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.
Their idea of judging a brand seems to be juxtaposed to the real estate companies’ perception of brand positioning. For the average Indians newspaper advertisements, cover jackets etc are kept aside, billboards overlooked & ignored and television commercials are the time to take a break from the favourite soap.
Nearly nine out of ten, as many as 86 per cent can’t recall any specific newspaper advertisement of real estate, more than that, 90 per cent never take notice of the hoardings and 70 per cent rather question whether real estate companies actually advertise on the TV channels the way FMCG products do.
These are the findings of Track2Realty for India’s first ever Brand Perception Audit Report, Track2Realty Brand X Report 2012-13 on realty sector. Track2Realty conducted this survey in twenty cities—Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Surat, Bhopal, Indore, Patna, Bhuvneshwar, Vijayawad, Pune and Chandigarh between March 1 and April 14.
A structured questionnaire that was based on the choices & concerns, brand exposure & lifestyle choice, house buying preference and their satisfaction index was given to respondents who belonged to a mix of mid segment and luxury project buyers. The survey was an attempt to understand the choice of qualitative and quantitative socio-economic groups.
The survey demography belonged predominantly to the middle and upper middle class of society, being educated professionals and a significant number of respondents were buyers of mid segment houses. The buyers had a mix of first time and second time home buyers. Most of the respondents, 60 per cent, were double-income families. While 70 per cent of the buyers were exposed to the idea of brands in metro cities, brands’ aspiration level was equally high among the tier II and III cities’ respondents, 54 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.
A large sample size of 10,000 respondents (500 samples in each city) was targeted. Out of these 8672 samples were finally zeroed down and considered for analysis. Rest 1328 respondents were not considered for evaluation since they either gave incomplete answers or were rejected for non-seriousness of their choices & concerns. The total sample size had 36 per cent females and 64 per cent males as a representative set.
The surveying method was one-on-one interviews, in which the researchers explained the theme and purpose of the survey and then handed over the questionnaire to the respondents to be filled and returned the next day. All the researchers being the local residents of the city, they managed to assure the respondents complete anonymity.
The results were based on a set of 27 questions and the answers were grouped into seven key factors of brand exposure within and beyond the given city from where the respondents belonged. Real estate companies with better brand recall value outside their geographical markets were given the highest weightage in ranking and rating.
Next most important factor has been recall value of realtors’ projects beyond the category that the buyers wished to or had bought. Similarly, ad campaign were analysed in terms of how it has made an impact on the TG in terms of recall value, understanding and sales drive.
It is a bad news for the second largest advertiser to the Indian media where the real estate companies are spending crores (nearly 2.5-5% budget of the total project cost) on the project’s brand positioning along with corporate branding through multiple use of media vehicles.
While the most prominent national and even regional real estate companies often tout the importance and impact of their advertising presence in creating “brand recognition,” Track2Realty survey finds that awareness of the company’s brand is actually not a factor customers take into consideration when selecting their dream home.
…to be continued
