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Recently, I blogged about whether or not your retirement community was a product or a brand. If you did some research and found out you have a brand, then great. If not, here are some further steps to make sure you’ve put a brand in place.

1. A “brand” requires the customer to be highly involved. After all, you won’t have much luck building a brand in a category nobody cares about. Generally speaking, people aren’t “involved” in laundry detergent. However, some people are highly involved in clean, fresh-smelling clothes. This high involvement doesn’t have to be perpetual, but it does, at least, have to be occasional. Are you selling your community as a place with two bedrooms? Or are you promising a comfortable lifestyle with a plan for the future?

2.  A “brand” is dependable. Customers and prospects depend on it for something. This is its sustainable benefit. It should be a simple concept that is easy to understand, and it should have broad appeal. Not universal, mind you. But broad. This promise or benefit should be simple, preferably can be expressed in one word, and is something the customer can remember and depend on to be true. So what do your residents depend on from you? Is it quality? Or is it security? Whatever your one word is, make sure your residents can consistently depend on you to deliver on your word.

3. A brand has a personality. By that we mean its message makes more sense and is even more resonant when delivered in a way that is consistent with the brand’s promise. In other words, how you say what you say does make a difference. If you sell your community as quality, then make sure your messaging delivers that promise of quality.

4. Brands are consistent. A brand doesn’t change. It’s always there, delivering on its promise. Speaking in a language its customers understand and can identify with. Reinforcing its personality so that customers can all go through life knowing with absolute certainty they can depend on that brand for _______ .  Make sure that whatever you fill in the blank with, you consistently provide to everyone who comes in contact with your community.

How is your community doing? Try following these steps and see if you can turn your community from a product into a brand.