Belong is innovating property management — to the point where it breaks every norm and convention of the category. But people like to put even the freshest and most disruptive ideas into boxes. So what should we do?
Belong was started because its founders believed that the world of property management was fundamentally broken. It didn’t serve the people who owned homes, or the people who they rented to. It needed a re-boot.
When you fix something, though — and fix it in a way that it doesn’t resemble what came before – how do you describe that? It’s not as easy as it seems. Do you use the language that people know – even when it’s misleading – or do you invent a new language, and possibly confuse people?
That was Belong’s dilemma. We weren’t the first. As an example of what others faced, Apple still called the iPhone a phone, though it was completely different from what came before it. They didn’t call it an “enhanced intelligent communicator.”
Starbucks positioned itself as a “third place” between home and work, and with its comfy couches that invite you to stay a while, and beautifully designed aesthetics, it is indeed a different world than your traditional coffee shop. But they proudly declare themselves as Starbucks Coffee, even as they demonstrate every day that they’re not what they say they are.
That gives us some comfort. After all, when people search for “property manager” or “rental agreement” on Google — and millions of people do that every day — they need to find us. If they weren’t able to, that would make us useless – a cool new idea that no one knows about, understands, or has a framework to put us in.
What’s more (and to level with you) we face a similar issue with terms like “landlord and “tenant.” We hate, hate, hate to be associated with them. They are feudal and inherently create an adversary framework. That’s why we came up with a new Belong vocabulary, where our community is described as consisting of “Homeowners” and “Renters.” That’s certainly warmer and friendlier language, but again, because people already know what landlords and renters are – probably too well – we hold our noses and use those terms when we need to be super-clear.
Life is an imperfect condition.
But – at the end of the day – we have enough trust in community to recognize what we are, and how different we are, no matter what we call ourselves.
The happy truth is, when people find us - and then discover what we are able to do for them - they come to their own conclusions. They say to themselves things like:
- A property manager who guarantees rent? Unheard of!
- A property manager who will find people to love my house as much as I do? That’s what I’ve been waiting for!
- A property manager that hires and assigns and manages its own contractors? Impossible!
- A property manager that gives me sweet digital access to my entire experience? You’ve got to be kidding!
- A property manager that does all that? It would be a disservice to call them a property manager!
So there you have it. Sounds like we need to embrace the language others use, while simultaneously making it clear that dated terminology doesn’t apply.
It’s a contradiction, but one we will need to live with.
About the author
Adam Hanft
Editor in Chief
Adam is a futurist - co-author of "Dictionary of the Future" - brand strategist, public-company board member, former comedy-writer (but he hasn't stopped being vaguely amusing), and an investor in Belong.
