When the self storage industry was in its infancy, marketing was not a big concern. Since there were very few facilities in existence, an owner merely needed to provide a fairly safe and clean environment for the small number of people looking to store their belongings. Over the years the number of available units has grown, as well as the number of people needing storage. Today, there are nearly 50,000 self storage facilities in the U.S. alone. Therefore, the savvy customers have developed much higher expectations, making marketing in the self storage industry a vital tool.
Self storage marketing is the promotion of your self storage business. Self storage marketing is usually always centered on the customer. A recent industry study showed that the reasons people need self storage are that, 44% are moving, 34% don’t have enough space and 15% are people with business needs. Self storage businesses determine what the customers needs are, and implements them into their self storage properties.
A well-known analyst and marketer has divided marketing into four general sets of activities that are common in any business. These activities have become universally recognized as the “Four P’s”, and are often referred to as the Marketing Mix.
.Product: The product aspects of self storage marketing deal with the specifications of the actual features, benefits or services that the self storage properties offer, and how it relates to the self storage renter needs and wants.
.Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for the unit, including discounts.
.Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or self storage company.
.Placement or Place: refers to how the property gets recognized by the customer.
As well as the standard Four P’s (Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Placement), marketing for a service industry such as self storage calls upon an extra three activities, totaling seven and known collectively as the Extended Marketing Mix. These are:
.People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on customer service. They must be appropriately trained in the ways of self storage, well motivated and the right type of person.
.Process: This is the process involved in providing a service and the behavior of people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction and service.
.Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible. This means that potential self storage customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to rent. To reduce the feeling of buyers’ remorse, and improving the chance for a rental or reservation, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like. (Site visit)
For a self storage marketing plan to be successful, the mix of the four “P’s” must reflect the wants and desires of the self storage consumers in the target market. Trying to convince a market segment to rent something they don’t want is extremely expensive and seldom successful. Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, to determine what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for it. Marketers hope that this process will give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing management is the practical application of this process. The offer is also an important addition to the 4P’s theory. As in any business, the idea of marketing is to promote the business – both as a whole and on an individual level.
In the past, self storage as a whole has sometimes had a bad reputation. Oftentimes when people think of the industry they think of the horror stories that are shown on the evening news – the meth lab found in a unit, a soldier’s items being auctioned by mistake, the hurricane damaged storage property, the car used in a homicide being stored in a space. Unfortunately for the storage industry the every day good things that occur are just too mundane to draw attention. This is one reason why positive marketing on a national level is extremely important. Self storage organizations, private, statewide and nationwide have all become very important in the positive marketing for all self storage owners and managers. Many of the larger private self storage organizations put on large conventions to increase the awareness of the self storage industry. This allows owners and managers to meet, exchange ideas and learn some new techniques. Positive feedback nationally will always help locations on the local level.
Most self storage companies today have a customer focus. This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally there are three ways of doing this:
.The customer-driven approach consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer
.The sense of identifying market changes
