Hi,
Welcome back to my blog people. This time I am sharing some valuable sales enablement information which is going to get all my peers in the Realty domain excited. This piece is my perspective on the visibility and relevance factors linked intricately to Realty brands. During my long association with the Real Estate sector, I have culled together some invaluable pointers which would comprehensively help Realty brands in maximizing visibility and mileage. This is the first piece of a blog series from an industry captain's pen striving to reach out to the larger polity in Real Estate and continuum.

The fundamental predicament - Templated Approach towards Realty Marketing

The Real Estate sector has always adopted a templated approach towards marketing. Identifying a potential segment and calling to action has always been the staple 'go to' strategy. That methodology has become redundant; especially on the Indian Realty landscape. Social, economic, political, cultural and other relevant factors play a crucial role in shaping Real Estate marketing engagement rules in the sub continent.

The freshly minted RERA powered enforcements add a new layer of complexity to the Realty marketing milieu. Real Estate was traditionally a need driven market where identifying & augmenting vacuum areas was the norm. Of late there's been a paradigm shift in the domain's market approach. It's now a classic case of more the merrier. Real Estate firms are now leaving the consumer spoilt for choices.

Home, second home, leisure home, farm land, ranch home, land bank, designer space etc are some of the cleverly coined marketing monikers doing the rounds. The flip side is manifested in the form of huge unsold Real Estate inventory. One of the main reasons for the recent dip in the fortunes of the Realty domain is the static marketing methodologies prevalent in the sector. The present approach is topical and short sighted. Realty firms deem it fit to be visible just before a venture is launched

Announce a project, release a full or half page ad in leading news dailies, beam a 'happy family' themed TV commercial, put up a few billboards in prime localities and wait for customers to make contact during weekends. This pretty much summarizes the science behind Realty sector's marketing mantra. Yet there are a few pertinent questions from a customer perspective which need to be answered by every Real Estate marketer:

• Why is a Realty firm not visible when there are no active projects?
• How can one trust a Realty brand when it's not visible most of the time?
• Aren't all Real Estate firms one and the same in their approach?
• How do Real Estate companies differentiate themselves from the competition?
• How many Realty brands have been able to command customer loyalty?
• Can Realty brands trigger sales just by the power of their brand value?
• Do Real Estate logos evoke trust & transparency?

Well the answers to most of these queries do throw up a lot more questions and challenges to the Real Estate domain. It's high time the Real Estate marketers realize that they have to compete and survive in typical enterprise environment in order to optimize sales potential. And yes it doesn't take millions of rupees to enable Realty brands to engage customers in a dialog on a sustained format. All it takes is a little ingenuity and the power of content marketing. Want to know how to go about it? Stay tuned for the next part of this blog!

- Lion Dr Y Kiron