Thursday, April 19, 2012

“Our sales have jumped due to our marketing efforts”

With competition thickening in realty, efficient delivery of projects and getting the brand’s core proposition right will be the key to success.

In the online space, Godrej Properties is probably a pioneer in activating the YouTube channel and the Flickr gallery. The company showcases videos and pictures of its properties so that customers can get a feel of the product. Girish Shah, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Godrej Properties Ltd (GPL), talks to 4Ps B&M’s Mona Mehta about how the company is successfully managing to retain its GPL brand trust and how through innovative marketing campaigns and strong focus on customer engagement initiatives, GPL has been branding and marketing itself. Edited excerpts:

What aspects have gone into shaping and evolving your branding strategy?
Branding and marketing has become a key driver in real estate today. In fact marketing investments in real estate has seen unprecedented growth across media over the past few years. We have been aware of this trend and our brand strategy has been conceptualized out of our deep focus and understanding of our consumers across regions. Our key drivers in creating a strong brand have been to develop a new visual language which resonates with the new India, a strong focus on consumer engagement initiatives, intensive and innovative marketing campaigns for greater visibility and recall, establishment of an award winning CRM programme to service our customers in the long run and activation of the global sales footprint. Our motto is to create long-term relationships with our customers

What message have you been able to communicate across your consumers through your branding efforts?
We have implemented a our new brand language for GPL across media and mediums, which makes the brand look and feel distinct, approachable, with a strong association of trust and transparency of the mother brand and yet be modern and contemporary. We believe real estate is a very micro-market driven business. Hence our approach always has been of implementing different strokes for different folks. We use the relevant medium to cater to the right audience. For e.g. we participated in a Gujarati play to cater to Gujarati audience for our property in Ahmedabad. Similarly, we have engaged with the HNI audience through golf, polo, theatre and music to present our high end properties. Over time we have realized that our sales have taken a quantum jump due to the increased awareness and visibility of our marketing efforts.

How do you make your branding stand out in the crowd?
We see to it that every campaign has one innovation which will give the activity enough buzz and awareness. The oxygen bar along with the sapling drive campaign at Godrej Prakriti, Kolkata, won us the award for the ‘Best Marketing Campaign of the Year’ at the CMO Asia Awards. Similarly our campaign – featuring the TOI online road block innovation – has led to Godrej Garden City being adjudged the ‘Most Admired Brand’ in the real estate sector, according to the Asian Leadership awards. We were probably the first ones to activate the YouTube channel and the Flickr gallery to showcase videos and pictures so that our customers get a feel of the property even before he visits us.

What are the inherent brand attributes for a successful real estate company?
Real estate is a very emotional purchase although it has a very rational undertone to it. With the influx of known business houses into real estate, getting the core proposition of the brand right along with its delivery on ground will make or break a real estate company in the future.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012