Brand refresh: student lettings
An end-to-end-brand overhaul to make value more visible and tangible to prospective tenants.
The challenge
Functionality You Will Love
01
Increasing competition
With more and more competitors entering the previously unique space of “luxury student accommodation”, the company needed a way to stand out.
02
Flagging sales
This increased competition had led to the company’s first ever year of not achieving full occupancy.
03
Portfolio growth
New properties under construction would put additional growth on the number of units to be sold.
The solution?
I pivoted the brand proposition from one which centred on beautiful properties to instead focus on their unparalleled service offering. Armed with this fresh focus, I overhauled their brand and customer experience from end-to-end.
Customer research
I mapped current journeys and conducted research with outgoing tenants.
Social proof drive
I set up mechanisms to collect testimonials and reviews inside existing processes. I incorporated the output (i.e. great reviews and soundbites) into advertising, fleet, collateral, website, event giveaways, etc.
Refreshed branding
Based on research, infused with more youthful colours, cleaner lines to reflect modern properties, and created hexagonal branding device to tie together the core brand and two of the company’s other sub-brands
New website
Briefed, wireframed, agency tenders, project management and copywriting
Photography
Commissioned to show a humanised tenant experience (rather than empty luxury properties), recruited models via agency, dressed set and provided creative direction for a 2-day shoot with stellar photographer Peter Corcoran
Fleet design
Updated vehicle wraps for cleaning, maintenance and lettings teams which were essentially mobile billboards, repeatedly exposing the local target audience to company branding and social proof decals
New collateral
Designed brochures, event banners, tenant handbooks, tenant welcome videos, etc. to leverage new branding, photography and social proof
Satellite office refresh
Project managed an overhaul of the company’s former, smaller office to leverage its position in an area with high student footfall, including window dressing and the installation of an ePOS large display screen
The result?
The team hit their sales targets, including the new units, 6 months ahead of their usual schedule.
This was achieved with no increase in marketing or advertising budget.
Sample outputs
