- Details
- Category: Properties
- 28 Jan 2014
- Written by Amor Maclang
NOWADAYS, real-estate developers are facing a dilemma on how to correctly employ marketing strategies to help them develop brands that will suit the continuously changing preferences of different markets.
Truth is, the biggest mistake made by real-estate companies is their failure to invest in real-estate branding. Why? Because all of the money developers throw out are usually tied to merely selling a project. They will usually come up with arguments like, “There is no guaranteed return of investment in marketing a brand, so might as well spend on initiatives that will benefit our brand in the long run.”
Sadly, training your sights away from real-estate branding will likely hurt your brand more. The problem comes in when developers think that branding is all just for exposure. Yes, exposure is important but it does not always lead to creating a unique differentiator that will favor your brand.
Learning the value of ‘trust’
One of the psychological precursors to someone purchasing a property from you is trust. Interestingly, one of the psychological precursors of somebody selling for a real-estate developer (a.k.a. the sales force) is also trust.
Making the huge mistake of disregarding the value of establishing a culture of brand trust and confidence within your team through brand building will only do more harm than good. Worse, you will likely end up having a bunch of sleazy sales people who sell your brand without even believing in what they are actually talking about.
Some of the marketing tactics that property developers employ include coming up with billboards and other advertising collaterals, staging road shows overseas as well as project launches for VIPs and members of the media, AVP walk-throughs, scale models of buildings, and of course, redesigning and updating of web sites. All of these efforts are used to achieve different results, and real-estate managers should be able to distinguish what tools to use for specific marketing needs that they are asked to respond to.
Advertising, for example, is a good tool to tap if you want to generate awareness about your brand and help people find your property. It is also used by developers to drive inquiries, generate sales, and urge potential buyers to make an action in favor of the brand—whether it is to visit a web site, pick up their phones and call a number to inquire about an actual property, or schedule a meeting with the sales/marketing team.
Public relations, on the other hand, works best if you want to build credibility and reputation for your brand. Are you planning to go public and encourage investors to partner with you? You can go ahead and use a wide variety of PR tools to help generate buzz for your brand.
Digital efforts (web-site management and development, social-media visibility, for example), meanwhile, work very well for catching the interest of people who are curious about your project and converting them to potential leads who would like to schedule appointments. It allows people to compare options before they actually make a decision. Before, people used to physically visit actual sites to evaluate properties, but with property developers slowly mastering the powers of the Internet to their advantage, buyers are now able to narrow down their choices before settling for a particular property of their choice. However, if you don’t have digital presence, then you are basically missing out a huge chunk of the market that are using the Internet to make informed choices.
Marketing with a battle plan
Whenever you engage in marketing, you should always have a crisis preparation plan in mind. Remember, the rain falls on the just and the unjust, alike.
Contingency and risk-mitigation measures should rank high on every developer’s list. Sudden mishaps occur without warning. And this is why every developer should be armed with the necessary information regarding risk mitigation and crisis management. What usually destroys a developer’s reputation is not the crisis itself but the way they respond to the situation.
Being unprepared is not an excuse; you need to nurture a proactive attitude to preserve the integrity of your company and your brand, which you have built and invested over for a long period of time. Master the science behind stakeholder mapping, plot crisis situations in advance, and craft strategic communications for each. Doing this exercise on a regular basis will help you prepare for any risk that might hamper your growth in the future.
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