15 August 2007
I was reading BLDG BLOG this evening when I came across a post that intrigued me about a new condominium Tower in Los Angeles called Park Fifth. BLDG BLOG gave a brilliant description of the perks given when a buyer moves in to this project including a membership to the MOCA, the local contemporary art museum. His argument was a hilarious exploration of the cheap perks given when someone makes a major purchase. He has definitely touched on an emerging marketing trend where a new homeowner gets lifestyle items that are cheap but will augment his or her new existence in an expensive condo. Now, this isn’t a marketing blog, but it is fun to speculate that the future of real estate development might involve financing deals with luxury goods companies who want to integrate their lifestyle vision design into the homes of the condo buyers. For instance, high end condos could come with bed sheets from Fendi Home, and in turn, Fendi helps finance the project as a method of payment. This would cause what people might argue a “win, win, win” situation. The financier gives good lending terms to the developer: the developer wins. The financier/luxury goods company gets to target a very desirable and focused demographic for a sustained period of time: win for the financier. And the homeowner gets all this free stuff as perks for buying a condo: win for the homeowner… maybe. I personally don’t mind being marketed to. I’m a culture vulture, so a will pick the carcass of free perks bare. I’d love to hear readers opinions on this, so please comment.
