By George Allen on 2016-01-15

Blog # 382 Copyright 2016 COBA7® @ 17 January 2016: community-investor.com

Perspective. ‘Land-lease-lifestyle Communities, a.k.a. manufactured home communities and ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting is the national advocacy voice, official ombudsman (press), research reporter, & online communication media for all LLLCommunities in North America!

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, a.k.a. COBA7®, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764

COBA7® Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!, & Goal of its’ print/online media = to ‘Not only inform & opine, but transform & improve MHBusiness Model Performance.’

INTRODUCTION. Not much to say really. Part I describes the newest, and possibly the most helpful marketing tool, for selling more HUD-Code manufactured homes on-site in LLLCommunities. And Part II, while not meant to be a tease, comes across that way, as I start – then – stop introducing, potentially the most controversial line of thinking and action I’ve penned in nearly four decades in this business and realty asset class. Didn’t get ‘cold feet’, just need more time to work through the significant business model changes likely needed to spark the resurgence of manufactured housing production, shipments, sales and installations thereof..

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I.

The ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’!

For once, HUD-Code manufactured housing & its’ land-lease-lifestyle Community component, thanks to the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, is figuratively speaking, ‘a significant leg up’, when it comes to articulating and offering a practical, comprehensive new housing sales & leasing marketing tool! Simply put, COBA7® introduces here, the ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’; & here’s how we got to where we are today:…

ACADEMIC MARKETERS, in textbooks and classrooms on university campuses, extol the value and use of what they refer to as the Four Ps of Marketing; specifically: Product (or Service), Place, Price, & Promotion! No more, no less. And probably, in some industries, that’s as far as one needs to go, to ‘get the word out’ about one’s marketable product or service. But it’s nary enough for marketing practitioners working in the housing world, selling and leasing various types of shelter.

SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS of new and resale housing, as well as leasing apartments, and housing/rental homesites in LLLCommunity environs, have long known, Four Ps of Marketing are simply not enough to ‘get the job done’! No, even with the most attractive (housing) Product in the best Place, at a locally competitive Price, and well-Promoted, without properly trained, motivated, & supervised People, the job simply will not be well accomplished. Hence, the Five Ps of Marketing. But even that’s not enough to effectively market the wide variety of housing types, including manufactured housing and rental homesites available today. Each of those aforementioned Five Ps must be RIGHT, as in the Right Product (or Service) for the targeted market (customer), displayed and available in the Right Place in the local housing market, certainly at the Right Price (does ‘affordable’ sound familiar?), with the Right (mix of) Promotional efforts, by the Right (Again; trained, motivated & supervised) People! When those Five Right Ps truly track, we’re more than half way to Marketing & Sales Success!

But that’s still not all! The National Multihousing Council (‘NMHC’) and National Apartment Association (‘NAA’), in a recently released 700+ page realty investment and management tome, containing material contributed by COBA7®, added a ‘Sixth Right P’ to the already heady marketing mix: ‘Right Process’! And just what is Right Process? ‘It’s the planning and procedures SAVVY MARKETERS use to ensure (shelter) needs and wants of the target market, within one or more local housing markets, are fulfilled by the previous Five Right Ps of Marketing, i.e. Right Product (or Service); Right Place (or Location); Right Price (Affordable or not); Right Promotion (Print &/or online advertising, on & off-site signage, & public relations measures); using the Right People (Trained, motivated & supervised)!’ These ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’ become both the ‘drivers & results’ of the ‘Seven P Rule’, where ‘Proper Prior Planning Prevents Pitifully Poor Performance!’ Or, put another way, ‘Failure to plan (marketing), is planning for failure (lack of marketing success)!’

So there you have it, the practical & comprehensive new housing sales and rental homesite leasing marketing tool, the ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’!

And know what? If you’re in attendance at the LLLCommunity Owners Panel, at 10-11AM, on 20 January, at the Louisville MHShow, you’ll receive a new COBA7® Signature Series Resource Document titled: The ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’- a training aid describing each of the six ‘Ps’ in detail! And the reverse side of this new one page training aid features the popular ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet’, used by many marketers and salespersons, to calculate – based on AMI &/or AGI*, just how much ‘house’ a homebuyer and or homebuyer/site lessee can afford, under Risky & Affordable lending circumstances. If you can’t attend this ‘already SOLD OUT KY show’, featuring Community Series Homes to buy, but want a copy of this new, Free SSRD, simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 and ask for it.

End Note: (*) AMI = Area Median Income; AGI = Annual Gross Income (of a homebuyer or household). AMI/AGI on the ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet’ is $36,000.

II.

Perhaps the time has finally come…

To do what? Plan and effect substantial (not subtle) changes to (most, if not all) business models comprising the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry as we know it today, including land-lease-lifestyle community operations, housing affordability & housing finance.

At this point however, I’m going to stop penning this week’s blog posting. Why? Because the necessary, if not radical, business model changes, long talked about quietly and privately, were detailed to COBA7® in recent correspondence. They’re about the only change alternatives remaining – if the manufactured housing industry is to survive beyond year 2020! In the meantime, I’ll likely discuss said business model changes with MHInsiders at the Louisville MHShow. Then perhaps take the subject up again next week.

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