Knowing Your Audience — The Third Key to Placemaking

Real Estate Development

Read Time: 3 Min

Several weeks ago we sat down with you to answer a question we feel is extremely relevant in the industry of real estate development — what is placemaking and why is it important?

The simple answer?

Placemaking imbues physical buildings and locations with meaning by putting people first.

Then we wondered, how do you even begin to implement placemaking into your development project, and what’s important to keep in mind when getting started? And that is how AOR’s Three Key’s of Placemaking came to be, but not before a lot of research and the creation of our real estate development report to collect all of our thoughts.

Make sure you back track and read our posts about the first and second keys, as well as our report, because this insight will just take you through our third and final key — knowing your audience.

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What do we mean by ‘knowing your audience?’

It greatly influences your decision making process when you know who your audience is, what they want, and what their motivations are. By learning about your audience, you can make choices about the development project that will provide value to buyers and to the larger community. One of the most powerful ways to ensure a deep understanding of your audience is to develop personas. Personas pull together the demographics and psychographics of your target audience and paint a clear picture. Referencing these personas will help ensure clear architectural and branding decision making which keeps people in mind.

Want to find out more about developing personas and how your peers feel about audience research? Check out our full real estate development report here.

Want to Learn How to Make Your Community Stand Out?Download AOR’s Free Research Report — “Making Places”

Discover the power of putting people first, and let it change the way you approach your property development project. You’re one step away from the keys to success.

Where does placemaking come into play?

Along with developing personas, understanding the community plays a direct role in the ability to imbue a development with meaning and value (a.k.a. placemaking). What does the community like about the area? What do they want to see? What can your project do to make the space even better? How can your development have a positive impact on the surrounding community?

If you understand your audience and research the community, you’ll know the answers to these questions and have the ability to make residents feel heard throughout your development decisions. This key to placemaking puts people and the community first, thus increasing the success of placemaking within your project.

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Conclusion

A shared vision, early alignment, and knowing your audience — the three keys of placemaking, and three important steps to consider when embarking on your next CRE project. We’ve done the research and we know if you follow these keys closely and throughout the entire process of your project, your chances of a successful finish will skyrocket. We have so much more to share about this key, and placemaking in general as it relates to real estate development. Check out our report to get the full picture.

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