The three things you’ll get out of this post:

1. What is company culture?
2. Why is company culture important?
3. How to create a company culture?

All I care about are dollars and cents

Every year Forbes magazines releases a list of the best companies to work for and in large part the companies on the list have established a culture that both their customers and employees are a part of.

Companies have figured out that eventually someone else will replicate any good idea, usually at a fraction of the price. The one thing that copycats can’t replicate is a culture. A business’s culture does not happen overnight but is a core philosophy of the company. I recently read Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos.com. The book is a must for any business looking to create something other than a product or service.

Although Delivering Happiness is one book about one company, the idea of creating a culture is expanding quickly as other brands attempt to create something in addition to what is for sale. The secret is knowing that people are emotionally attached to their purchases. People are buying much more based on information that they have read online or heard directly from their friends/family. Creating a way for people to become more emotionally attached to your brand is a WIN-WIN for you and your customers.

If aunt Tambi has a wonderful experience with the customer service rep at an online retailer and shares her experience with you, in the future when you need something similar, you’ll remember. The same goes for having a bad experience with a company. The difference being with bad experiences people are much more likely to share their discontent via social media.

Culture Smolture

Illegal counterfeiting is a $600 Billion a year business. Imagine how much money is spent making similar products legally… The secret ingredient for profit is to create a product that can’t be so easily replicated. For the same reason Gold is so valuable, your company can become the Gold of your niche.

How many times have you heard of a brand new gadget like the iPhone 4 being released to have replicas shown on CNN hours later from a store in China somewhere? For the same reason the fashion industry and car industry change all the time, businesses are constantly forced to stay “one step ahead” of the competition. Really companies are trying to remain profitable as long as they can until the masses catch up.

Culture allows companies to take boring or beat industries and transform them back into profitable niches because something other than the product is being provided. That something is the secret sauce to the financial equation that allows companies to charge much more for the same product as their competition while gaining market share.

People are craving connections to brands and cultures that have been ignored for way to long.

Wake up and smell the culture

In order to establish a culture, your company needs to allow a certain level of freedom for your employees to help. A CEO can’t dictate a culture of the company and expect the employees to follow along. All the employees have to be involved on a personal level for any type of culture to succeed.

Many companies are creating a set of CORE VALUES that they can hang their hat on to determine if something is inside or outside of their culture. Then they allow their employees to create fun, unique, interesting ways to bond as a group and to welcome “outsiders” (customers) into that group. When a company mixes a product/service with a thick culture, they now have created a product that others can’t easily replicate. The company culture marketing strategy is one that will pay dividends over the long haul.

First of all, you are allowing your employees to be fun and creative, boosting morale and overall happiness Second, you are creating something unique and desirable by others. Last, culture allows businesses to rebuild lost profit margins by creating a new product for people to consume.

Start now, be unique, have fun and spread the love. Ultimately your company will be rewarded at every level.

The past year or so has seen it fair share of ups and down with the economy, and with that we see some interesting marketing ideas. I love coffee and occasionally visit the local Starbucks or Dunn Bros. A recent idea someone at Starbucks dreamed up was to reward your receipt with a stamp that will discount your next coffee if you return the same day. If you cant tell I love coffee.

I admire Starbucks for trying, but I don’t see anyone talking about the new marketing scheme. At least they are rewarding the people who visit their stores multiple times a day, which can be up to 3 times before 10 a.m., according to one Starbucks worker.

Within a week, Dunn Bros. Coffee offered me the same deal as Starbucks. Do they really think giving someone a $1 off their next drink will stir up buzz and bring people flocking in? It won’t. The reason is simple. Nobody cares about saving $1 with the condition of having to return within a few hours. And most of us are probably going to be annoyed that we were even told about this lame deal.

If I were in the decision-making process of one of these two companies, I would reward the faithful customers by going over the top. Working the early morning shift at a coffee shop, you would learn quickly who are the talkers and frequent customers. I would then greet those customers with a limited edition card (like the Black Centurion Card). The card would be worth a month’s worth of free regular coffee if they return it at the end of the month. I would maybe make about 20 of these, depending on how much business is done at that particular store.

I would then create a couple more cards (different colors) like that in greater number that would be worth between 25-50% off for the month. Now you have a product that people will talk about. Plus you have just placed that into the hands of the talkers. It won’t take long for that to be passed around and a month is just long enough to get it into the hands of another talker as the first gets less excited.

Then I would run a campaign in the store showing the picture and posters of “Have you seen this card?” Let everyone know who comes to the store they could potentially get one of those cards. Now that is an idea worth sharing. Scarcity and Reward. Scarcity to create a desire and a reward to the talkers and return customers.

Just a couple of thoughts that came to my head when I thought of marketing empty apartments. I do have some experience in marketing apartments online and thought I would share some ideas.

Go all in

Just like in poker you sometimes have to go all in. In the apartment marketing game it is best to show them everything you have with your apartment in one spot. I am talking about good pictures, maps, descriptions, local attractions, sideshows, contact forms, live chat and your phone number everywhere.

Respond quickly

In North Dakota I know it costs roughly $500 to market and fill one unit for a year. Now if it is possible to drop that cost down to $100-150 per unit the savings adds up quickly. That is exactly what we did with our network of apartments listings sites.

Promote your buildings on and offline

We still have the traditional property managers that market apartments all of the usual ways via, TV, newspapers and radio. On the other hand I use SEO and content to drive online traffic to our sites (such as contextual links “Fargo, ND apartments“). We go to great lengths to become the authority on apartments in our area. We talk about parks, schools, colleges, businesses, museums, special events and anything else we can think of.

Promote your competition

I know that might seem a little weird or off but it works to benefit everyone involved. We have listings for approximately 3,000 units throughout North Dakota and in most cases the apartments are full. The problem is that we still receive leads to the sites asking for availabilities and different apartments. Now you are in a position to either list others apartments for a fee or sell the leads off to other property managers.

Repeat the rewards

I have to admit that this process of building a network of sites is time consuming and labor intensive, but it is definitely worth the effort. when done right you will receive many contacts and have the ability to shape the opinion of your brand as well as reputation of your apartments.