Cohousing-L Mailing List: Marketing cohousing

[BILL ZAHAVI, PERF. EXPERTISE CENTER (DTN: 227-3182) (zahavi]

The Commonweal group in the Boston area is about to ebmark on a marketing
campaign in order to increase membership to a level high enough to justify
an aggresive and costly development plan.  The various activities on the
campaign are all focused on a cohousing 'message' which in addition to 
a vision statement also includes some highlighting phrases that attempt to
give the audience a flavor of what cohousing is all about.

A recent discussion brought up a point raised by several people who noticed 
that when they tried to explain cohousing to some of their friends, the
images that were perceived fell into three categories:

                1 - A condominium complex

                2 - A retirement community

                3 - A yuppy commune

Our current brochure uses terms that are clear to us but when presented to
outsiders may conjure up any of the above images.

Our project plan will require that new members will have to invest a 
substantial amount of money right from the start.  In order to do so, we
believe that the message must be sufficiently clear and attractive enough
to bring people forward.  It would be great if we could somehow bring
together different 'focus groups' to test market our messages before we
spend large amounts of money on the campaign.  In the meantime we are seeking
the help of other groups with thoughts on what key phrases they used in
their brochures which they felt worked well.

I think, for example that the term 'co-housing' could give New Englanders, who
are traditionally relatively conservative as far as lifestyles go, a negative
image.  What if we called it a 'jointly planned community'?

A common house may have a religious sound to it for some people.  In order to
market condominium complexes in Florida they push their 'club' houses. 

Anyway, I think we need to start a thread on how to market the idea in areas
where new lifestyles appear less frequently.

Your thoughts, comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Bill Zahavi
Commonweal (Boston, Ma.)