The shift towards branding in the real estate industry is helping developers log an increase in sales on the back of a relationship built on trust, transparency and timely delivery of projects.Recently, Ackruti City Ltd., a real estate company with a 30-year track record of delivering real estate projects in Mumbai, changed its name to Hubtown Ltd. The name change was done as part of the company’s rebranding exercise and to better reflect its growing capabilities and delivery standards. In fact, recent years have seen a lot of builders and developers becoming very serious about creating a positive image about their company through brand building. A lot of this change has to do with the changing profile of property-buying consumers today who have evolved into more discernible buyers, especially in matters of big ticket purchases like automobiles and homes.
With consumers becoming smart and looking for differentiated products, it has become all the more important for real estate players to go in for effective branding and marketing. Engaging in marketing and brand building helps real estate firms to attract new business, retain old business and build up a good reputation. As such real estate players are resorting to various branding activities by way of advertising, PR, participation in property exhibitions in India and abroad and making their presence felt on social media network sites.
As building a brand is all about gaining the trust of prospective customers and the industry alike, the route to branding for a real estate developer has to start and end with ‘customer satisfaction’. “Conducting your business in a transparent manner, adhering to timely delivery, ensuring a smooth transition to a registered housing society, all this helps in earning the faith of the customer, which creates awareness in a positive manner about your brand, resulting in sales increase,” says Diipesh Bhagtani, Director, Jaycee Homes. As real estate is a capital asset and a lifetime investment for most home buyers, building a brand in the real estate space is different as compared to other businesses and depends upon a number of factors. The city where the project is located, the locality in the city, amenities provided by the project, timely delivery by developer and possession to the customer are some key factors that a developer needs to look into in order to build trust for his brand and his company. “A developer who manages to provide these to a customer is able to build trust among home buyers in that particular city that he has operations in, thereby enhancing his image not only among customers but among his peers as well,” says Bhagtani.
Agrees Navin Raheja, Chairman and Managing Director, Raheja Developers Ltd. “Yes, branding and promotion are extremely important. However, the biggest branding is your work.” If a developer delivers a project on time and as per the committed quality, his work alone serves as his biggest branding and helps attract a large referral business.
So does a good brand image influence the buyer to choose the right property over other competitors or is it just the project that matters? A good brand image can pull the buyer in, but unless the product is intrinsically good, a sale will not be consummated. Like in all other industries, the product (or project) is the focal point, and if it appeals to the consumer, sales will happen. But, yes, the branding can ensure that the consumer at least considers/evaluates the project. “While earlier most real estate developers were only content with advertising their projects, a new breed of developers, especially those that have a pan-India presence, have realised the importance of branding and are concentrating on brand building exercises,” says Kaustuv Roy, Executive Director, Cushman & Wakefield.
Branding has also emerged as an important selling tool in these days of depressed market conditions. Developers are adapting to the changing environment by re-strategizing innovative business & marketing plans, thereby increasing profit margins. Today, developers are tying up with internationally renowned architects for their projects, thus bringing to the table international technology along with quality construction, resulting in faster deliverable time. This results in more sales within a shorter period, increasing cash flows and reduced borrowing costs for developers. “We do find real estate developers having multiple strategies which can be a mix of tying up with globally acclaimed architects, celebrities, sponsorship of sports and similar such exercises,” says Roy. Not only that, industry experts firmly believe that there’s a strong correlation between branding and stock-market listing. While earlier very few developers were listed, today we have a handful of them trading on the bourses. “Indirectly, branding may be leading to greater transparency in the real estate industry since we expect at some point of time in the future all the large developers to be listed,” adds Roy.
According to Niranjan Hiranandani, Managing Director, Hiranandani Constructions, “Branded real estate products should be able to live up to the expectations of end-buyers in terms of offering a world class qualitative product.” Industry experts point out that though the expectations from branded real estate firms are higher, most of them are able to command a premium owing to their superior quality of products. Customers don’t mind paying a premium for a good brand. “We, at Jaycee Homes, charge 10% higher than other developers for the premium quality we deliver,” says Bhagtani.
Developers are also branding themselves according to their core specializations. For instance, a developer promotes itself as a company which creates a lot of green spaces; some other developer promotes his company for building low-cost housing. This way, a lot of developers have taken to branding on the virtue of what the company specializes in.
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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2012
in major industrial towns. People from villages came to the towns in search of employment. Their close ties with the village, land and family were broken. The Industrial Revolution created conditions under which workers aimed at material progress by working in factories. This led to disintegration of joint family system.
in major industrial towns. People from villages came to the towns in search of employment. Their close ties with the village, land and family were broken. The Industrial Revolution created conditions under which workers aimed at material progress by working in factories. This led to disintegration of joint family system.
