By: Lalit Kumar Jain, Chairman, CREDAI
Track2Realty Exclusive: Brand building and maintaining the brand image is a big challenge for any business, and more so for in real estate where one has a direct contact with the end user. Moreover, brand positioning of the business of real estate is dependent on the overall eco system where demand and supply is dependent upon a host of external factors such as the state of the economy, government policies, etc.
Hence, the real estate industry is such an industry where brand building is a systemic, long-term process. Home buyers always invest in a brand which has been built after years of trust. And trust and goodwill are the basic elements on which the real estate sector in India runs. However, developers in India are finding that brand positioning has become a daunting task as the sector is marred by the image of being most corrupt.
The real estate sector in India has since time immemorial been embroiled in a fight of image. The sector is seen to be a breeding ground for black money and corruption. This is very sad as developers alone cannot be considered corrupt. They are basically victims of the system and not certainly any kind of beneficiaries.
While it is easy to create a poor perception and projection of the entire industry, my basic premise is will such a poor branding thrust upon the sector going to help anyone? After all, a house is not only the basic necessity of human beings, after food and water, but it is the costliest investment that an average Indian makes. One does not change houses as frequently as one changes cars or mobile phones.
Traditionally, Indians have a lot of emotional attachment to their houses which is why either you make or break your name with it. Just as a lot goes into buying a house, plenty goes into building a house. A committed and sincere developer literally puts his life into his real estate project, unless he is a fly-by-night operator.
Developers, therefore, are aware of the importance of meeting their commitments, meeting deadlines, maintaining quality and above all doing walk-the-talk which also means sticking to the promises made.
Theoretically, all this sounds very simple and straight. But in practice this becomes an insurmountable task. At the risk of being branded as a pessimist, I would like to stress that brand managers at developers’ offices have a daunting task in maintaining the image of their companies, give the current scenario of clutter and restrictions under which we operate.
…to be continued
