Compete With The REITs
Five Ways To Benefit From Your Brand By Anne Mari DeCoster
ognizable brand that evokes a response with consumers. Now, self-storage brands are a lot less likely to be top-of-mind for people, and as such, they don’t need to worry about reaching the heights of brand recognition as these corporate giants.
T However, in an increasingly competitive environment, it’s
still important for small self-storage companies to cultivate a brand that connects with people, especially if they want to compete with REITs, publicly traded real estate investment trusts that wield a lot of financial power in the self-storage in- dustry because of the brand names.
What Is Your Self-Storage Brand? So what is a brand, exactly? According to the American Market- ing Association, a brand is the “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers.”
As a self-storage owner, then, your brand is everything that
identifies your self-storage facility and makes it different from the competition. This includes your signage along the road and on your facility units and office doors; logos on your merchan- dise, employee shirts, letterhead, printed ads, and business cards; and the look of your website, social media profiles, and digital advertisements.
Of course, branding goes far beyond your company name and
self-storage logo. It should include your corporate colors, sym- bols, designs, and slogans. Your brand’s also reflected in the services you offer and conveyed by employees in the way they treat customers. In the end, you want all of these elements of
October 2021
Five Ways To Compete With REITs Through Branding Let’s face it, REITs have a significant advantage over indepen- dent self-storage owners when it comes to self-storage market- ing. They have that nationally recognized brand logo and a lot more money to promote it. But competing with them is not im- possible if you’re willing to take the time to develop your brand and invest in building brand awareness. When you do this, you can establish your business as the best self-storage solution in town and stake your place in the market. Here’s how to get started with branding for self-storage marketing.
1. Perform A Competitive SWOT Analysis The first thing you should do when creating your brand is to con- duct a SWOT analysis of the competition. Standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT analysis helps you evaluate the competition to come up with ways to improve upon their strengths and capitalize on their weaknesses. Talk about a win-win!
2. Identify Your Unique Value Proposition Now that you understand the competition's strengths and weak- nesses, it’s time to come up with your unique value proposi- tion. Identify what benefits you offer, how your company solves customer challenges, and what distinguishes you from the
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hink about a big-name brand that everyone knows. Chanc- es are, you thought of Apple, Nike, Disney, or Coca-Cola. That’s because they’ve developed a good, instantly rec-
your brand to communicate feelings of trust that make people want to store with you.
A final thought on the importance of branding: Today, in our
age of contactless transactions and social distancing, your brand and its presence in your online marketing efforts might be the difference in where your customers turn to for their self-storage needs.
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