The Nation's 50 Largest Apartment Owners and 50 Largest ...

high rents the same name as a 20-year-old garden apartment
community in the suburbs? No other industry would
do that.”
So, in 1989, company executives decided to do something
different. Rather than market their properties based on
their location, amenities and rent levels, which is what most
firms were doing, executives moved to launch two distinct
brands. Village Green became a single brand, made up of
A SPecIAL SuPPLeMeNt to NAtIoNAL ReAL eStAte INveStoR
live, work, play: Generation Y’s housing preferences are driving
apartment firms toward urban, transit-oriented development like this
community by Somerset Development, located three subway stops from
Midtown Manhattan in Wood-Ridge, N.J.
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older, suburban garden apartment complexes; Village
Park became a new brand characterized by apartments
with cathedral ceilings, in-unit washers and dryers,
fireplaces, pools and clubhouses aimed at increasingly
affluent baby boomers closer in to urban cores.
And that trend continued through the decades to
follow. In the late 1990s, company executives rolled
out the City brand as Village Green began building
environmentally friendly urban apartments with ready
access to transit, featuring island kitchens, upscale
appliances, upgraded flooring and bathrooms and
rooftop pools. In the early 2000s, the company unveiled
its Regents Park brand, which targets an older, upscale
demographic looking for a more suburban setting. The
company also added fifth brand aimed at the corporate
relocation and temporary housing market that offers wellappointed,
furnished shorter-term rentals.
However, some apartment executives remain skeptical of
the long-term value and effectiveness of a multi-brand strategy.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners, No. 30 on the
NMHC 50 Owners list and No. 10 on the NMHC 50 Managers
list, markets properties using its core brand proposition,
“apartment living at its best.” The tagline is trademarked
and used across its entire portfolio in
conjunction with micro-brands created
for individual communities. This strategy
reflects a view that apartments are
largely commodity products, and each
community offers apartments designed
to address unique tastes and needs.
“The consumers own the brand, and
they define what that brand stands for,”
says Kevin Thompson, senior vice president
of marketing for Bell.
For Bell, “apartment living at its
best,” is a blanket marketing strategy
that can just as easily define a 595-sq.ft.
studio at Bell Park Central in Dallas
or a two-bedroom, two-bath suite at
the Bell Midtown in Nashville or even
a 1,500-sq.-ft. three-bedroom, twobath
family apartment at Bell Preston
Reserve in Cary, N.C.
Bell’s strategy is more akin to a
mass marketer than those of Village
Green and AvalonBay. Think Ford.
Every Ford is called a Ford. Every
Bell apartment is called a Bell apartment.
That’s by design, according to
Thompson. “We should always be cautious
before we do brand extensions,”
he says. “You can easily cannibalize
your core brand.”
18 NMHC 50 APRIL 2012