A new owner looks for a boost

The new owners of a Mercer Island, Wa., apartment community were planning a major overhaul and significant increase in rents. They needed marketing help to support this, and wanted it fast.

A charming community in a great location

Shorewood Heights is a 645-unit community built in 1949, making it one of the first and largest apartment developments on Mercer Island – an affluent island town in Lake Washington, between Seattle and Bellevue. Shorewood has gracious common spaces, distinctive architecture and large, charming, mostly garden-style homes, despite some inconsistencies due to previous remodeling efforts and the addition of midrise product. Residents of Mercer Island have generally known it as simply “Shorewood” – “Heights” was appended along with the midrise addition.

A new ownership group launched an effort to update the community with a farm-chic aesthetic and, subsequently, command significantly higher rents. They hired Red Propeller to provide a new marketing story, and help with their visual brand and collateral.

Shorewood: Established in 1949

We conducted market research, assessed key characteristics of current and future residents, identified market opportunities, and developed a brand story, key messages and visual brand identity. We delivered the brand story two weeks after kickoff and remaining elements three to four weeks after that.

The story we developed connected with the legacy and community of Shorewood. This included going back to simply “Shorewood” as the community’s name and the tagline “Take in the tradition.” We then worked with a graphic designer to develop a new logo that focused on the message “Established in 1949,” provided creative direction for collateral (signage, business cards, website, digital ads, etc.) and helped produce the selected design.

The client and project team enthusiastically bought into the strong story.