OK ... What's That Question?

Should 'take-no-prisoners' marketing have wide application within the self-storageindustry? Part II

By Harley Rolfe

The Marketing Process

The things that precede customer contacts--research, location selection, packaging,design, pricing, market plans--prepare us to enter the market and keep track of how wellwe're doing. These expressions may have a big-company ring to them. Be assured that theseactivities are performed in all organizations, regardless of size, in one fashion oranother. The question relates to how well the execution of them satisfy today's needs.

After getting his offering and plan right, the marketer needs to inform the marketabout the work done and convince the target users. Various methods are used, fromadvertising to mailing to sales people, all of which are considered segments of the mediaand comprise tools for the marketer to use to get to the group he had in mind. These toolsare used after completing the initial job of getting the message and product right. Thislatter is the stage that most folks associate with marketing. I assure you, however, thatthis phase of the activity is wholly dependent on the first part being done well. Thisphase has little punch until the product is designed and the marketer knows why eachmarket segment will respond to his pitch.

Divide and Conquer

"Did you say market segment?" Yes. The self-storage market is really acollection of different tenant groups. Each group is separate from the others, and each isderiving utility or value differently than the others. You are striving to achieve aclutch of unique offering elements or features needed to show each segment that you arethere for them. Take some very common uses of self-storage: a couple moving from theirapartment to their new home vs. a lawyer required to keep his case records for sevenyears. Both make use of the same kind of unit, but both are completely different in howthey derive utility or value from the unit. The basic truth that drives the marketer isthat while the unit may be the same, the use is different. If the use is different, thenthe segment is different. We want to take a bead on each segment.

Time for Sherlock?

The marketer is looking for clues leading him to the different groups or segments thatmake up his tenant and prospect clientele. Take rental period, for example: Some tenantskeep a unit for a few months, others for a matter of years. Is that significant?Definitely. And for several reasons:

The typical self-storage operator deals with each of the various separate segments asif none of the others existed. In most cases, a given tenant doesn't know his self-storageneighbors, let alone how they derive benefit. Accept that idea and the rest followsnaturally. Let's go back to the discussion about hotels from last month's column. What aretheir segments? I'm most familiar with resort hotels. Are they comparable to self-storage?Amazingly so. A typical selection of guest types on a summer evening in the Rockies wouldrange from senior-citizen bus-group tours to business conventions to family reunions tobicycle-travel groups to individual families to honeymooners--you get the idea. They allare using identical guest rooms. Yet, each of these guest types wants different qualitiesfrom their lodging experience. The job of the hotel marketing people is to design ways togive each one what they want. That is no different than our various segments all usingidentical style units, but doing so for very different reasons. So you see, we're not atall alone.

Mountain Men Had a Word for It

Lone mountain men made a living by being able to read the country and pick the rightclues. Sometimes tracks, sometimes scat, sometimes a bent twig. They had a word for it.They called those clues ... signs. They could unerringly find or avoid what they needed byfinding telltale signs. Various kinds of self-storage uses also exhibit signs for themarketer. We've discussed rental period, but there are others (frequency of access, sizeof unit, who owns the stored goods, etc.) Those differences help define various markets orsegments. They are evidence of different uses and bear closer examination.

But these "tracks" aren't the whole story in uncovering the various segmentsin your facility. You will find that similar tracks are being generated by very differentkinds of use. A retailer may keep a unit for an extended period, using it to storesmall-volume items to which he doesn't want to commit valuable display floor space. Anengineer for an international company parks his belongings with us and goes overseas for acouple of years, expecting to return afterward. The two have extended rental periods, butthe similarity ends there. In both these situations you would need to do someold-fashioned sleuthing by simply observing and interviewing. The best time is at sign-up,but you presently have a whole yard full of existing users for which you may need bettermarket ID. And it would be good to know the segment story of previous vacates. The resultwill be to categorize all (hopefully) of your tenants (past and present) such that you canidentify and segmentize all of their uses. Now you have a very useful tenant database.That's research as it used in this discussion. It is such knowledge that makes forhard-nosed marketing.

Marketing for Keeps

Let's shift gears and broadly outline what goes on when one engages in marketing"for keeps." It's not like dousing a fire. When a fire's out, it's out.Marketing is a continuous, never-done process. All the activity that is prelude toactually contacting the prospects is often called product planning. It is on-going. It isnot a give-it-a-shot-and-hope-for-the-best kind of affair. Why? Your rivals will copy yourbetter approaches. Occasionally, you will just plain miss. You will figure out betterways. And there are human reasons. We all respond to changes. It's in the genes. Our eyesquickly notice change--so do our minds. So, if you want to command attention, don't standstill. Look around--you see new models in everything from cars to hemlines. Are all thenew things really better? Maybe and maybe not. It's great if they are ... but that isn'tnecessary in order to have the desirable effect of change. The process is what'simportant, and the fact that it's like the Energizer bunny--it keeps going and going...

A Nice Surprise

There are some that feel that promotion expenses are dead weight--something they don'twish to do, but don't know how to escape. They would be happily surprised to discover thatthe addition of promotions enhance the value of their product. It's as simple as sayingthat things that are familiar are preferred/trusted, rendering such products morepreferred and thus valuable. The unknown is spooky, alien, something to be avoided. What'sthe difference between Joe Blow's hamburger and McDonald's? The meat's the same, alongwith the bun and fixings. The difference is barrels of promotion from TV to RonaldMcDonald houses. How about Sunkist or Chaquita fruit? Which do you pick first--one ofthese or a no-name fruit next to it? We pick those products whose organizations havelifted them out of the realm of commodities and made them known and preferred by brandingthem and telling us about them. Our point is that there are other factors that determinevalue to the customer beyond the physical features of the item. We can tap into thatsource of additional value while using marketing techniques to achieve the other purposes.

To Market or Not to Market?

With due apologies to the bard, this is a unique self-storage question. Many in theindustry are hesitant about marketing and downright teed-off that they are even calledupon to deal with these questions. This isn't what they thought they were getting intowhen they bought in. Isn't it true that we have depended on tenants to figure out how ourunits can be useful to them? As long as the units rented and the tenants paid on time, wehaven't paid much attention to how they got utility or value from the unit.

That kind of approach works well enough when the demand exceeds the supply of units inthe local market area. But when that period passes, it may be time for a differentapproach. Most other industries regard marketing and the need to confront and surmountcompetition as the norm. Or they use it to locate and exploit niche markets or gain morecontrol over the blend and behavior of their customer base. They use marketing techniquesto conceive new approaches that will help them thrive in their demanding marketplace.

The tone of this writing suggests that the choice to market will be unanimous. Thatisn't true. Many may choose to continue as they are. From my own background, there aremany lodging facilities that choose to go with the flow and take what comes their way.When times are good, they prosper. When things slow down or new facilities are added tothe supply, they can struggle. Lowering price is the prime competitive weapon, and youdon't need much marketing skill for that. We are addressing those that see the need to"do something." You're not breaking new ground. Plenty of businesses havepreceded you and for the same reasons. The next couple of articles deal with the mechanicsof what's involved.

What Now?

You're doing business. Many marketing decisions have been made already. You've picked aname, unit mix is set, you have prices, people have been hired and trained, and you havean ad in the Yellow Pages. The question is whether the methods used earlier are up to thetask that are now being dictated by a different set of market conditions and objectives.When formalized, marketing activities or phases go by names you have probably heard--suchterms as market research, segment identification, product design, facility organization,developing the marketing plan, media selection, etc., will creep into your vernacular. (Weget to these in the next article.) This all might sound heavy for a 400-unit facility. Bemindful that marketing deals with the human habits and behavior as encountered in amarketplace. For self-storage, buyers take units one at a time. Whether the facility has200 or 1,000 units makes little difference to the buyer.

See you next time.

Harley Rolfe is a retired marketing specialist whose career includesexecutive-level marketing positions with General Electric and AT&T. He owned lodgingand office facilities for more than 20 years and now works as a part-time office assistantfor a self-storage facility in Nampa, Idaho. Mr. Rolfe holds a bachelor's degree ineconomics from Wabash College and a master's degree in business administration from theUniversity of Indiana.