{"id":8319,"date":"2014-01-06T05:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=8319"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:53:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T23:53:30","slug":"kevin-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/kevin-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners<\/a>,\u00a0 a Yardi<\/a> client, has been known to say that when it comes to multifamily, residents literally \u201clive in our box of Tide.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an intriguing analogy from the experienced consumer product marketing exec\"KevinThompson\"utive, whose diversified experience includes stints at AvalonBay Communities, Iams, Fruit of the Loom and Promus Hotel Cos. At Bell, Thompson has pushed for creative marketing approaches that get realistic about how to connect with residents, and takes the time to listen to their feedback and concerns.<\/p>\n

While an apartment residence might not typically be thought of as a tactile product, the Tide analogy melds the residents\u2019 living experience with the marketing of a successful multifamily brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur consumers actually live<\/i> in our product (the apartment home), as thus live<\/i> in our brand, too,\u201d Thompson explained.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd because our customers do live in our box of Tide, any flaws or inconsistencies in delivering the brand and service promise are magnified.\u00a0 Conversely, any positive experiences are also memorialized.\u00a0 We need to be constantly aware of the intimate connection between our products and our consumers.\u00a0 Only with this realization do we get the right sense of the importance of our brands.\u201d<\/p>\n

MHN:\u00a0 <\/b>Bell recently introduced a new marketing campaign centered around the concept of \u201cHassle Free Living.\u201d Tell us what you did differently and how it worked?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Thompson<\/b>:\u00a0 Well, we wanted to get beyond the usual providing superior customer service mantra, so we started thinking about a residential living environment that would be characterized by the elimination of problems and issues before they happen.\u00a0 Ergo, Hassle-Free Living\u00ae.\u00a0 We began with a series of resident focus groups, to hear what our existing customers had to say about the concept.\u00a0 The most interesting aspect of this novel approach was the fact that residents responded to the Hassle-Free Living idea by recognizing that they, too, have a responsibility in making a community a great place to live.\u00a0 For example, residents felt that things such as picking up after their pet and respecting the late hours quiet time was the minimum they should do to contribute to their larger community.\u00a0 Out of this came our Good Neighbor program and the birth of our messages \u201cBell Makes Good Neighbors\u201d and Bell is \u201cWhere Good Neighbors Live.\u201d<\/p>\n

MHN:\u00a0 <\/b>Taking the time to meet with residents in focus groups is a significant investment. Did it generate the results and feedback you\u2019d expected? What did you learn?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Thompson:<\/b>\u00a0 I think you\u2019d be surprised that it wasn\u2019t really a major investment in terms of resources.\u00a0 It was more about the time we spent working at it.\u00a0 But we did get results that we didn\u2019t expect.\u00a0 When the focus group participants overwhelmingly said that they have a role in making the living experience outstanding, that they also have responsibilities and it\u2019s not just a one way street from management company to resident, we were pleasantly surprised.\u00a0 We basically received permission to partner with residents to create a hassle free living environment.\u00a0 This may sound like an obvious conclusion, but it\u2019s a pretty novel idea for our industry.\u00a0 And, in addition to our residents liking this idea, this campaign was recognized by MHN this year as a (silver) winner in the Best Marketing Program category.<\/p>\n

This interview was conducted for Multi-Housing News<\/a>. Read the full transcript of our conversation with Kevin Thompson<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners,\u00a0 a Yardi client, has been known to say that when it comes to multifamily, residents literally \u201clive in our box of Tide.\u201d It\u2019s an intriguing analogy from the experienced consumer product marketing executive, whose diversified experience includes stints at AvalonBay Communities, Iams, Fruit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":8321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3354],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-8319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-yardi-client-profile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kevin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners,\u00a0 a Yardi client, has been known to say that when it comes to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kevin Thompson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kevin Thompson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners,\u00a0 a Yardi client, has been known to say that when it comes to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/kevin-thompson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yardi Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-06T13:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-03T23:53:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2013\/11\/KevinHeadshot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Etling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Etling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/kevin-thompson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/kevin-thompson\/\",\"name\":\"Kevin Thompson - 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