fluorescent lights and cacophony of noise from televisions, video games, laptops, stereo systems, etc. 30 seconds into a visit, my head starts to pound in reaction to the overwhelming assault of electronics, all competing for my attention. When I go to Best Buy, I can’t get out soon enough. Last Friday, I visited a Best Buy that had recently opened near my home. I prepared myself to get in an out as fast as possible. Deflect the assault.

From the time I entered, I knew something was different. There was carpet on the floor. Numerous skylights filtered in natural light. I sensed some noise, but it was not overwhelming. A series of pod style displays invited me to shop, to browse. Amazingly, I could see over the display racks. What was going on here? Turns out, Best Buy has received a woman’s touch. For their newest store in Aurora, CO, Best Buy turned to women customers and asked them to help with a design overhaul. The result is a far more pleasant shopping experience. The new store features electronic products working together in homelike “rooms”, and the warehouse style blue interiors, and corresponding metal shelving, have been replaced with wood paneling and carpets. I struck up a conversation with a female manager, who enthusiastically showed me around the store, and informed me that 55% of the store employees were women. Impressive.

It is estimated that women influence 80% of all buying decisions. What are you doing to appeal to them?

What's That Smell?

I love the smell of fresh Play Doh and Crayola crayons. I am not as fond of the smell coming from my teenage son’s gym bag. When I smell lilacs, I am instantly a child standing in my Gran’s bedroom smelling her perfume. Funny, how a smell can immediately transport you to a different place and time. In his new book, “Whiff! - The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age”, www.WHIFFbook.com, C. Russell Brumfield states that each of us has stored a vast catalogue of imprinted feelings and responses to specific aromas. All kinds of memories are associated with the more than 10,000 smells we can each identify. We feel smell, but we can’t describe it. Brumfield uses the example of a dog. When it barks, we acknowledge its communication as a bark. When we touch it, we describe it as “furry”. What does it smell like? Most would answer “a dog”. What we smell we automatically feel, so we absently acknowledge that feeling and move on. often without ever naming it. So I ask you, where do the smells in your community transport your client? Where do they transport you? How might the smells be diminishing value perception? Think about it. Then act on it.