Insights

Developers are seeing demand for larger residential units, fitness centers and outdoor spaces.

Everyone knows the saying ‘bigger is better,’ but a new angle since the start of the pandemic, especially in real estate development, is that bigger is healthier. In seniors housing, residential units, fitness centers and outdoor spaces are all becoming larger. While the trend of bigger units had picked up steam over the last six or seven years, there’s an even greater emphasis on accommodations today because of COVID-19 and the resulting need for social distancing by residents, REBusiness Online reported.

“There’s awareness now about the possibility of a pandemic and the need to isolate. It’s changed the psychology around the unit,” Alan Moise, chief investment officer of Thrive, said during “The Development Outlook” panel at the eighth annual InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast conference.

Independent living residents are typically not willing to purchase a unit less than 800 square feet, according to Scott Gensler, vice president of business development with Erickson Senior Living. “The smallest unit size keeps getting larger,” he said. “We may say we’re building bigger units, but we’re actually just eliminating the smaller ones. By default, the average gets bigger.”

So many health-based decisions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have been reactive, including in the seniors housing sector, but the proactive approach is, well, reactivating. The desire for an active, healthy lifestyle, a priority that has greatly expanded from Baby Boomers’ parents’ generation to their own, has spurred senior living developers to place a bigger emphasis on the fitness center amenity and exterior recreational offerings.

Every time I look at a plan, the fitness center gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” Gensler said

. “Then we open it, and it’s still not big enough.

As the health club amenity at senior living communities grows in size and prominence so are outdoor spaces. Those external amenities are not only key to making sure place-making is done right, they are also key open-air elements that bring people together in the right way, such as trails, green space and parks for Boomers and their grandkids.

Peachtree Hills Place, the first and only luxury 55+, equity-model continuing care retirement community in Atlanta’s prime Buckhead district, offers a long list of amenities, including a resort-style clubhouse and pool, central courtyard with regulation size croquet lawns, rooftop patio and open-air pavilion, community garden and a dog park. Another infinitee client, Sooner Station, a 188-unit first-class senior living community opening in early 2022 just minutes from the University of Oklahoma’s campus in Norman, also offers a variety of spacious health-based and outdoor amenities, including a fitness center, a courtyard pool, walking trails and a meditation garden.We’ve discussed before

how Baby Boomers, 10,000 of whom will turn 65 every day between now and 2030, are redefining senior living development, putting greater importance on the aforementioned brand pieces and practices. It should be of little surprise that the generation that embraces bigger possibilities is asking for bigger space as well.

Marketing teams must advance on both digital and personal fronts while staying true to the brand story.

The COVID-19 disruption of the past year and a half has changed many things, including customer behavior. Marketing teams can react to adversity and market shifts to really propel them into the next opportunity and growth cycle. As much as things change though, storytelling remains a foundational element when planning marketing strategy and building brands.

“In a marketing landscape with endless shifts in tactics and touchpoints, teams can become inundated with levers and pulleys to optimize their campaigns,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director. “Always leaning on your brand's story as the impetus for a campaign is going to win out over trying to squeeze your brand's story to fit within a marketing tactic that may be popular but not quite right for your business.”

"Despite the ever-changing media landscape, always start with storytelling. A strategic, compelling story speaks directly to a business' value proposition and develops a unique positioning that allows consumers to see the benefits of products or services", Rivera added. For example, the brand positioning and overall story of EPX stays true to the location and created a focused approach consistent and cohesive across all marketing touchpoints. For  #SoWalWine, infinitee expanded persona stories developed years ago, creating a fresh but recognizable campaign that not only offers a fun, fresh perspective, but also keeps to the original brand story.

A compelling brand story combined with the right CX-serving tactics can really grease the sales and marketing funnel. Hayley Renvoize calls it “conversion storytelling, the art of developing and communicating an end-to-end campaign that flows from a targeted ad to a landing page experience through a combination of copy, images and sounds that are all cohesive, brand relevant and increase the probability of conversions.”

Even core marketing values could be buffeted by the vicissitudes of the past 18 months. Contactless interactions with customers became the norm during the pandemic, of course, but there was also a strong reaction to “the new digital-first reality” back in favor of traditional consumer experiences as seen by strong preferences for a return to restaurants, on-site retail shopping, live events and the office, writes Paige O’Neill in Forbes. To adjust to this “complex environment,” the Sitecore CMO recommends that marketing organizations do three key things, including right-sizing their digital experience. In other words, digital engagement, how customers interact directly with a brand and understanding who consumers are as humans, matters more than measuring output-based metrics like impressions, click-through rate, cost-per-click, shares, likes and share of voice. The goal is connecting with the audience and supporting them through the customer journey.

Secondly, and this may seem obvious, O’Neill recommends giving customers what they want most: choice. As mentioned above, consumers want that choice of going digital or going out for an on-site retail, dining, work or other experience. To provide that choice, one’s marketing mix needs to be multidimensional in the moment — tech-enabled responsiveness is key — and movable and malleable across time with the goal being a true omnichannel experience for customers. Modular rather than silo-ed thinking gives marketing teams the flexibility needed to adapt content to and thereby advance different channels.

How about personalization within the digital strategy? Lastly, O’Neill maintains that “optimization and personalization of digital content should now be top priorities because contextual and highly personalized content delivered when and where the customer wants it is the new expectation.” Customer experience was big before the pandemic, of course, but now consumers have not only had time to think about what’s really important in life, they’re also digital delivery experts. The same, old same-old won’t cut it. To improve personalization, brands must have in-depth knowledge of who customers are, what they want and need, their motivators and the potential actions they might take. This knowledge will lead to improved tactics and an overall enhanced customer journey.

Harvesting actionable marketing data, the aforementioned in-depth knowledge of customers and their preferences and habits, is critical obviously. Unfortunately, David Crane writes in CMS Wire, the dynamic nature of information driving “go-to-market” strategies these days makes it much more difficult to execute them. The VP of Marketing at Intentsify calls it a disconnect between strategy and execution, ideas and actions.

“B2B organizations must focus on developing tactical processes that support the execution of evolving, highly dynamic strategies — rather than trying to ‘duct tape’ existing processes to new strategies,” he adds.

More dynamic than ever, customer data can be that rocket fuel to get you to the marketing moon. Just don’t put the rocket boosters on the back of a horse cart, right?

Post-pandemic brands are trying to be everywhere at once and at one with a changed customer universe.

As you might expect, our company name perfectly embodies our teams’ belief in endless possibilities and great ideas. We’ll continue to mix old (personal connection) and new (the latest digital strategies) in marketing and branding, knowing that the more things change (with tech and data), the more they stay the same – like customer experience and the power of a good story.

This retail outlet’s new innovations, including alternative uses and the hiring of a fashion director, receive high-engagement.

When your retail approach is “no longer entirely about shopping,” you need a good plan. And a very good marketing partner. After more than 20 years of working with Tanger Outlets, infinitee is honored and eager to adapt with Tanger and help their team achieve this goal.

“If you want to keep that shopper and create a sense of loyalty, there has got to be something other than just the experience of shopping that holds them and gets them back more frequently,” Stephen J. Yalof, Tanger’s president and CEO, told WWD.

Micro-breweries, gourmet groceries, golf simulators, electric car recharging stations, selfie concepts and even robotic dinosaurs are being introduced at Tanger’s 36 locations across North America. There’s no slowdown in a retailer that recently turned 40 as it continues to reimagine shopper engagement, striving to attract new and younger consumers as a “customer experience destination.”

A trend-sensitive industry that’s weathered both the manmade disruption of e-commerce and a global pandemic knows about the need to adapt. And leaders go beyond that. Yalof told WWD that 15 to 20 percent of Tanger real estate being transformed into alternative uses would be ideal.  With years of experience through the business partnership and marketing background, infinitee is confident in their abilities to assist Tanger with its new business moves.

“When you have an amazing client partnership like we do with Tanger, a major pivot like this is not just a complex marketing challenge, it’s also a huge opportunity to elevate both company profile and performance,” said  Barbara McGraw, Co-Founder and CMO of infinitee. “We are proud to have been a partner in taking the Tanger brand to the next level.”

Tanger’s innovative new chapter didn’t end there: it became the first outlet developer to bring a fashion director onboard. The Brazilian-born Ray Oliveira will work to make the retailer both a style and savings leader. Serving as an extension of Tanger’s internal team, infinitee collaborates with Oliveira and the marketing and creative groups on seasonal trend definition, creative campaign development and content execution. That’s even more of a challenge with an outlet engaging a diverse range of lifestyles across more than 500 brands.

“Some people may have an outdated perception of what outlets offer,” Oliveira told WWD. “Many of fashion’s hottest brands have outlet locations, so the game has definitely changed. The beauty of outlet shopping is that guests can still score great basics at incredible value, but they can also discover on-trend looks and styles... Tanger’s retail mix of iconic labels and up-and-coming brands ensures there’s always something for everyone.”

Leaders are often viewed in enduring, even monolithic ways, but there’s quite a bit of change and adaptation that go with being the effective head of a team or company. Like fashions, they must change with the times to be able to react and plan effectively, especially true in the often-volatile retail sector. Change is constant, challenge is opportunity and, due to infinitee’s strong yet evolving partnership with Tanger, the future is more fun and fashionable.

Multifamily leaders — and their marketing partners — see good market conditions to go with their plans for better performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic certainly wasn’t a breath of fresh air, but it led many renters to pursue one. As a result, thousands of people chose to migrate from high-density cities and multifamily living to bigger suburban spaces, both inside and out, where they could work from home and smell the figurative roses. Yet, once the shock wore off, the pandemic exodus proved no match for a resurgent economy and a country still facing a severe housing shortage.

“Unlike many recessions, real estate was neither a cause nor a casualty of the recession in 2020,” Steve Theobald, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walker & Dunlop, wrote in REBusinessOnline. “Net absorption of market-rate apartments rebounded in the second half of 2020 and ended the year up 6.8 percent from 2019 levels. In the first half of 2021, net absorption reached record levels, more than double the 2020 pace and 60 percent higher than that of 2019.”

Despite labor shortages and supply chain adversity, the economy is rebounding in an impressive manner, even “booming,” according to Theobald, who cites a 7.8 percent growth estimate in the second quarter following 6.4 percent expansion in first quarter 2021. The growing population of vaccinated Americans certainly helps the cause, and the rental market benefitted from the eviction moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in September 2020 and extended beyond its original July 2021 expiration. The surprisingly good news for landlords is that unpaid rents only increased a fraction year over year.

Job growth and rising consumer confidence help every part of the economy, including the apartment sector. The Southeast, infinitee’s home turf, adds the advantages of relatively low costs, attractive weather and growing demographics, to that major momentum. Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando and Atlanta all ranked in the top job growth markets, but with unemployment rates in the 4 percent to 6 percent range, Theobald reported.

Those demand drivers lead to higher rents, which then support new construction. That’s more good news for the multifamily sector, but developers and owners face a new challenge: staying on top of changing tenant expectations, especially since the start of the pandemic.

As people spent more time at home than ever during COVID-19, they increasingly demanded “smart spaces that are inspirational, sustainable, cost-efficient and designed to be future-proof,” according to Bisnow.

infinitee has covered this space of retail’s balancing of “bricks & clicks,” but multifamily owners are also having to elevate their CX offerings in these changing times. Bisnow reported on STRATIS Smart Building’s “sidewalk-to-sofa” smart technology experience for residents of apartments and student housing — smart for another reason given that there are 68 million prospective renters within Generation Z who prize tech-based amenities. The smart building experience includes intelligent and integrated approaches to building access, WiFi, and energy, waste and water management.

“Some fear change, especially the kind that 2020 brought, but leaders in multifamily, marketing and other industries view it as another opportunity to effect change for the better,” said Barb McGraw, infinitee’s CMO.

Whether in a slowdown or rebound, we salute those real estate leaders who stay committed to reaching new heights through strong collaboration and innovative, creative, highly engaging and high-impact strategies.

Recruitment marketers, like all professionals, must adapt to changing economic conditions, but a strong formula and trusted partner always help to stand the test of time.

COVID-19 has changed so much, including how people work and how companies recruit and retain workers. As a result, it’s been said that it’s labor’s day, but three decades of experience connecting marketing/branding clients and their audiences to provide powerfully personalized recruitment marketing services still go a long way. We sat down with infinitee’s recruitment marketing guru Vince Vitti to discuss the current opportunities and challenges in recruitment.

Q: How would you describe the state of talent recruitment and retention?

‍Vitti: I have spent most of my advertising career in the recruitment marketing space and I have never seen a job market like I see today. We always have peaks and valleys when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, and those times were usually driven by strong or weak economic factors — expanding and contracting goods and services to meet the demand. And most of the time, employers had the upper hand or were in control of the expanding and contracting, but not today.

‍Q: What challenges are employers facing?

‍Vitti: They are fighting a multifront war for talent and trying to put the right pieces in place to become an employer of choice and sustain that. The fronts include the long-term consequences of a global pandemic — shot or no shot, work from home, work from anywhere and flexible scheduling. And how do you manage and measure the productivity of a remote workforce?

Q: What is today’s workforce demanding?

Vitti: Diversity, authenticity and transparency are hugely important. Employees want all of those things and want to know more about why you do what you do and less about what you do. Job benefits must go beyond health and medical (although they are very important). To be competitive, companies are offering unlimited vacation, work from anywhere options, college tuition, etc.

‍Q: How has the recruitment industry responded to these job market conditions?

‍Vitti: The labor crisis has spurred high demand for HR tech: companies large and small are investing millions of dollars in tech to try to reach more people and make it easier for candidates to engage and apply. That has led to career website software with AI, applicant tracking systems, virtual hiring platforms, onboarding systems, etc. It has also been the impetus for large amounts of money being poured into major job sites like Indeed, Zip Recruiter and LinkedIn, and their prices continue to rise because they can reach millions of people with one posting.

‍Q: COVID-19 obviously continues to exact a heavy toll on healthcare workers. What are you seeing in that sector?

‍Vitti: I am very concerned about our healthcare system, from the major medical centers to urgent care centers. These systems and networks are understaffed and burned out. They are not leaving for another job or another profession, they are just leaving. It has become a high risk and low-reward profession due to COVID-19. There is not a magic bullet or the perfect job board that will solve the problem. The crisis may slow down, but I don't think it is going away.

Q: With so many new hurdles, if not major adversity, what are you telling your recruitment marketing clients?

Vitti: There’s a formula I have used for years. To get out in front of the curve, clients need to focus on a couple of key areas. The first is People & Positioning (P2): your recruiters are the sales and marketing arm of HR. Don't weigh them down by requiring 100+ more requisitions to be filled out. Create a sourcing model similar to the way companies create lead generation programs. Identify a group of strategic recruiters who can focus on filling hard-to-fill positions and at the same time develop short-term and long-term marketing strategies to keep the pipeline full.

We have been talking about employer branding for decades and I have seen major improvements with companies telling their story, which is more important than ever, and using new channels to spread the good news. Don't limit the story to your career website or a job posting. Create high-quality content using video, graphics, etc., and market it the way your marketing department would sell products and services. Why is HR limited to job-related channels? There should be a priority in developing and distributing job-related content on all of your recruitment marketing channels.

The second area is Tools & Technology (T2): your sourcing group is also the leader in using the technology you invested in to help attract and retain people. This group takes advantage of your resume licenses, CRMs and virtual career event platforms.As discussed before in this space, strong recruitment marketing adoption correlates to positive candidate experience and brand reviews. COVID-19 has proved, however, that a traditional by-the-book approach can falter in the face of economic adversity. Look to infinitee to not only stay on top of the latest tools and trends, but also create a recruitment marketing plan tailored to your company needs.

To learn more, book 15 minutes with Vince Vitti, infinitee’s VP of Business Development, at 404-231-3481, x114.

THE CHANGING OFFICE LANDSCAPE SERIES CONTINUED FROM APRIL

From COVID-19’s many restrictions came more options for office employees, including working remotely.

“You can do anything you set your mind to” was the common spiel used by parents to inspire and motivate the next generation of aspiring professionals. The unsaid part was that their adult children most likely had to endure the “rat race” of long commutes, stuffy offices, hurried lunch hours and more. Since the start of the pandemic, that can-do-anything sense of professional possibility has a whole new meaning, as employees realized they can work from anywhere without those routine workday woes.

The debate about the best way for companies to manage their workforces and the balance between working from homes and offices has heated up, asserted Bisnow. A survey of 30,000 U.S. workers led to the estimate that the amount of work from home will rise from about 5 percent pre-pandemic to about 20 percent after. Interestingly, the three researchers, one of whom noted that the change will come primarily via a hybrid working model, predict this will result in a 4.6 percent boost in productivity for the economy due to workers spending approximately 435 million fewer hours commuting each month, with about a third of that savings shifting to work time.

According to a JLL study, 72% of people want to work from home from time to time, up 34 percentage points since pre-COVID. Sixty-six percent of the 2,000 office workers surveyed want to be able to alternate between different places of work, and 40% would like to be able to work from a third-party location such as a coffee shop or coworking space. As the global commercial real estate services company concluded, “hybrid work is the new normal, but it is a multi-faceted reality.”

We preached before in this space about the importance of in-office, face-to-face connection, which facilitates infinitee’s personal touch borne of the company’s commitment to teamwork, personal engagement and customer service. But there’s another type of connection with remote work: it has altered the competitive environment, shifting employment opportunities from local to global (see working from anywhere), according to Colliers Workplace Advisory. That, in turn, puts more pressure on employers to get their return to the office approach right with talent retention and acquisition at stake.

Smart companies not only know the employee work preferences from the JLL study, they also grasp the greater HR implications to business as a whole. The new workplace dynamics are being reflected in tenants starting to demand more flex and coworking spaces in their office leases.

“Most people who are coming into the office are coming in for a meeting for one to two hours,” the principal of an architectural firm told Bisnow’s Jarred Schenke. "They don't want to have to go back to their office on the 15th floor to get that heads-down time that they had when they were at their home previously.”

The American workplace has shifted from the limits of 2020 toward more limitless possibilities, a mentality we embrace. With the major employer emphasis on wellness, the increased convenience and choices for employees, and, of course, the comfort of home, it’s definitely labor’s day.

Adaptability has always been an important business quality to have and one that was really put to the test in 2020,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s Vice President of Business Development. “With one eye on the ever-changing global labor market and the other on their workers’ needs, smart employers will move forward with an office strategy based on flexibility.

From down and out to up and outside, retailers are striving to find the best, post-pandemic balance to boost customer experience.

It’s hard to offer consumers the best of both worlds, the “bricks & clicks” of shopping, especially during a global pandemic, but retailers, like before 2020, are challenged to balance and better their in-store and online offerings. Customers have always demanded speed and convenience, but how much has the social and experiential component changed in the last year and a half and how will that affect future CX strategy for retail companies?

The retail industry has been drastically disrupted by e-commerce, everyone knows. After much anguish, the sector seemed to have found new, solid footing with its experiential focus. As Shopping Center Business put it, “centers that created the right formula of fun, fashion and food were packed. It was all going so well until 2020.”

Something good always seems to come from something bad, the saying goes. In a retail industry where you must know how to adjust to adversity, those strong adaptive instincts and abilities can lead to better solutions, if not breakthroughs. During COVID-19, consumers appreciated the increased digital engagement from brands and, not surprisingly, wanted it to continue.

Customers found digital communications during the pandemic to be fast and convenient, and most don't want brands to scale back on digital customer experience initiatives in a post-COVID world, reported Chain Store Age, citing a five-country survey that included the U.S. The poll showed that 56 percent of respondents worried that brands may not maintain the level of effort in improving digital customer experience once the pandemic has ended, and 59 percent said their expectations for how brands interact and communicate with them will continue to rise post-pandemic. Nearly four out of every five respondents (78 percent) said those expectations rose during COVID-19.

According to CSA’s reporting, the top four customer experience values that will endure long after the pandemic are: message delivery speed (average 92 percent respondent agreement); response times (89 percent, tops in the U.S.); flexibility with customer requests (88 percent); and brands showing customers they care (85 percent), a very important connection discussed recently in this space.

We know that America is a consuming country, where volume and repeat business respond to speed and convenience, but we need the entertainment and socialization aspects of shopping as well, especially after the shut-down and socially distant adversity of 2020.

Just like consumers embrace having more options, flexibility has been crucial for retailers and restaurants adapting to the pandemic. Open space and alfresco dining options have been key since COVID-19 hit, while social media and other technology can facilitate a new chapter in social interaction. A Southern California architect told SCB that he sees the trend manifesting itself in pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and the embracing of “the car culture consumers relied on during the pandemic: more drive-in experiences, including food and beverage service, concerts and movies.”

Oftentimes advancing retail brands is more about adapting. Companies should maintain their increased, post-pandemic digital engagement while providing the fresh touch of open-air, experiential options. Through thick and thin, retailers and restaurants that strategically drill down to the most effective and innovative tactics will successfully elevate CX.

Acquiring minds want to go… to more restaurants, shops and vacation spots as 2021 heats up.

You always remember your first time — after a pandemic. That long-awaited return to your favorite restaurant, reuniting with old friends down at the coffee shop or lift-off as you jet away from the routine turned rut for a well-deserved and carefree change of scenery for the first time in nearly a year and a half. That post-pandemic pent-up eagerness and energy on an individual basis is adding up to a whole lot of industry demand for retail and restaurants. Like the summer sun, consumer confidence also rises.

In February, before there was a clear picture of vaccine distribution, COVID-19 infection rates and additional fiscal stimulus, the National Retail Federation projected year-over-year retail sales growth of between 6.5 percent and 8.2 percent for a total between $4.33 trillion and $4.4 trillion. Well, at the beginning of July, the world's largest retail trade association revised its 2021 retail sales expansion numbers up to 10.5 and 13.5 percent over 2020 to a range between $4.44 trillion and $4.56 trillion.

Furthermore, the NRF now expects gross domestic product for the full year to approach 7 percent, after starting out at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of the year. That would be the fastest growth rate since 7.2 percent in 1984 and far above the 4.4 to 5 percent forecast in February. Personal consumption expenditures, which cover both goods and services, are now expected to grow 7.5 percent year-over-year rather than 4.5 percent, according to the NRF’s early July release.

The $388.6 billion in retail sales posted in May was the second-highest level on record, behind only the $414.7 billion achieved during the 2020 holiday season, the association’s research showed.

Why all the fiscal fireworks and how will that affect the third quarter outlook? We know that summer is the season of travel, weddings, outdoor sporting and other events in normal years, but this summer is unlike any other. Americans have built up an estimated $1.7 trillion in excess savings during the pandemic, according to research from global payments company Blackhawk Network, and, like a sailor finally reaching port, they are ready for a break, to break out, to break the mold. Add to that consumer predisposition and power the fact that thousands will want to make up for missed milestones, celebrations and traditions. That’s very good news for retailers, restaurant owners and the travel industry, all of which took their lumps during 2020.

With the elevated consumer confidence and surging sales numbers, retailers might be tempted to view the market as an easy street. Challenges remain though, including labor supply. It’s always a good idea to hone a balanced retail approach — has your bricks & mortar game become a little rusty? — as well as reassess your brand messaging and ensure that your marketing strategies are innovative, creative, highly engaging, and high impact — as well as purpose-driven.

In an industry used to disruption, retailers strive for a deeper connection with their audience.

A meme states that “marketing is like asking someone to go on a date while branding is what gives them a reason to say yes.” Increasingly, retailers must go farther and deeper to not only attract, but also demonstrate their worth. Beyond products and services, strong awareness and values translate to branding bona fides leading to credibility and acceptance in the eyes of consumers in a hyper-informed world.

Ross Kimbarovsky writes in Chain Store Age that the global pandemic has pushed smart brands to evolve in their communication, with “purpose-driven marketing” being a key way to connect with an audience that, more and more, looks for retailer alignment on social issues. By connecting through a common cause they both believe in, whether human rights, race, environmental awareness, poverty, gender inequalities or other issues, brands show they care past the solely commercial causes and communities. The CSA article cites a recent study by the Zeno Group that found consumers are 4.5 times more likely to recommend a brand and four times more likely to do business with it when a brand follows and articulates a strong purpose.

At infinitee, we believe purpose-driven marketing shouldn’t just be a pandemic response. According to Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Global Human Capital Trends Survey, CEOs pointed to societal impact as the top success factor for annual performance for the first time ever. That was in 2019. Millennials, now the biggest generation in America, came of age during the Great Recession. Their resulting financial struggles led to if not healthy cynicism, at least a strong ability to detect empty promises and those brands lacking substance. As Kimbarovsky advises, it’s always a good idea to reassess your brand messaging and ensure that your marketing strategies are innovative, creative, highly engaging, and high impact — as well as purpose-driven.

When Winston Churchill said ‘never waste a good crisis,’ we’re pretty sure he was speaking about something other than retail marketing strategy. However, brands that don’t view the post-pandemic landscape as a critical opportunity to reconnect with customers and prospects will definitely fall behind. That’s how tumultuous 2020 was. A sea change like that requires brands to see the change, so they can then act. (Hey, at least we didn’t trot out the trite ‘n-w n-rmal’!)

Market research should be a regular habit, infinitee believes, but especially after a once-in-a century upheaval like COVID-19. One-on-one feedback, surveys and questionnaires yield unique insights to help brands understand impacted customers and how their needs and attitudes have changed. From that, retailers can overhaul or modify their brand positioning, image and communication… or even identity.

And there are even more benefits to brands having their fingers on the pulse of customer wants and ideals. Come for their feedback, insights and direction and stay for the user-generated content (UGC). A retailer can’t have too many unpaid brand ambassadors or influencers, after all.  

Kimbarovsky writes that UGC has been “growing exponentially” for the past five years, “largely due to influencer marketing.” He cites studies that show that people are 28% more likely to engage with UGC — including the honest reviews, real emotions and natural reactions of real people — than traditional company-based posts. It only makes sense in a consumer age where people are highly informed and motivated by strong values such as commitment to social causes. Authenticity matters and UGC, with all of its powerful viral potential, reflects relatability and trustworthiness, which builds the brand that grows the retail business.

To thine own self be true, another Englishman wrote, a few centuries before Churchill. The new truth in retail marketing, whether in a crisis or not, focuses both inward and outward. Connecting beyond the commercial with consumers calls for marketing that is purpose-driven, well-researched and user-based.

While new tech tools get a lot of attention, office teams must still rely on time-tested protocols and enduring values for effective collaboration and synergy in the COVID-19 era.

As the professional world fluctuated during the pandemic between Wizard of Oz-like ways — there’s no place like home! — and a Southwest Airlines commercial — wanna get away? — elite teams kept doing what they do: communicating. It hasn’t been easy though given the once-in-a-century shakeup of work and office routine.

Good, clear and open communication is essential, from the savvy senior executive who is no stranger to meetings with microphones down to the rookie sales guy and from the head of HR to that manager who has to troubleshoot Microsoft Teams connection issues. Efficient internal communication not only keeps everybody on the same page, it also enables the unit to be more than the sum of its parts.

COVID-19 obviously required major adjustments in work location and routine, but it also pushed a lot of people out of their communication comfort zones. Team leaders who liked to encourage with a quick stop at a person’s desk couldn’t anymore, and employees who needed regular personal feedback have missed out. As business author Matt Oechsli writes, adding to the challenges is the fatigue people have experienced from the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, making efficient internal communication even harder.

Variety can also be the spice of pandemic work life, we say. Mix it up with your team, from regularly scheduled virtual group meetings — the weekly session has always been a staple in elite teams, according to Oechsli — to personal telephone calls, regular business activity broken up by the social engagement of a happy hour, and variation in terms of communication tools, including internal messaging given that a person can’t walk over to a colleague’s desk at a moment’s notice like before.

infinitee endorses any high-tech solution that keeps the office team connected, from the residential and retail industries to healthcare and others, but it still must align with the high ideals of the company’s mission. Oechsli touches on that and more in his “foundation of internal communication best practices”:

• Weekly meetings shouldn’t be a check-the-box scheduling item partly done to make sure your personnel are awake. There’s a mission to be embraced — and refreshed! Your team goals are big and important, which means they require repetition, progress reports and feedback. Regular communication that lets team members know where they stand, what lies ahead and what they’ve done well — remember to celebrate your people! — are essential.

• “Role clarity,” as Oechsli calls it, makes for healthy, efficient team boundaries while peer-to-peer training is a great way to share individual strengths with the group. Both are so important, the former given the fluid, ad hoc nature of the pandemic year as it relates to many team member responsibilities. And there’s a, shall we say, peerless connection when an employee can teach or advise a fellow associate, whether it be customer service approach, organizational skills or whatever.

• Oechsli likes to use the phrase “inspecting what you’re expecting” when it comes to managing teams and ensuring that they are communicating in an elite way. Performance reviews have always been important, but they’ve grown even more vital in the pandemic era. When an employee is more face to face with his or her cat than their work team, then there’s more than a remote chance they can drift from the common cause. Reviews are a good way to remedy that. You’re also able to “connect with [team members] on an emotional level—essentially, take their attitudinal temperature,” says Oechsli.

There’s been so much change in the past business year, but some things should never change. Consistent, positive engagement and team-oriented efforts are critical, as are personal feedback and role definition for the individual. While much effort — virtual and otherwise — is required to achieve elite team communication during a pandemic and beyond when we re-enter the office again, the benefits can be infinite.

The office sector is adapting to COVID-19 realities, but many changes are in service to a constant, the need for collaboration and personal connection at work.

The only constant in life is change, a wise man once said. We don’t think he was an office real estate pro, but his age-old platitude certainly applies to the sector. In the past year, COVID-19 has drastically changed how we gather together to both work and play.

Owners, developers and architects in the $2 trillion industry are working hard to update spaces so that companies can once again collaborate face to face, without concern for microbes or mute buttons. Design-wise, offices are taking on elements of hospitals – we hope that food is not one of them! – rather than hospitality and increasing unit sizes while adding outdoor spaces and flexible workspace areas, according to experts at a Bisnow webinar. Enhanced air filtration and antibacterial surfaces are a big focus in the fight against viral spread. Despite talk of hybrid work setups and variable shifts, hot-desking may not be as hot of an idea after the pandemic retaught us the value of personal space.

Perhaps the more things change — in the physical office environment — the more they stay the same, as in more and more companies are planning a full or mostly full return to the office. Only 17 percent of CEOs said that they will downsize their company’s footprint, according to the 2021 CEO Outlook Pulse Survey from KPMG (reported by GlobeSt.). Back in August 2020, the global accounting firm found that 69 percent of CEOs said they would reduce their office footprint.

When a company occupying more than 44 million square feet of office space worldwide announces its intention to return to the office “pretty much as we were pre-COVID,” that says quite a lot. That’s what Amazon Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities John Schoettler told Bisnow, with hopes for a fall return timetable.

Another multi-trillion-dollar industry, that of wellness, has certainly grown closer to the office sector during the pandemic year. But even that important priority is eclipsed by the human need for social interaction. As much as the office landscape has changed since March 2020, people still need that personal connection at the office, from the residential and retail industries to healthcare and beyond. You see it in Amazon’s plan and we feel it at infinitee in all we do.

With all due respect to our lead logician, the only other constant is connection. We need it in business — certainly high-impact marketing — and life in general. infinitee’s belief in endless possibilities and great ideas in marketing real estate comes ingrained with the values of teamwork, personal engagement, and customer service. We are thankful for the virtual value that tools like Zoom provide us to connect and collaborate from afar, but that face-to-face shared experience will always fuel us as brand makers, storytellers and creative advocates to not only deliver results, but do so with a fun, personal touch.

TO BE CONTINUED:The return to the office is one well-supported viewpoint, but there are also plenty of benefits to consider with work from home and flex scheduling. STAY TUNED for Part 2 of this conversation!

The 31-year real estate marketing agency wins the Silver Award for Best 55+ Integrated Marketing Strategy at the luxury retirement community in Atlanta.

infinitee is proud to announce that Peachtree Hills Place, a luxury 55+ retirement community in Atlanta, has been honored at the 2021 NAHB’s Best of 55+ Housing Awards, winning the Silver Award for Integrated Marketing Strategy. To increase brand awareness and drive sales at the amenity-rich, independent-living community, infinitee created and directed a detailed marketing plan, ranging from strategic planning to branding, traditional and digital advertising to video and photography.

“With Baby Boomers not just redefining senior living and the active-adult lifestyle, but doing so at a pace of 10,000 turning 65 every day between now and 2030, Peachtree Hills Place had to raise the bar in terms of how it engages that major market, and integrates media and other tactics to deliver a seamless and customer-centric experience,” said Barbara McGraw, Founder and CMO at infinitee. “This award is a very special recognition of our efforts to market a special place with expert activations, content development, digital marketing, and more.”

The NAHB’s Best of 55+ Housing Awards are billed as the only national honors celebrating the people, companies, projects, and programs that have advanced the industry through innovative marketing, outstanding design and construction, and community lifestyle features. For that reason — and the rich 80-year history of the 140,000-member trade organization — the awards have become a highly respected showcase for quality housing, innovation and emerging trends that appeal to the active adult and retiree demographic, attracting industry participants and media alike.

Judging is conducted by an expert panel of 55+ industry professionals from across the country representing expertise in development, architecture, universal design and aging-in-place, marketing, interior design, and lifestyle. Eligible projects were completed in the two years prior to the application deadline of Aug. 31, 2020.

Peachtree Hills Place is the first and only luxury 55+, equity-model continuing care retirement community in Atlanta’s prime Buckhead district. The Isakson Living community offers a long list of amenities, including a resort-style clubhouse and pool, central courtyard with regulation size croquet lawns, rooftop patio and open-air pavilion, community garden, art studio and woodworking shop, and a dog park.

Thanks to infinitee’s integrating technology, strategic perspectives and branding best practices – as well as the 2021 NAHB Best of 55+ Housing Award – many more people know of the brand promise of livable luxury at Peachtree Hills Place, a community where Boomers can “savor the rewards of a life well-played.”