CHICAGO—Student housing has become an extremely competitive market. Providers are frequently expected to include a great number of amenities at each property, and are responsible not just to residents, but school administrators and, above all, parents. And everyone in the sector increasingly needs some way to differentiate themselves from the competition. At the National Apartment Association's Student Housing Conference & Exposition, held this week in Chicago, one strategy discussed was the need to develop a powerful brand. “As operators, our feet are held to the fire,” Madison Meier , director of business development and transitions with Campus Advantage , told a morning meeting. And having a top marketing firm that the company trusts has been quite beneficial. With the help of Catalyst , an Austin, TX-based firm, for example, Campus Advantage, which manages about 25,000 apartments nationwide, has brought their properties to a 96.1% occupancy rate and garnered a 3.5% average rental increase in the past year. “There are a lot of misconceptions about what branding is,” said Jamie Matusek , vice president, Catalyst. “Branding does not end with getting a website or a name for your property. You need residents to connect emotionally and develop some type of allegiance to the property.” And establishing that allegiance is what needs to renewals and eventually, rental increases. Christy McFerren , Catalyst's operations and strategy director, used Starbucks and its branding achievement as an example. “Starbucks set out to be a third place” in its customers' days, the place you go to at some point when traveling from home to work and back. The experience of buying a coffee there, and its now-ubiquitous logo, have become an important part of the day for many throughout the US. “We want your student housing logo to build the same connection on a local level.” Campus Advantage has several new student housing complexes under development, including its first one at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “Unfortunately, we are not the only new start this year,” said Katy Smerko , the company's vice president of leasing. But with the help of Catalyst, they set about building a brand that would help the new community stand out. Surveys and interviews with students discovered that many were quite attached to both the university and the region. Therefore, to build the needed connection with students, they decided to give the complex, now called “The Knox,” a bit of “southern charm with a twist,” said Smerko. A key strategy has been to adopt a color scheme of orange and white, the university's colors. And rather than just using the scheme for a logo, the company also uses it in all brochures, the interior design, the website and any renderings. “If you saw one of our renderings, right away you would know it was for The Knox.” The company will open The Knox in August, she added. They had a goal to pre-lease 10% of the project by the end of last year, but reached that number in October. By January 25, The Knox was 38% leased and “as of this morning we are just shy of 50%.”

Instant Insights /

Creating a Powerful Brand in Student Housing

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