On Friday, May 14, I moved. The lease was up on the 2-bedroom apartment I shared with a college friend who decided to move home for the summer. I work full-time in Duluth, so moving home was not an option for me. This resulted in the search for a new place to live. True to internet consumer behavior, I was clearly immersed in pre-purchase deliberation search behavior as I spent hours on property management websites comparing rent prices, locations, parking options, and the physical aspects of Duluth apartment buildings (Roberts, p. 116).
There were a number of apartment websites that showed impressive pictures and offered desirable amenities. When I visited one particular complex, it became quickly apparent that the website pictures were from their past history. Seth Godin’s blog post on May 19, 2010, Who is easily manipulated?, suggests that marketers have the ability to manipulate people into an action that is not in the person’s best interest. It certainly wouldn’t have been in my best interest to rent the apartment that looked wonderful on the website, but actually had holes in the walls, broken locks, and moldy looking water damage along the baseboards. The website views of the gorgeous indoor swimming pool turned out to be a pool without water, roped off with yellow hazard tape, and coated with a black powdery substance. Needless to say, I politely expressed my lack of interest in the facility and left. The property marketers failed in establishing any form of customer loyalty - the experience was misleading and unsatisfactory (Roberts, p. 125).
Eventually, I found a nice, clean, one bedroom apartment about a mile from my old place. I spent all weekend moving. The worst part of the experience was spending almost a week without internet access at home.
Moving from a two bedroom to a one bedroom apartment resulted in the need for organizational and storage products, so I decided to check out Target.com to see how they could make my life a little easier. Even if Target was not a chosen website, I likely would have done my searching there anyway due to their brand image, which has always made a favorable impression (Roberts, p.153). I went directly to the Storage and Organization section after clicking the “Home” tab on the Target main page. I felt a sense of calm as I read the ad assuring me they can offer “A place for everything.” I browsed shelving, drawers, carts, totes, baskets, bins, over the door hooks, and under the bed storage. I spent more time looking at the under the bed choices, since that is currently the only space not being used. There were many options to choose from, all of which could be beneficial. These are low involvement products, because a great deal of thought is not needed when deciding to purchase a bedside caddy or an under the bed box to store magazines (Roberts, p. 153).
Rather than ordering from the website, I will just take a trip to the store. The website is a great way to get ideas, but I really need the storage containers ASAP so I can reduce the tripping hazards involved with stepping over cardboard boxes in the hall - and the kitchen, and the bedroom, and the living room, and the bathroom…
Angela, Great job in integrating "real life" examples into your blog.It's too bad that you had to waste your time looking at the bad apartments misrepresented by the advertisements / websites. I think I would spend some time letting the particular companies know how bad their websites, or whatever website you found them on completely let you down. I haven't looked looked for an apartment in a long time...pre-internet actually so I am sure that a lot has changed, and it's probably much easier to misrepresent, and there's a probably many more companies/landlords competing for apartment rental dollars. There's probably website out there that will let you complain and voice your concern...like Angie's List...but for apartments. The only thing I found in my brief search was consumeraffairs.com...but there you can complain on everything, and it appears that the company or the landlord may not even find out about the issue at the time.I was just thinking that the owners of the apartments should really find out how bad their dwellings are...and how bad they are being misrepresented by the apartment managers...because it is really somebody's job to fix those places up, right?
ReplyDeleteI agree! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is unbelievable how much we rely on the Internet nowadays. My husband and I currently have our house on the market, and have been looking at other homes in different cities. If we did not have the Internet, we would have to drive to every city (of interest) and "look around" for FOR SALE signs. (how ridiculous -hee hee)
As you mentioned, it is extremely frustrating when websites have misleading information. Last week, we looked at three homes. One home stated that they had:
- a new addition
- new roof
- big barn for animals
Yeah, .......... not so much. Yes, the home had a NEWER addition, but it was small and built in 1997. (that isn't "new") Also, the roof was completed in 1999 - so again, it was not NEW. To top everything off, there was NO possible way that the barn was safe enough (or clean enough) to have animals in it. One strong wind - and it would collapse!
The Internet is so wonderful, even though it can be frustrating at times. :-)
You guys are hitting on a big topic: truth and transparency. We recently put a piece of furniture up for sales on Craigslist. What a joke! We had scammers and wheeler-dealers and just about everything but a real buyer.
ReplyDeletePeople will begin to pay for honesty-and that is a shame. Customer loyalty and word-of-mouth: these things will sustain a business. False representation will kill it.