September 2009
Building On Experience And Trust
Marketing Directors, Inc.
You’re a developer and you’ve just run across, an empty, sizable plot of land. It’s full of rubble at the moment, but it’s located in a section of the City that seems promising for a new apartment building. But what kind of building? Co-op? Condo? Rentals? How many apartments and what size? Who are your prospects for living there? How do you find them, market to them, and sell to them?
If you are like hundreds of developers across the country, your first step is to call one company that has been the leading marketer and exclusive sales agent for top-of- the-line residential properties across the country for 30 years. You call The Marketing Directors Inc., and its CEO, Adrienne Albert.
“I ask for Adrienne’s opinion and input before I even buy a property,” says Allen F. Goldman, President of SJP Residential Properties. “Even before I meet with the architects, I’m meeting with Adrienne, and she’s quickly sketching out useful ideas. She is someone who can wave her hand and say ‘follow me!’ And many will, because they trust her.”
“This is a business of experience,” adds Trevor Davis, Managing Director of Davis Development Holdings LLC, “and Adrienne has an incredible amount of experience. She makes decisions regarding holdings in millions of dollars.”
Marketing Directors customarily becomes involved with developers at the earliest stage—when they are looking for a piece of land—and remains at the center of the project until its completion.
“We help the developers to know the highest and best use of the property,” explains Adrienne Albert. “We provide a program to the architect so the architect knows what to build. We critique the architect’s work to make sure it is the best product it can possibly be. We give parameters for finishes and specifications and we direct the work of the designer if there is one; if there isn’t, we step into that role and provide the finishes and specifications. It’s a carefully, thoroughly planned process,” she adds. ‘We know what everyone else in the market is doing.”
Says Jacqueline Urgo, President of Marketing Directors: “We conduct research every single day, on many different levels. Our company’s Market Insights division tracks every condominium closing in Manhattan, so we get a very pure, very accurate idea of what is happening in the for-sale marketplace. We look at sales, trends in sales, what types of homes seem to be garnering either a faster velocity or a higher return for the owners. And we do trend analyses to see where our buildings sit in the trend of pricing,”
“The goal of our research,” she says, “is to help a developer create a superior product for themselves and the end user. We put a great deal of time and effort to make sure that the product is the best it can be, for the market it is going after, within the budget that it is trying to achieve.
But further, this research also helps us deal with troubled projects that may be struggling in todays market. Our superior .sales team—together with our 30 years of experience— mean that we can be more effective in these challenging times.”
“There are many parts of the picture that have to come together,’ explains Albert. “We look at the building’s amenity programming and common spaces. We study the offering plan to make sure that the disclosure is as correct as it can be, and also to see that the attorneys who are looking to protect the developer are not so protective that they preclude a sale from taking place. We look at property management to make sure that the services that are provided are appropriate for the end user. If it’s too much, too expensive, that’s overkill. too little, and the owners don’t receive the lifestyle they’re looking for. We look to find that happy balance.”
Still another key service of Marketing Directors’ services is, as the firm’s name suggests, the marketing plan for the new property. “While the plan includes budgets and schedules, it also serves importantly to give the building an identity, a brand, all its own,” says Albert. “What will appeal most to the end user we have in mind? Is it a name that conjures up a particular quality, like elegance? Is it a street address, a desirable location? What will differentiate this building, get a buyers attention? Our recommendations are dictated by attracting the interest of our buyers, and, in the end, showing them how their lives are going to improve by living here. What is our strategy? Conventional sales? Velocity sales programs?”
The Marketing Directors not only creates the marketing plan, but also then becomes the team leader in hiring and supervising the suppliers who will implement it, The plan for a particular building might include print or on-line advertising, point-of-purchase materials, signage, cold calling, working through the brokerage community, and other means. Sums up Albert: “Whatever it takes, we do it!”
As potential buyers appear, the company moves into still another of its specialties: selling or leasing the individual units. “Everyone who sells or leases for us goes through training in these techniques, so they remain fresh and strong,” says Albert—and, adds Urgo, “so they are better tomorrow than they were yesterday.”
The firm assures that their home-buying clients, too, emerge from the process “better than yesterday.” “After the sale is made,” says Albert, “we help to coordinate the finishing of the building and the inspection by the homeowners or the people leasing, so they are happy about closing and moving in.”
Among buildings that the firm has recently represented are The Visionaire, Platinum, 45 Park Avenue, 200 Chambers Street, The Capri, and Atelier, Avonova, and Centria on the West Side.
The work of The Marketing Directors, however, extends far beyond Manhatran. “We work across the country,” notes Urgo, “not only throughout the US. Northeast and Canada, but also on projects on the West Coast, such as Seattle, Texas, Las Vegas, and now in Mexico. In addition, we have a major office in Atlanta that operates throughout the Southeast, in Florida, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.”
Not only is The Marketing Directors recognized as premier in its field, but so is Adrienne Albert. She was inducted recently into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Home Builders’ National Sales and Marketing Council and was named a Legend of Residential Marketing—the first woman so honored in the award’s 16-year existence.
“Anyone can do well and make money in a good market,” comments Dennis Brady, Executive Managing Director of Jack Resnick & Sons. “But show me the person who can make money and sell product in a bad market; that’s the person I want working with me. And Adrienne can do that.”
“People will always need to buy homes,” Albert sums up. “People’s lives change: they marry, they have families, they move. The key to success in our industry is to take advantage of these shifts. There is always opportunity, in good times or bad. The people who come out on top are the people who work hard and are creative. These are our clients and we’re proud to be a part of their teams.”
By Peter Haas
Adrienne Albert, Chief Executive Officer
The Marketing Directors
750 Lexington Avenue, 18” Fl.
New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212- 826-8822
Fax:212-826-1122
www. themarketingdirectorsinc. com
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