As I was sitting across the closing table from the sellers of my new property in North Dakota, they asked me again why I thought I would be able to do better with this property than they had. My reply, a variation of what I had told them during my research, was “marketing”. Their reply was telling, a simple reason why they had to sell, “You mean advertising? There is hardly any place to advertise, and we have tried them anyway. Good luck!” they replied, with a condescending smile.

I can’t recall the number of times I have heard people try and equate or make synonymous the wildly different terms “marketing” and “advertising.” It all started many years ago, when I was peddling my apartment magazine in Beaumont, Texas. My best friend and I had made the rounds and called on quite a few apartment communities, but we had to stop for the day after one particularly humorous encounter. We went inside a property where the manager was smoking a cigarette and asked her if she would mind speaking with us for a few minutes about her property’s marketing plan. That was our standard intro back then. She took a puff on her cigarette, set it down in the overflowing brown ceramic tray and replied “Honey, we never had no rapes nor murders, so we don’t need to advertise.” Those of you who may have met me will be surprised to read that I was left speechless. Almost incapable of a reply. After a few uncomfortable moments as if I was Rick Perry at a debate I finally replied, “okay, well if that ever changes, think about giving us a call.” As Shelley and I recovered from our laughing fit back in her car, we started to think about the situation more. While certainly pleased the manager had not had to deal with major crime during her tenure, we began to wonder just how coherent her grasp of marketing, as a concept, was. Did she really think it just meant advertising? Did she understand that community relations, outreach, word of mouth, pricing, direct marketing and so much more were also involved? Did she understand that a marketing plan was an essential part of her property’s success, and of her JOB?

Ever since then I have used that anecdote as an entry with property managers who have become jaded about “marketing” and what it entails. In my seminars and now as an owner, I have come across many managers who just don’t get it. They feel that marketing is an aside, a diversion, not a pillar to succeeding in the marketplace. Many who work at larger property management firms have become so reliant on the corporate marketing director that they fail to take ownership of the marketing of their individual property. Some management companies have hastened this “decline” by centralizing many marketing, and yes advertising, decisions that really should be made site to site. But then there are the many excellent, passionate, capable, creative and brave marketing directors that have been instrumental in the success of their company, brand and portfolio. So how do some companies just get it and some don’t? Why is that?

Okay, I don’t have the answer to that question even though I have asked it a few thousand times. But it certainly shows us there is opportunity. Just as with this new deal in North Dakota, taking a community and looking at it through a new lens, one not jaded or uninformed about marketing, can be rewarding and prosperous. Many of the major property management companies that have ascended the NAHB rankings over the past 20 years have done so with marketing as a core element to their success. Brands have been formed, a recognizable look and feel to quality communities has emerged. These aren’t accidents. These aren’t happy coincidences that occur by chance when so many other elements such as architecture and unit mix are researched and nailed down. Marketing is as important as all of these other elements, and is the way that the quality of the other elements is broadcast to the public. In fact, many of the decisions such as the type of architecture, unit mix, amenity package, location, build quality and economic life of a development are intrinsically tied to the marketing plan. It is hard to make good decisions in any of these areas if you haven’t thought through how and when, and whom to market the property. A well-built property without a marketing plan is toast. Or for sale.

Marketing is so much more than just advertising. It is all of the things that relate to customer service, positioning, branding, pricing, appearance and curb appeal, employee training and development, and yes, advertising. Properties get themselves in trouble when they forget about these pillars. Just as a house on stilts falls when one or two is knocked out in a storm, a poorly run property begins to falter in the marketplace when a key component of their marketing plan is stale, outdated or simply non-existent.

As I gathered my things from the closing table with a big, goofy smile on my face, I tried one quick explanation to the sellers. “My view of your property is that you relied on what worked many years ago, without adapting. Your property rents for an average of 40 cents a square foot, when most of your competition is at 72 cents. Your signage is hard to see and doesn’t have any curb appeal. You don’t have any noticeable relationships with major employers, real estate agencies or the Chamber. Your on-site (manager) doesn’t call around or have relationships with any of your competitors. Those are all marketing functions, and they are easy to correct. That’s what we are going to do. Marketing.” There is no reason why an apartment community with a  good location in a state with the lowest unemployment rate in the United States shouldn’t be succeeding. But there can be something missing, causing this failure. Marketing.

Christopher Higgins is The Apartment Guy, a professional speaker and owner/operator of multifamily assets in 7 states and two Canadian provinces. Starting with apartment magazines in small markets in West and Southeast Texas, he later joined a NAHB top 50 developer as the Director of Marketing and Training at age 23. His 20 years of industry experience is the source of seminars and articles on the business of succeeding in apartment management and marketing. For more, visit www.theapartmentguy.net.