Track2Realty Exclusive: Brand managers of the companies who have been into strategising at the bottom of the pyramid wish it is high time credible bodies initiate measures on this front in the public domain. On the other hand, private equity funds in their due diligence reports (privately) do accord importance to this aspect.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The festivities around Navratra and Diwali are known to cheer up the sentiments of the property market. Reflection is always seen both in terms of upbeat mood of developers, as more launches are planned around this time, and the home buyers, as most of the bookings take place during this time.
Track2Realty Exclusive: In general branding in smaller towns is more focused on project. However, an equal emphasis on corporate branding should remain the strategy. It is very important to stress upon the brand to make the consumer aware of the strength of the company and assure them of the safety of their investment. This is where brand positioning is important in the initial stage. However, once the credibility is established, project branding assumes centre stage.
Track2Realty Exclusive: I won’t blame the marketing or the branding team in such a set-up where the defined role of corporate communication is very clear—advertising specialist is one who can negotiate the best rate with the media or the ad agencies, PR guy is one who can get them in column-centimetre of print and soundbytes of television studio and others are good for their dealing with the vendors to deliver brochure and other marketing kit on time. Any extra grey cell and one is a misfit in the company and liability for the management.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Mumbaipedia concept has nothing to do with real estate projects or the company of the developer but aims at creating a mindspace amongst the target audience.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Public Relations or the PR stands for different things to different people in this part of the world. In the business of Indian real estate the philosophy is how much coverage do I get by paying how less. And only developers are not to be blamed for this since agencies understand the psychology of developers and tend to over-promise, thanks to the cut-throat competition in the business.
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 Exclusive: Clash of generation in Indian business is no secret. However, when it comes to the second generation in Indian realty, the gap gets even wider since suave & sophistication that often comes with their foreign degree is in sharp contrast to the complex nature of business.
Track2Realty Exclusive: The digital medium, however, seems to be evolving fast and some of the realtors have adopted pro-active social media strategy to focus on consumer connect, feedback, consumer research to identify their needs and requirements.
Track2Realty Exclusive: Some of the companies are using online media for generating sales lead; while others are focused on customer relations. With the medium new and realty more or less reluctant in the initial stages, there are very few who are actually understanding the medium and adapting themselves to what others think as a necessary evil. Tata Housing believes in using the medium for engaging with the customers more than just generating sales leads. Brotin Banerjee, MD & CEO of Tata Housing shares with Track2Realty how they strategise their social media usage. Excerpts of the interview: