Track2Realty Exclusive: Realtors are also increasingly smarting to deal with the criticism as digital media is proving to be a deadly two-way weapon. Ravi Saund, COO of CHD Developers asserts it has not deterred them in any way; it has only helped in getting closer to the customer base and understand their needs and expectations from a developer in today’s market.
“It is true that a lot of focus is given to print when a project launch has to be communicated. But it is also true that a potential customer does not buy a house plainly due to advertising. They conduct detailed research online to see how a real estate developer is. They go on a company’s website, check out real estate forums, ask people for their feedback, check their social profiles and finally depending on various other factors like location, project features, pricing, etc. go ahead and invest in the project. Adding to this, our NRI audience will not be exposed to our local print and outdoor communication, so the best medium to connect with them is online. That is why we felt the need to be present online. Apart from that, many of our customers are present on social media and that is the best medium to stay connected with them,” says saund.
Many developers agree that there has been a dramatic shift in consumer behaviour when it relates to sales and purchase. Over the last few years, internet has played a key role in bringing about that change. Rohtas Goel, CMD of Omaxe says it is better to compliment the branding exercise with online media along with the traditional media of TV and Print.
“Social Media has emerged as a biggest engine of not only generating sales, but also answering post sales queries, and cross-selling. We have gone a step ahead in keeping our stakeholders aware of the progress in construction, inviting their feedback, making them aware of latest trends in the sector, new upcoming realty areas etc. Our objective is to make the social media platforms interactive & build a better brand equity and we have made steady progress towards this end,” says Goel.
Well, looking beyond buying-selling and exposing themselves to customer interface seem to be more of a marketing compulsion than natural progression for these developers. There is still a long road ahead before the branding bouquet goes beyond social media to explore digital media at large and the objective becomes overall online reputation management.
Case Study of Aamby Valley by Brandlogist
- • Relevant Content: Take our audience on social media as close to the destination as possible in an interesting, visually appealing, informative way. Aamby Valley City is a beautiful place & every post of ours used appealing images subtly informing people about the amenities at the destination.
- • Relevant Targeting: Got the relevant people involved using demographic & psychographic targeting. This was probably the first times in India that anyone managed to target people in terms of their income & purchase behaviour via detailed psychographic profiling.
- • Participate & Involve the fans: The participated in as many conversations as they could on their platforms & outside them via monitoring conversations across the social web. Almost every comment was responded upon even when there were 200 comments on a post & people were made to feel a part of the brand by getting them to share experiences & via interesting contests.
- • Involve Influencers: They reached out to 11,000 people in just the starting week with celebrities like Lisa Haydon tweeting.
- Running customized campaigns: Focus was on what would make the fans actually interested to be a part of the brand & not forced buzz. eg crowd sourcing the Facebook cover picture #itsromantic on Vday for positioning it as the perfect romantic getaway, #rangbarse for family getaways etc.
- Integrating the real & virtual world: They coordinated with different departments of Aamby valley city from HR to real estate purchase so that our fans queries & complains are resolved to their satisfaction in real time.
- Not just social media savvy youth audience: The focus was not youth but rather the 28+ age group, the actual customers of Aamby Valley. Target audience was defined in terms of their income & purchase behaviour via detailed psychographic profiling. Conversations on twitter & blogs were monitored to talk to fans who were looking to take a holiday & got into a dialogue with them sharing Aamby’s positives.
Impact:
- Relevant yet high(est) numbers: With strategic targeting they got 65,000+ fans, more than 450 twitter followers & twitter follower following ratio of whopping 80 (400::5) in just 5 months.
- Brand recommendations: By hundreds of fans & major influencers like World Hotels. They openly appreciated the brand, recommended it to their friends & even start defending the company when someone spoke negatively.
- Sales Leads: Apart from brand building & spreading awareness, they received over 500 leads via social media especial Facebook, one of the highest in luxury hospitality globally.
- To actual Facebook check ins i.e. conversions: 3500 people checked in via Facebook at Aamby Valley city since the page went live, in a duration of 5 months.
