Track2Realty Survey: Is a buyer ready to pay premium for the brand reputation of the developer? Majority of the brand conscious buyers’ say ‘NO’ unless the big brand has offering to match the high price and differentiate the product. In the high-end category, 40 per cent of the buyers are ready to pay a premium.
Track2Realty Survey: The question is what shapes public perception as far as brand premium of a real estate company is concerned? User experience and word of mouth publicity is what matters to them and advertising is nothing more than a medium to know about the new launches.
Track2Realty Exclusive: One mistake that the Indian realtors have been doing is to go for a cheap and easy way to establish brand recognition is through technology, especially popular mediums like blogs, Facebook and Twitter, which help them build relationship with their clients.
Track2Realty Exclusive: In one of the classic example, one of the advertising agency recently came out with a creative idea of suggesting the name of the project as 1947. The spacious luxury flat’s advertising was suggested to be played around the concept of freedom—from space crunch, parking mess, traffic snarls etc. with the tag line “when every lips had one word freedom this apartment was conceptualised”. Result: the agency was asked to get out of the hangover of being ‘creative’ or leave.
Track2Realty Survey: 70 per cent of the Indians who have either bought a house or are planning to buy believe brand reputation only amounts to the developers’ past projects. More than that, 78 per cent maintain the track record of timely delivery of the project is the best way to judge the developers’ brand.
Track2Realty: Citing the inordinate delay in obtaining approvals for projects that is stalling growth of the real estate sector and also the economy of the country, Lalit Kumar Jain, Chairman CREDAI and CMD, Kumar Urban development Ltd, urged the Union Government to form a high power realty committee to accelerate big ticket realty projects worth between Rs.200 Cr and Rs.1000 Cr.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Isn’t it ironical that the second largest advertiser in the Indian media space is not attracting the best of creative talent and seen as stale and repetitive in the collective consciousness?
Track2Realty: The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill was finally tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Aug 14, by Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Girija Vyas.
Track2Realty Exclusive: There is also the question of whether sex actually is effective as ads with a little less skin and a little more elegance. While sex sells the same things that other images of wealth and control do, it triggers a lot more reaction, both positive and negative.
Track2Realty Exclusive: It seems misleading realty advertisements and promotions are not just Indian market specific but a global trend. While the Indian developers are being asked to stop misleading ads, misleading news with realty/marketing companies’ employees as potential buyers has been reported in other parts of the world.