Re: Marketing Survey
From: Peg Blum (pegbcambridgecohousing.org)
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 08:53:01 -0600 (MDT)
At Cambridge Cohousing, marketing was done by all of us, overseen by the
Membership Committee.  (This was happening back in 1995-6 before "cohousing"
was a household word around these parts.)  We posted one-page flyers in all
the likely places: food coops, day care centers, schools, etc.  When it
became clear that we were attracting mostly singles and older couples, we
formed an ad hoc committee to examine strategies to recruit families.  That
was when we developed a "home-made" brochure for distribution with all of
the pertinent details as Sharon noted.  Photocopying costs were covered out
of our small operating budget.

Everyone worked at getting the message out and posting the brochures,
distributing at community fairs, etc.  Word of mouth was very effective,
especially family-to-family.  We also believed "if you build it, they will
come" and they did!

Our most successful strategy was working with a reporter at the Boston Globe
which led to a front page article in the Saturday Real Estate section,
showing the architect's rendering of the site plan.  By mistake, the article
gave the time and place of an Introductory Meeting for prospective members,
being held on the following day.  (Usually, we expected people to call a
membership committee member for meeting info.)  An overflow crowd appeared,
meeting was moved to a larger space and we still had people standing
outside, so hastily scheduled another meeting for them 3 days later.  Some
of the families who live here now remember being part of that overflow
crowd!

Peg Blum
Cambridge Cohousing
Cambridge, MA
www.cambridgecohousing.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Simpson" <coho [at] theworld.com>
To: "Cohousing List" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 9:31 AM
Subject: [C-L]_Marketing Survey


> Hi everyone!
>
> I am doing a survey to find out what is your marketing budget and process.
> Is marketing administered by the membership committee or the business
> committee?
> Or is it it's own entity?
> What has been your most successful marketing venture to date?
> Least successful marketing venture to date?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> --Diane Simpson
>    Jamaica Plain Cohousing in Boston
>
>                "The people around you define the quality of your life."
>                    Ask me about Cohousing!   http://jpcohousing.org
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>  82 GREEN ST. BOSTON, MA; 1 BLOCK FROM GREEN ST. STATION (TOWARD CENTRE)
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>
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