Talking in our group session last week was useful in that it made me realize that I can't achieve all that I would want, from a standpoint of social impact, with my venture idea. The simple fact is that I'm not trying to offer affordable housing, although green affordable housing would be a really, really good venture in its own right and something I might be interested in looking at in the future.
Now that I can safely say that I am positioning my venture to capture the average apartment renter in the city, I think I have a good foundation for marketing my product according to the elements of a marketing plan discussed in the book chapter. In other words, I have a better understanding of how I am going to market toward my target consumers.
Product: My product is, as I've discussed before, pretty unique and stands out in terms of its environmental friendliness and the value this adds to consumers through energy savings, historic preservation, access to nice housing in an up-and-coming neighborhood, etc. Marketing the benefits of owning one of my apartments, as opposed to the competitors' apartments (most of which use standard construction and maintenance methods) will be essential.
Place: There is not much unique that applies to my venture's point of sale except to the degree that I am offering apartments in a neighborhood that is seing an influx of new residents (South Side of Pittsburgh).
Price: With regard to price, I will have the ability to charge renters at a competitive rate because of the use of historic preservation financial incentives. I am looking at the $1,000/month + or - $200 as a sort of range. This is comparable to new apartment rent rates for South Side and for the rest of the city, but lower by some margin than the average for specifically historic buildings. When I looked at the chapter's discussion on pricing flexibility and product uniqueness, it occured to me that I do have a very unique product with only a few competitors. The problem my competitors are having, however, is vacancy because of a down housing market. Allowing for a little more price flexibility may help me tap into some of the market that would go to other buildings if I didn't charge a lower rent.
Promotion: This is where I can take advantage of both the social media tactics that the other articles talk about and the standard real estate promotion practices. As I have said before, I am seeking to capture so-called "early adopters" of green technology. One of the things about this particular market segment is that they are highly technologically savvy. Now, I don't think having a Facebook page or Twitter account will help my business very much, but a website would certainly help and I've benchmarked some ideas from some competitors' websites to help guide this. Another thing I think would be tremendously beneficial from a promotion standpoint is to have direct communication with Pittsburgh's universities and the science/research communities we have here. Being able to tap into this and the "creative class" in general will be a huge plus because they will make a more desirable community overall.
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