08/12/2026
The Kenzie Principles — Vol. 2
You Can’t Market Your Way Out of a Bad Development Decision.
After 20+ years doing this, one thing we know for sure: some of the most important marketing decisions happen years before there’s anything to market.
Unit mix. Floorplans. Amenities. Parking. Storage. Pet strategy. How people actually live in the building. Etc
Marketing and leasing shouldn’t be handed all of that at the end and told to go lease it.
We need to be at the table earlier.
At Kenzie, a big part of our job is working with developers, architects and interior designers to bring the market into those conversations.
What should we build? Who are we building it for? What will they actually pay for? What matters to them? What doesn’t?
And those decisions can’t just be about efficiencies, gut instinct, grey hairs or what worked on the last project.
Experience matters. I rely on mine every day. But back it up with data and listen to the market.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not just building units. We’re building a community.
And yes, sometimes that means challenging a floorplan. Questioning an amenity. Pushing back on the unit mix. Or saying we simply don’t think the market will pay for something.
That’s our job.
A bad floorplan doesn’t get better because the branding is beautiful. An amenity nobody uses isn’t suddenly valuable because it looks great in a rendering. And if the market doesn’t want the product, throwing more money at advertising isn’t going to fix it.
By the time we get to leasing, changing the marketing is easy enough. Changing the building isn’t.
That’s exactly why we’ve built development advisory into the Kenzie offering.
Before the marketing starts, we work with our clients to pressure-test the product against the market and help shape what we’re ultimately going to bring to it.
For me, that’s where some of the most important work happens.
Understand the market. Shape the product. Build the community. Then give marketing something worth talking about.
If you’re planning a rental development and think there’s value in bringing that lens to the table earlier, let’s talk.
