The challenge, members said, is to simplify and sell what is, in some ways, a complex place

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Tuesday, May 27 (8:30 a.m.): As its last formal act, Rossmoor’s Marketing Task Force on May 13 approved a final report, the result of monthly meetings since August 2024, with a series of recommendations about how to best market this active-adult community to prospective residents, employees, supply vendors and others – and to unlock some of Rossmoor’s mysteries in the process.

That final report – a “conceptual plan,” as Chairman Dwight Walker put it – will be shared with the RWC (formerly GRF) Finance and Planning committees and, ultimately, the full RWC Board this month, with the goal that its various recommendations will be funded and/or otherwise adopted by the Board.

The final report, envisioned as an “evolving initiative” that can be adjusted as needed, calls upon Rossmoor Walnut Creek management to:

• Establish a clear brand identity, reflecting “Rossmoor’s identity as a vibrant, inclusive and nature-connected active adult community.” And that brand identity should be named “Rossmoor Walnut Creek,” in part to distinguish it from other “Rossmoor” communities around the United States. The RWC Board in April approved making “Rossmoor Walnut Creek” the community’s formal name.
• Unify under that brand name and move away from “Golden Rain Foundation,” “GRF” and other vague or potentially confusing names. This also will include recasting Rossmoor’s Mutual Operations Division (MOD) as Rossmoor Walnut Creek Property Management, and updating legal, digital and signage applications to reflect these changes. One example of a sign that needs brand updating is the large one at Tice Valley Boulevard and Rossmoor Parkway. It’s about 40 years old and would need, at the very least, the words “Walnut Creek” applied under the large “ROSSMOOR.” There was sentiment on May 13, however, for an entirely new sign: “Let’s make our front door look really good,” task force member Amy Bollinger said. Some of these changes – employee uniforms, business cards, letterheads and the like with updated logos – have already begun.
• Overhaul Rossmoor’s two websites, with Rossmoor.com reworked to market the community to prospective residents, and MyRossmoor.com redesigned to better provide Rossmoor residents with access to services, events and resources. Ann Peterson, RWC’s director of communications and a task force member, said a key goal of Rossmoor.com should be to help users better understand the community; the MyRossmoor site, meanwhile, should provide a “single sign-on experience for residents,” she added. Software options that can process room reservations, class bookings and ticket and excursion sales that can work with Rossmoor’s new NetSuite enterprise planning software system are being considered. Recreation hopes to select the vendor before the end of May, said Peterson, who noted that plans are for both websites to be relaunched by 2026.
• Create a Rossmoor Walnut Creek “Brand Guide” including the Rossmoor Walnut Creek brand name, logo, colors, messaging, mission, vision and values to help employees and residents establish consistent brand messaging throughout Rossmoor and with external partners, notably real estate agents.
• Develop a “purposeful” social media plan after the new websites launch.
• Invest in marketing staffing (including a marketing content creator), with staff determining how to fit it into the 2026 RWC operating budget. Peterson said the average salary for a marketing content creator is about $75,000 per year.

The Marketing Task Force was convened in response to a 12-year low in home sales in 2023, limited marketing reach, and inconsistent and/or confusing branding – for example, what would a prospective buyer of a Rossmoor manor think GRF, a Mutual or MOD is?

Six Rossmoor residents – Amy Bollinger, Kevin Dowling, Michael Kuller, Linda Register and Kathleen Schaub – joined Peterson, RWC Board members Walker and Ted Bentley, local merchant Andriana Mendez and UC Berkeley Haas business fellows Pranjali Valdaputi and Aya Nagai to develop a strategy to better present Rossmoor to prospective residents, workers and vendors. Chairman Walker praised the task force members for their “lack of hesitancy to contribute.”

Originally planned to last six months, the task force extended its run an additional three months, as different issues proved more time-consuming than expected. One, creation of an Ambassadors program in which residents would show prospective homebuyers around Rossmoor, was jettisoned. Dowling said security and screening questions helped make the concept “more complicated than I thought.”

It will be left to real estate agents to continue leading such tours in person, and Rossmoor.com could guide viewers to willing agents. A video tour will continue to be available on that site.

The sometimes-arcane nature of Rossmoor can be difficult to sum up for a first-time visitor, task force members acknowledged – but that may make it all the more important to try.

“It’s a complex issue to try to get into Rossmoor and figure out how it works,” Register said.