A well-developed brand is only theory until it’s seen and experienced in the wild. Brand implementation for multifamily is the key to success—to set your community apart and stand out against the comps.
If your brand is fully developed—visual, verbal, experiential—and everything is laid out and planned, it doesn’t matter at all unless and until it’s carried out. Pay attention to how you implement your brand across every channel and touchpoint. For example, consider how your onsite team is carrying out your branding. They’re not marketers, but they’re certainly part of your brand perception for both residents and prospects.
Brand Consistency Comes Through Training
If they’re an employee with your community, they’ll play a part in the brand perception. Everyone who touches the brand should fully “get” the brand—through how they’re treated by upper management, and through how they’re familiar with the visual and verbal identity aspects of the community brand to, in turn, be able to speak to residents within the brand voice.
TRAINING
If your teams don’t “get” the brand, they weren’t trained properly. Ensure nothing falls between the cracks and use tools and training to get your whole team on board.
Corporate training – Bring in the marketing team to train everyone. Make room for questions to ensure full understanding of brand elements and guidelines (so, questions like “Why?” are definitely welcome here). Give some background into choices and ensure the mission and vision are crystal clear. Give examples of what it looks like in action, too.
Use the tools – Using the Canva Brand Kit will help streamline your visuals. Using ChatGPT can help corporate take control over the brand execution—particularly if you create fill-in-the-blank brand voice prompts, like: “Please write a ______ in our brand voice that is youthful and quirky.” This is particularly helpful to create a starting point if you don’t have a branding team with a copywriter helping at every turn.
Make Marketing Materials Cohesive
Your prospects should be able to see and feel and experience your brand in a cohesive way no matter where they are in the (sales) funnel, and no matter where they are in their resident journey, whether researching apartments or living there, from online search to in-person tours. That’s done through brand consistency.
TOUCHPOINTS FOR BRAND CONSISTENCY
When does consistency matter? All the time. That’s how you reach peak brand awareness. But it’s particularly helpful to make sure you have these bases covered:
Digital presence – Messaging and visuals must maintain the brand identity. This is usually the first point of interaction for prospects. So ensure your website, socials, and digital ads all add up to the same brand!
Physical marketing collateral – Everything that has your name on it should be immediately recognizable. Every handout, every brochure, every sign should be completely cohesive with the brand’s look and feel.
Surroundings (Details and Decor) – Don’t stop at your stationery and website. Bring your brand all the way into your interiors. The décor and lobby styling should reinforce your brand (not clash). Bring the color palette into the paint choices, or artwork, or throw pillows (or all three).
Basically: Attention to detail will get you on the right track, and keep you there. Implementing brand guidelines consistently, and you’ll be able to build trust with your prospects.
Keep the Brand Promise to Residents
Now that your prospects have turned into residents, your branding work is far from done. The trust you’ve built with your prospects should NOW turn into the loyalty you build with your residents. Maintaining your brand is done in part by the actual experience of living at your community.
WHY KEEP THE BRAND PROMISE?
Loyalty stems from a positive experience. When something is good, we want more of it. Hence, another lease renewal, or a handful of referrals. Seeing a pattern of this? Your brand is on the right track, keeping the brand promise—what you say you’ll do and actually doing it.
GO BEYOND LEASING
Executing the brand isn’t just about arriving at the signature on the lease. Like we said before, it’s for far more touch points than that. It also includes:
Staff Interactions – They’re the true embodiment of the brand. Their greetings, their body language, their email messaging should all be part of an experience that is fully in line with the brand’s values.
Community Standards – If you have the correct color signage, but it’s poorly lit, that’s not a good look. Ensure maintenance and updates happen regularly so that hard work in branding your community isn’t totally detracted from. Focus on quality, cleanliness, and style—all in keeping the vibe of your brand.
Amenities and Events – Choose events that work within your brand and don’t feel “off”. Amenities should have been chosen to differentiate you—now make sure they’re a fully positive experience that helps residents make lasting memories.
You can see just how well your brand is “working” in your community based on the renewal rates and referrals that come in. If your resident is satisfied, they’re not looking for the greener grass. They’re telling their friends that your community is where the grass is truly green. Retain them!
Get beyond the logo and aim for the heart of your brand. Train your personnel to ensure it’s coming through in human interaction. Create tools to make it easier. Keep your brand promises. Implement your branding and enforce it (gently) regularly. When the branding is done authentically, with buy-in, it’s a lot easier to sell the whole community as the place to live.
