How Benson automated marketing for PeakMade

PeakMade Real Estate needed a better, automated, solution to streamline the procurement of their marketing materials and limited-edition merchandise, or as they affectionately call it "Merch".

As a third-party manager of over 70 student property brands, achieving efficiency and economies of scale at the platform level was crucial for PeakMade. They sought a solution that would create consistency while preserving the unique identity of each brand.

Across their extensive portfolio, property and regional managers were spending excessive hours and resources on sourcing, pricing, and ordering marketing materials needed to attract new residents and secure renewals

"I am always looking for ways to control costs without taking any value. Benson's Platform streamlined our marketing operations process - delivering quality items, reduced shipping expenses, increased creativity, and ramped-up productivity, saving our company hundreds of thousands of dollars." - Bob Clark CEO, PeakMade Real Estate

Since branded marketing goods are such an emotional buy, Benson and PeakMade tapped into the power of internal ambassadors to find the perfect solution for property teams across their portfolio.

PeakMade collaborated with the Benson Team to conduct ambassador focus groups, gather valuable feedback, and build a genuine vendor/operator partnership. These groups utilized qualitative data to launch the next-generation online marketing site, SmartStore®, as part of Benson's Centralized Marketing Platform (CMP), creating on-demand stores for each property brand.

The SmartStore® streamlined the buying process, giving control directly to the user and eliminating administrative hassles. By incorporating Ambassador feedback, PeakMade optimized the Benson platform for enhanced results. Order turnaround times were reduced, and additional design/set-up fees were eliminated.

Now, PeakMade can create campaigns and strategies at the corporate level that scale seamlessly to each property brand. This has resulted in stronger brand recognition in each market, significant time savings for team members, and a consistency that drives overall efficiency.

"When we can scale our limited-edition merchandise to all our properties using the Benson CMP, it helps keep our branding and image consistent across the country. We can trust that the products each property is using are high quality and we have given our team the best tools in the industry." - Sandra Barfield SVP, PeakMade Real Estate

Benson provides PeakMade with an end-to-end solution so that they can focus on the right method to design, order, and ship the right products.

By utilizing technology to manage their product procurement, PeakMade has been able to scale up projects at all 70+ properties across their portfolio. The SmartStore® solution helped change behavior for property managers by removing the emotional distractions when ordering marketing materials.

Searching for marketing items can be overwhelming with over a half a million options from countless vendors. With the SmartStore®, PeakMade has curated a collection of specific products that have been approved by the corporate sales and marketing teams.

Taking advantage of this technology has made ordering more efficient and has given back thousands of hours to on-site operations and marketing teams so they can focus on their core responsibility - to develop qualified leads and take care of their residents. 

The SmartStore® handles almost all of PeakMade's branded product needs, reducing order fulfillment time. Instant proofs go directly into production post-approval, without requiring further human intervention.

"I would never have imagined we could elevate the product while reducing costs by more than 30%, cut order volume by 53%, and time to procure by 80%." - Ashly Poyer VP Sales, PeakMade Real Estate

"Now teams spend less time researching marketing materials and they're getting cooler items that create great experiences for our customers!"

PeakMade has streamlined its most frequent orders, eliminating design fees and reducing the time spent on placing orders. Corporate-controlled templates ensure brand consistency across all properties, while Benson scales these products to fit each brand PeakMade manages.

Benson's automated solution removed over 3,000 manual steps from the marketing procurement process. This automation significantly improved product selection and allowed PeakMade to develop a packaging system that enhances the experience for residents and prospects. PeakMade can now save valuable time and buy the right products at the right price.

In the past two years, this solution has enabled team members to focus on experience, personalization, and packaging of promotional products, eliminating the need to work with multiple vendors for quotes and artwork.

PeakMade has seen a 33% decrease in total promotional product spend. Using collective marketing operations and analytics, annual promotional product orders have been cut in half, with order frequency reduced by 53%.

Product procurement time decreased by 80% with the automated solution. This allowed properties to buy better products, at a lower cost, more efficiently. 

"A recent study indicated that 23% of marketers don’t believe that marketing procurement can be automated and 45% say making sense of inaccurate content or proofs is one of their biggest time wasters. However, PeakMade’s utilization of our CMP has shown that you can achieve full automation and eliminate wasted time. They have been a great partner by pushing us to continue to innovate, which has improved our technology for all our clients. Working with PeakMade has reminded me why I started Benson 27+ years ago." - Brian Benson CEO, Benson

Benson’s CMP is a true game changer that puts you at the forefront of creating memorable moments and experiences with their residents. 

To read the fully story head over to Benson's Blog! Want to learn more about Benson and how we can help you automate your marketing operations? Contact us at Benson@yourbenson.com .