Track2Realty Exclusive: Placement stands as the fifth P of branding. The built environment in branding is all about heightening the customer’s experience and amplifying the aura of brand’s essence. Hence, the branded environment, the moment of truth, is where it must live the brand by staging immaculate detailing that engages all senses of the discerning luxury consumer.
In India, for example most of the luxury brands have boutiques in 5-star hotels. Gucci’s boutiques are in Oberoi-Hilton, Mumbai & Imperial, Delhi. Likewise, Louis Vuitton is in Taj Mahal, Mumbai & Oberoi, Delhi. The chain of touch-points consumer interacts & the impact of each touch-point are critical for creating a unique indulging experience.
In real estate the developer, more often than not, shrugs off the responsibility of placement by disposing off the inventory (mostly immediately after the launch) to the under writers and investors who go on a hyper sale spree.
In this attempt to over sell the project (even if it is a super luxury apartment) the clout of the under writer or broker takes over the market presence of the developer. Since no company has been able to truly stand out as ‘the brand’ they try to beg, borrow or steal the customers with kiosks at the site and irritating SMSes in a cut-throat market.
Personal Touch, the sixth P of luxury branding is largely about establishing and enhancing the ‘emotional connections’ with discerning luxury consumers. Beyond the typical sophisticated, over-the-top concierge services, exclusive invites, previews, the new age luxury consumers is nowadays seeking higher level of personalized, knowledgeable & professional assistance.
Also, the escalating democratization of luxury & the constantly changing retail environment has made luxury consumers increasingly discriminating & demanding.
In real estate where everything is ROI driven and even newspaper advertisements are measured against the sales call, and hence no direct engagement takes place beyond the routine sales show. After sales engagement is mostly unheard of where only news post-sale is about tussle between the residents’ association and the developers, right from the unfulfilled promises to the facility management.
Of course, the threat of online viral brand damage is increasingly forcing the realty companies to focus on the online reputation management and some of the developers have also set-up system in place for dealing with the existing buyers, direct engagement with the customers beyond sales is normally not the mandate to the brand managers.
…to be continued
