By: Ravi Sinha
Track2Realty Exclusive: When we conceptualised the idea of having a jury to rate and rank the realty companies, added with our conducting a pan-India survey to understand what shapes the brand perception of real estate companies and how the leading companies fare on the given parameter, we felt something is still missing in our analysis.
Of course, our jury members are all experts in the given domain and best brains to judge the brand perception of the companies, merely seeking public opinion about the buyers’ needs, desires and how far those are being fulfilled may not have given us the brand perception in its 360 degree spectrum.
Hence, the idea came up to let the public rate & rank the realty companies. Being fully aware of the fact that experts’ metrics of ranking on financial performance and product portfolio etc may not have been possible with the consumers, Track2Realty created a separate metrics for the end-users to rate and rank these companies.
A select set of respondents (1000 out of a total 10,000 samples) were zeroed in keeping in mind their socio-economic profile, brand consciousness, lifestyle etc. They are the people who are mostly HNIs and other upper echelons of society and understand both the branding and the business of real estate.
More importantly, they have invested with more than one company to meet the criterion of user experience, full well aware of the economy and read more than one newspapers to understand the media perception.
Results are interesting. Though the realty major still ranks 1st but no longer commands the cutting edge that it used to only a few years back. Some of the regional players are now neck-and-neck with the market leader and it is rather interesting to find regional players commanding as much brand premium as the national player like the DLF.
Moreover, the entry of the corporate like Godrej and the Tata have completely changed the dynamics of the business and all these are indicative of the maturing of the Indian real estate.