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Luxury lakeside apartments take creative approach to marketing
The Business Journal of Phoenix - 2:30 PM MST Tuesdayby Christia GibbonsThe Business Journal
Gray Development Group has hired Sugar Creative to market Grigio, a $125 million luxury rental complex on the north shore of Tempe Town Lake.
The challenge, officials with both companies agree, will be marketing a concept versus a product. Grigio sounds more like a five-star resort than a rental property.
Renters will have a choice of 48 floor plans from studios to units with lakeside views. Monthly rent will range from $900 to $5,000 for apartments from 600 square feet to 3,000 square feet in size.
Tenants will have access to delivered dining, in-home spa treatments, a two-level 24-hour health club, poolside cafe and coffee service, a boutique and wine shop, and a rooftop deck.
Dolores McKay, brand manager for Gray, said it's tricky promoting a lifestyle.
"We wanted to offer a one-of-a kind, useful living alternative in a market saturated with condos," McKay said.
Gray Development, McKay said, took nine months to test what renters wanted, figuring out what's best about resort living, best about condominium living and alternatively, the limitations that come with those options.
The company picked Tempe Town Lake, "because Tempe is so forward looking," she said.
To sell what McKay describes in such terms as "new product," "new brand," "lifestyle" and "vibrant," Sugar Creative will have to tell, not yell the message, said Peter Juergens, managing director of the Phoenix-based marketing and Web firm.
"We want to tell a story," Juergens said, noting that his company is working on delivering the message by focusing on the "experiential."
From interactive marketing to signage, it is about building trust with consumers and eventually the people who live at Grigio "will become the brand, tout the brand and become the voice of experience," he said.
Branding strategy development will culminate in the next two weeks, and by early next month, Juergens said, "you'll be seeing lots and lots out there."
Grigio is under construction and set to open during the first quarter of next year.