In this ever changing media world, TV programmes like ‘Changing Rooms’, ‘Property Ladder’ and ‘Grand Designs’ have set the tone for the way in which consumers perceive the property market.
Unfortunately for the industry, a saturation of average marketeers have got somewhat ‘stuck in a rut’ and often deliver clichéd and uninspiring material that neither separates them from the crowd nor the fights off the competition.
Dynamic lifestyle changes, shots of couples being loving, captions expressing vibrant changes to lifestyle complete with an undertone of pastel backdrops are now the norm. They attempt to ensure consumers feel at ease while going through a life changing challenge by promising a positive and stress free experience. It’s a marketers attempt to reach the consumers inner most attitude and feelings by sharing with them their aspirational values.
These days marketing within the property sector has developed into a cheap American soap opera; no longevity, no originality and yet as consumers, we always seem to be addicted to it one way or another. How long though, can this last and as marketers what techniques and values should be used in order to make a real difference to the property market?
Nine times out of ten design / marketing agencies are brought in to produce a sales brochure and the odd website, a few ads here and there and then they are abruptly sent on their merry way, fee in hand and await the call for the next job.
Is this the right way to get to the heart of the project? And, does it really benefit the property client?
Marketing at the Hub
Highland Homes are one such company that attempted to approach their initiative differently. David Hughes, managing director of Highland, meticulously builds his core team and ensures that all are involved in the dialogue right the way through the project. From initial planning application, right the way through to the final key being handed over to the last purchaser, all the marketing team are an integral part of the mix and work closely together to develop, learn, monitor, engage and develop new marketing methods that really stand out from the competitors. This is the new way of marketing. Its ensures that everyone in the team having input but more importantly working together to create the ultimate aim which is to inspire, drive trade and make sales.
Getting to the soul of the building
Marketing the right product is more than just a search of an image bank library site, utilising a copywriter and producing design layouts that suggest lifestyle changes and improvements to our very existence. How REAL marketing agencies get to the very heart and soul of the property is by the materials they use, the technology implemented, the man hours, the passion, the crafts, the meticulous detail that makes everything just so. This is at the heart of many projects and yet often gets missed. By understanding this level of detail, as marketers we can start to put together the basis of a creative brief that will really stand the test of time and stand up to every eventuality good and bad. By working with the selling agents and the architects helps the marketing to develop a life of its own, not clichéd dribble like all the rest but pertinent and passionate creative that really has a sense of purpose and pride, it’s honest and yet straight to the point.
Evolving the story
Maintaining the visual and tonal continuity is always a contentious issue when marketing property. The first sign of a downward trend and agents not delivering on the bottom line instantly creates moments of desperation, suddenly as consumers we are bombarded with free stamp duty, all inclusive kitchens and even 5% deposit paid, but how does this effect the brand long-term. The answer is to think ahead from the outset allow the creative brief to cater for every eventuality. In the beginning understand that there will be good times and bad and as long as marketing agencies plan for the possible outcomes, you will be able to produce marketing that really stands head and shoulders above the rest in the very testing of times. Try to invent and trial new techniques when coming up against the competition.
Competitive audits are always useful exercises when finding out how to differ from the competition, but you don’t have to try to hard. Take for instance the Belvedere residential development in Cambridge, at a time in late 2005 when there was a increasingly saturated market and everybody competed by price incentive mechanics, the Belvedere took the higher ground, by believing in the quality and build of its products and boldly making a stance that it product was so good that you don’t need incentives. More importantly the client understood its customers, if you want a Ford Mondeo then you know where to find one and that’s fine. If you have aspirations to drive a BMW you don’t need to know about price you are buying into style and so the marketing then started to differ from all the other competitors.
Another important issue is taken from retail values but it is often pertinent, it is about understanding your audiences needs and wants and being focused rather than being all things to all men.
Tailor to your audience
Marketing property is proved to be successful when you tailor it towards a specific audience. One such conceptual idea that was brought to fruition was a development in Clerkenwell, London. Straightaway the creative agency understood that media types would make the ideal potential purchaser for this development. Rather than advertise in the property papers and magazines it concentrated its campaigns purely on the demographic tailoring the ads copy and imagery to the aspirations of the potential end user. It advertised in media magazines and placed ad space that was unexpected and yet became incredibly powerful. The result was that the development sold out 133 apartments within a 3 month period. It understood who its audience was and how to talk in its language.
Measure the success
One important aspect to consider is that Agents will tell you that good honest straight laced marketing always creates interest, but how do they know? What measures do they have in place to ensure that they can see the response they are getting?
For the first time property developers are slowly coming round to the fact that the web can provide a valuable tool in measuring the success of marketing activities. By running an ad in a local property magazine on a weekly basis it is a great idea to direct the reader to the web to find information. From there you can then see what the potential customer is viewing and how they are interacting. If they generate a response, that response can be tracked to the sales centre. Information is fed back and then the sales team have the information they need to try and make a sale. This is easy to do as long as the reporting mechanism is productive. What it also allows you to do is measure the response of the ads. For example, during a sustained 4 month campaign the Belvedere managed to see which ads had the most impact. Although some of the adverts were favourites of the sales team, they actually proved to be less popular and did not drum up as much interest as ads that created intrigue and stood out from some of its contemporaries.
The model here is to understand about measuring the success. As marketers we are constantly told about success rates. Too often, too soon, marketing is blamed for a lack of interest or sale when actually it is the opposite, by having a tight cohesive team and measuring the response, marketing can be incredibly effective, even in the dark times when sales are slow.
One Issue that has arisen previously is that creative has always been so subjective. Now that we have these measures in place we have real tangible statistics that don’t lie and give a realistic reality to the marketing potential of a development.
Once you have the stats to prove your worth you can then go back to your developer request better budgets because you have the evidence to prove it.
So in the long term what does all this mean for marketing? The day of the soap opera has gone, yes we are engaged but very soon we will be turning off. Now is not the time to sit back and relax but to challenge and push both the clients and consumer thinking into a new direction. There will be agencies that challenge and there will be agencies that go with the flow. Stand up be counted and you will be successful…
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