When people try on clothing in a store and they can smell the residue of someone else who tried it on before them – it no longer seems “new” to them. Most people will look through the display for a “new” one that they can buy without some else’s “scent”. One of the ways a consumer determines the value of a product, is based on their impression as to whether or not they can psychologically accept the product as “new”. When the psychological gift of new is gone from that item and it is appears as – used/previously owned – but not new anymore, the product loses value. Sometimes the evidence of the previous resident is a stain, a blot of make-up, a scent, a scratch or a pull in the fabric. Each piece of evidence shows that someone else has been there. Even though intellectually we are aware that other people have touched, rubbed and even tried on our potential purchase – we are able to buy with a sense of “new” as long as the evidence is not obvious. If the evidence is clear . . . we immediately discount the product in our mind. Once the product has been emotionally discounted in the customer’s mind, it will also experience a monetary loss of value. Your fiduciary responsibility to your community is to build value in the real estate asset. How are you going to do that without making sure your product is not depreciated as a used product? You must be aware of the “Psychological Gift of New”.

Grow the value in your inventory

To grow the value of your inventory in today’s competitive market, you must have marketing take an active role in the make-ready process. This can no longer be a maintenance function to simply “turn a unit”. We must see this process as re-presenting our product and implement merchandizing and packaging techniques. Countless companies earn millions of dollars in added revenue using simple techniques to add value to the consumer’s impression of their product. In our research we found most community’s policy was to simply clean the apartment, do the repairs, and create an “acceptable” living environment. Unfortunately today the customer is very emotional about their home and what is acceptable has changed. Because customer satisfaction is one of our greatest concerns and turnover is one of highest cost, this must be addressed on both types of apartments – those leased in advance and the product we have in inventory. A good first impression has a lasting effect and the “Gift of New” for a new resident moving in helps them to express ownership and take possession. People will stay longer and reduce turnover. The good news is that you can implement some very simple and cost effective procedures that will enhance customers’ overall impression for about $2.00 - $6.00 per unit. Here are some of the steps to have your apartment appreciated as new – rather than depreciated as used.

The Visual Impact – the presentation of “New”

Note: I am not simply talking about mini-model ideas. I am revering to those techniques which add to the consumer’s psychological impression of new. Please read this with a new thought in mind. Why do these ideas work? How important are they to the perceived value of the customer?

Color has one of the most powerful impacts on environment. You can change the feeling of a room with a few simple additions of color. There are several great books on the market about color. I particularly like “The Psychology of Color” by Max Luscher. One of my favorite ways to express color impact and the “gift of new” in an apartment is with very colorful message cards, ribbons & bows. It is amazing how much something changes when you write a card and apply a ribbon or a bow to even the most mundane of items. For instance – something as simple as a roll of toilet paper can appear new or used based on the way it is presented in the apartment. For convenience, you open a new roll and place it on the dispenser. Which seems like a nice thing to do. However, seeing the roll in place suggests that it may be used and even left by the old resident. Some residents may put it in the trash. However, if you leave the paper around it, take 10 inches of curly ribbon and tie a simple note with curls – tada – you have a gift and the impression of new. Even in a hotel, the housekeeping staff is taught to fold the end of the toilet paper into an attractive point. Fancy hotels add a gold seal sticker to indicating this is a new beginning for that roll. You may also have your housekeepers fill the ice trays as a favor during the hot months.

However, if you don’t place a card on the outside of the refrigerator to indicate the ice is new and there for them, they may dump it on move in day and in the heat of the day wait for fresh ice. I recommend you have a stamp made that says “Fresh Ice month/day”. This way housekeeping can stamp a card, note, or even stamp the bottom of a welcome letter. Take time to consider the impressions created by those first difficult days of moving in. What can you do to make the experience more pleasant with thoughtful management procedures? The new resident has written to their friends and said, “ we are moving into our new apartment today” not “ we are moving into an apartment that someone else just moved out of ”. The less evidence of the previous resident, the more ownership the customer feels. They want “New”. We must think about the psychological effect of moving someone into a place that someone else just moved out of. Some of my favorite cards and gifts can be found in my three favorite industry catalogs - Sales & Marketing Magic (smmonline.com), Great American Business Products and Warm Welcomes.

Is Clean Good Enough?

I was amazed by the results of our survey concerning “fragrance” and apartment management. Frankly – most properties simply don’t address the problem of odor or scent at all. Even though it has the potential to devaluate their product much more quickly than the visual impact, it simply is not a priority. Most had nothing on their shelves and the office staff was sometimes using industrial/commercial products similar to the products used in gas station restrooms. The make-ready process has often only involved whatever fragrance was already blended into the cleaning products. Why isn’t clean good enough? Does the “scent of clean” simply make me think about the fact that the apartment had to be cleaned? Most fragrances have a masking effect. If you go into someone’s bathroom and they just sprayed – was it to add scent or cover odor? Does this really qualify as marketing, merchandizing or packaging? I think not! This process of re-presenting our apartments is about merchandizing a product and we have to be clear today with the variety of choices for the sophisticated renter. We need a “marketing” make ready procedure.

I am excited to tell you that today, for the first time there is a commercially manufactured product with “retail” style quality. This incredible new product is designed to generate powerful memories associated with a new home. Similar to the product in the car business “New Car Smell” that is designed to make the customer “think of a car as new” when they are buying a “used” model, “New Home Essence” (newhomeessence.com) is psychologically designed to make the customer “think of a new home” when they are leasing an apartment. Your apartments don’t have to be new to smell new!! This product can be added to your clubhouse, models and target apartments. The base of New Home Essence contains the fragrances of each of the elements present in a brand new home – including the furniture & decorative touches. This gives a room the psychological scent of "Brand New”. There is the scent of Corinthian leather combined with the essential oils of Cedar Leaf and Sandalwood. This offers your guests the scent of fresh wood & leather. Additionally they blended just a touch of essential oils from the exclusive decorative candles such as patchouli & the exotic oriental spice Ylang Ylang. To give this unique fragrance a psychological selling advantage they added the chemically engineered scent from new carpet, varnish, fresh wood and other important “scents” of new. All together these fragrances duplicate the scent of a multi-million dollar new home model. Imagine the competitive advantage of New Home Essence.

It is said that great success is often found in the simplest of ideas. Little things do mean a lot. The competitive advantage today is in our ability to find people who understand that we manage a multimillion-dollar product and we have to take advantage of every opportunity for income. There are properties today that are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by not maximizing rents. The only way to capture the full value of our rent potential is to know that the “extra” money is in the “extra” effort to increase the rent just a little “extra”. Jennifer Nevitt, the founder of Bravo Strategic Marketing, a program dedicated to helping you maximize your real estate asset, reminds us in her economics seminar that .01cents added to our rent per square foot brings in $200,000.00 - $300,000.00 in additional revenue. Read this article again and decide to be a management company that “merchandizes” their product to its fullest value.

Toni Blake is a nationally recognized expert in customer service, sales and marketing. She travels to over 60 cities annually speaking to over 30,000 management professionals each year. Toni is known for her innovative concepts and is an industry trendsetter. She has been involved with Multifamily Housing since 1979 and currently resides in Greeley, Colorado. For more information contact her office toll free 866-889-6600 or 1-970-378-6784. www.HappyFaceLady.com

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