From “California cool” to a global presence in real estate
Green Street Advisors creates a customer experience that delivers on its reputation for insight
Real estate investors are always looking for an edge – a way to get into the market at the right time, with the right strategy. That takes real skill, as demonstrated by Green Street Advisors. Founded in 1985, this pioneering firm has earned a reputation for delivering results. The unmatched depth and quality of Green Street’s perspective on the U.S. real estate market and the objectivity of their insights and analysis has made them the dominant voice in the industry.
From inward confidence to customer-centered value
The company had a confident, “California cool” personality that served it well as it grew. But with ambitions to capture a bigger share of the growing global market for in-depth research, Green Street knew it had to offer a customer experience that delivers the well-established quality of the company’s information and insights.
So began the brand-building process that involved key stakeholders across the organization and Green Street’s customer base. Tenet Partners conducted intensive research to gain a full understanding of the company’s vision and values. That informed recommendations for a new brand strategy that emphasizes how clients rely on Green Street’s expertise to make smarter investment choices. That brand promise is captured in the tagline that shows what customers are able to accomplish by working with Green Street: Enabling better decisions through better research. This acknowledged what Green Street was known for, while making a subtle shift from internal focus (better research) to customer value (better decisions).
Adding value to the customer experience
Tenet designers captured the new brand promise and personality in a logo and design system that evokes precision and accuracy, coupled with enterprising drive. It was a departure from the previous “cool” image that communicated forward-looking change – a clear movement onto the world stage.
The next step was to recraft the customer experience itself. Working together with Green Street’s analysts and IT group, Tenet’s strategy, design and digital teams created a new user experience for the firm’s clients that drove the core idea of the brand through to product and information design.
The company delivers research to analysis to its clients through emailed reports and an online portal. These are the heart of the customer experience, and they needed to pay off on the concept of decision enablement like never before. That meant a redesign that was more than skin-deep: it had to create a direct, clear path to Green Street’s actionable insight. The combined team revisited the architecture, navigation and format for the research portal and electronic report templates. This made it easier for clients to find, view and compare different kinds of information.
Entering the world stage
Green Street’s new positioning, identity and customer experience gave the firm what it was looking for: a launching point for strategic entry onto the world stage. Green Street wanted to make a splash with its first foray into Europe, and it did. The firm opened its new London trading desk on the same day that the brand was launched.
Since that day in 2008, Green Street has thrived, successfully weathering the real estate crisis. Today, it’s the preeminent independent research, analytics, trading and consulting firm to the commercial real estate market in North America and Europe.
The proof of performance
2015 marks Green Street’s 30th anniversary and the numbers show just how successful its strategy has been. Over the last decade Green Street’s recommendations generated annualized total returns of 25%. A high rate of return by any measure, and doubly impressive given that the overall real estate investment trust market achieved just over 11%.*
* Returns based on the FTSE NAREIT All Equity index. Source: REITs and Real Estate: Complementary through good times and bad. TIAA-CREF Asset Management, Fall 2014.
